The B.C. government says it will pass legislation this spring to bring all permitting and regulation of planned new renewable energy projects under the BC Energy Regulator (BCER).
The move would create a “single-window” permitting process for renewable energy processes, including nine recently announced, privately funded and majority First Nation-owned wind projects that will feed power to the BC Hydro grid.
The province has already announced that all future wind projects will be exempt from the environmental assessment process. The BCER, which has traditionally regulated the oil and gas industry, will now be tasked with fast-tracking wind and solar projects while ensuring they meet the province’s standards.
“We are looking at every way we can to ensure that, while maintaining high environmental standards, and maintaining our commitment to reconciliation, we can advance projects,” Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix said.
Dix said having a single agency overseeing the process will shave years off the approval process, though he couldn’t say when the new wind projects might see shovels in the ground.
“We want the projects in service as well, but it is difficult today to say what this means tangibly in terms of a date,” said Colleen Giroux-Schmidt, vice-president of corporate relations and environment for Innergex Renewable Energy, which will build three of the wind farms.
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Giroux-Schmid said permitting is just one of many hurdles the project must clear before moving forward, including an environmental review by First Nations, the interconnection process with BC Hydro and the procurement of materials and labour to actually begin work.
Giroux-Schmid said the province’s move was significant.
“It means we are going to have a more certain and predictable and efficient permitting process to move through,” she said.
“Before, we used to have to deal with a plethora of different ministries and agencies to get those permits, so there was a lot of inefficiency.”
Andrew Gage, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, said it was good to see the province leaning into new clean energy projects.
But he voiced concerns that fast-tracking projects could come with unintended consequences.
“There is an expression, look before you leap — the environmental laws are there for a reason, they are there to make sure we don’t make mistakes we will regret later, there is a balance to be struck here,” he said.
“They will have to prove they are doing this in a transparent and credible manner,” he added.
“There’s nothing inherently wrong with being sort of single-window, but where it’s being done less in the interest in protecting the environment … and more in the interest of just rushing things along … there is a concern.”
Along with renewable power projects, the legislative changes will also make the BCER the primary regulator for the construction of the North Coast Transmission Line and other high-voltage electricity transmission projects.
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