Look out, itB次元官网网址檚 another dumpster fire! No, not at ICBC. This one is at B.C. Hydro, where Energy Minister Michelle Mungall has dashed to the scene on the back of the NDPB次元官网网址檚 political emergency vehicle to put out another B.C. Liberal smouldering mess.

This one is independent power production, or B次元官网网址減irate powerB次元官网网址� as NDP stalwarts and HydroB次元官网网址檚 office union used to call it when former premier Gordon Campbell was executing his vision for a cleaner, greener tomorrow. ItB次元官网网址檚 costing us $16 billion extra over the next 20 years, according to Premier John HorganB次元官网网址檚 hand-picked analysis.

Green energy plans, whether in Ontario or Germany or Australia, have a way of ending up as wreckage. CampbellB次元官网网址檚 plan suffered a head-on collision with reality around 2010, two years after B.C. led the world in imposing a carbon tax and declaring its path to clean energy self-sufficiency. Based on distributed, contracted hydro, wind and biomass, it included exporting the purest power from the Best Place on Earth to California, where Campbell and his pal Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were envisioning a B次元官网网址渉ydrogen highwayB次元官网网址� to the future.

Then came the shale gas revolution, as detailed in the report from former NDP finance executive Ken Davidson, who chose the totally objective title B次元官网网址淶appedB次元官网网址� for his findings. Abundant, cheap oil and natural gas transformed the U.S. energy scene, and California among other states shifted from coal to gas for electricity.

This is how the U.S. became the only one of the climate-posturing countries from the Paris summit in 2015 to actually produce a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions. As with ratings for hosting the long-running TV reality show The Apprentice, Donald Trump beat Arnie hands down.

Campbell also didnB次元官网网址檛 anticipate the Great Recession that took hold in 2009. Some mill and mine investments never came back, and now B.C. Hydro estimates it will have surplus electricity into the 2030s.

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Neither B.C. Hydro nor the NDP seem to put much stock in the upsurge of electrification the government keeps talking about. And then thereB次元官网网址檚 B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver, who seems to have his own political hot mess.

As a climate scientist, Weaver was a supporter of distributed clean energy projects back in those days. He endorsed CampbellB次元官网网址檚 Site C dam too. But now heB次元官网网址檚 leading a party that would whip him with cooked kale if he uttered such blasphemy. Now he wants distributed green energy instead of Site C, and stay tuned for the next revision.

If Green Party folks were serious about greenhouse gases, theyB次元官网网址檇 be calling for nuclear plants. But thereB次元官网网址檚 no coherence to Green policy, and the public is beginning to understand that.

Clean Energy B.C., the private power industry group that represents run-of-river, solar, wind and geothermal investors, said B次元官网网址淶appedB次元官网网址� played the familiar political game of using spot price in the electricity market to cast B.C.B次元官网网址檚 private power producers as overpriced.

B次元官网网址淚n [DavidsonB次元官网网址檚] report, there is a fundamental error in using an inaccurate and overly simplified proxy for the market price of electricity,B次元官网网址� the group said in a statement. They also note they employ people, electrify remote Indigenous communities and pay more taxes than the oil industry in B.C.

Mungall promised no more political interference with B.C. Hydro rates, but oddly the next two years of proposed increases are far below the alleged annual impact of private power. ThatB次元官网网址檚 because they B次元官网网址渨rote offB次元官网网址� $1.1 billion in deferred B.C. Hydro debt, transferring it to taxpayers.

Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press Media. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca