| UFAWU brief to NEB counters oil monopolies ‘Not an energy crisis, but a policy crisis’ & When the National Energy Board Opens its important inquiry into Canadian oil supply and demand May 24 in Calgary, there will be one brief among the 72 before it ~ that will stand out in contrast. About 40 oil and pipeline com- Panies, mostly U.S. based multi- nationals, will be on hand to render Slightly different versions of the familiar refrain of an impending energy crisis in Canada that can only be averted by more lucrative €conomic incentives to the oil Companies. _ One of the special prizes that the Industry will be after, using the oil Shortage argument, is the demand aus west coast oil port at Kitimat, Some other important com- Panies such as Imperial Oil, however, are likely to break with the gloom and doom picture Painted by the industry over the. Past three years. Imperial wants to boost exports to the U.S., and to Justify that will argue that Canada can meet its oil needs, provided the Price is right for the oil giants. Then there will be about 20 gov- ernment agencies, and in par- ticular, each of the 10 provinces Which will defend its own pro- _Vincial interest. The B.C. govern- ment, represented by the B.C. Energy Commission, will accept € energy crisis argument of the Companies, but contend that B.C. . Should have first crack at Alberta oil and that the east coast should take the risks of an oil port. Finally, about 12 public interest groups, 10 from B.C., will appear before the NEB. It is among these that the only submission from the labor movement, that of the United Fishermen and-«Allied Workers’ Union, will stand out as the most authoritative refutation of the oil Companies’ argumentation yet to produced, and as the clear al- ternative to the continued aliena- tion of Canada’s energy resources to the multinational corporations. Canada has sufficient petroleum and energy resources to be self- Sufficient in its energy needs and provide for an expanded industrial society, the UFAWU shows, but it will require the nationalization of the country’s energy resources and the oil industry, the development of renewable energy sources and the adoption of sweeping conservation measures. . “We're calling not just for the nationalization of the oil industry, but for an energy policy,” UFAWU president Jack Nichol declared last week at a press conference to release the union’s position. _ “There is not an energy crisis in Canada, but there is an energy policy crisis.” The union’s interest in the NEB inquiry flows out of Andrew Thompson’s West Coast Oil Ports Inquiry established last fall to con- sider the proposal to build a super- tanker oil port at Kitimat or elsewhere on the west coast. Phase Two. of the Thompson Inquiry concerned itself with supply and demand, or need for an oil port, and it was here that funded opposition groups, led by the UFAWU, were well on the way to proving that there was no need for the port when the federal govern- ment shut down the Inquiry. However, the government decided to pursue the matter of supply and demand left undecided by the Thompson Inquiry, and in January, federal energy minister Alastair Gillespie announced the extraordinary NEB Inquiry. In spite of government state-' ments against a port at Kitimat, the NEB soon after announced that the application of the Kitimat Pipeline Company for an oil port and pipeline across B.C. would be processed as usual, following the completion of the NEB’s supply and demand hearings. : “We are intervening at our own expense to carry the fight we began at the Thompson Inquiry,”’ Nichol explained. ‘“‘Unless we and other groups intervene, all of the information will once again be supplied by the oil companies.”’ A case in point, he noted, is the ‘1976 NEB report, used extensively UFAWU PRESIDENT JACK NICHOL... union brief advocates formu- lation of new energy policy, nationalization of oil industry. by the oil companies at the Thomp- son Inquiry. That report, which predicted oil shortfalls in Canada by the mid 1980’s, was based on the evidence submitted by 23 com- panies, five government agencies and one consultant during the 1976 NEB hearings. Not a single public interest group intervened to counter or..cross-examine the companies, he said, and the subse- quent report was merely a reflec- tion of the oil companies’ private interest. Put together by a research team headed by oil port co-ordinator Arnie Thomlinson, the 45-page _ UFAWU brief takes aim at the con- clusions of the 1976 NEB report and calls the forecast of impending oil Legislation urged to make Hydro accountable to public hearings Communist Party provincial leader Maurice Rush this week Called for legislation requiring all Tates and services of B.C. Hydro to approved by a public tribunal in Open hearings. Rush laid out his views in an open letter to the chairman of the -C. Legislature’s committee on Crown corporations which opened hearings into Hydro’s operations ednesday in Victoria. Although the legislative com- Mittee’s hearing is not a public Inquiry, Rush welcomed it as Overdue, stating that ‘there is no Other crown corporation which affects the interests of the public so thoroughly as B.C. Hydro.” Ever since Hydro’s establish- Ment it has been a “law unto it-, Self,” Rush asserted, and has not held itself agcountable to the public for its actions. “A case in point,” he said, ‘‘is the large increase in recent Months in gas and hydro rates and Severe cutbacks in transit service which were merely announced by Hydro without any public ex- Planation or hearings to justify Such sweeping changes. Ap- parently the officials of Hydro feel they don’t have to justify their action to the public from whom their power and _ authority derives.” Before any actual changes take place in either rates or services, Hydro should be required to state - reasons for its actions, to make its reasons known publicly well in advance of a public hearing, and should provide that. all interested parties be invited to challenge the application and oppose it, if they so wish, he said. Hydro should be forced to justify its actions before an independent public utilities commission with representation from consumer and labor organizations, he added. Such a commission would have the power to call public hearings, hire experts to probe Hydro’s claims and proposals, and to accept, limit or reject Hydro’s proposed changes. There would be no point in. having the B.C. Energy Com- mission review Hydro’s ap- plications for rate increases, said Rush, because it would be merely the investigation of one govern- ment body by another and would fail to exercise public control. In addition, Hydro president Robert Bonner should be fired, he urged, charging that Bonner’s leadership of Hydro has ‘‘dis- credited B.C. Hydro before the public. “Confidence can only be restored by removing Bonner and naming in his place someone who has the confidence of the public and who supports the concept of public ownership of B.C.’s major utilities through B.C. Hydro,’’ Rush said. : Bonners’ “‘close association with the major private corporations interests in B.C. in recent years makes him unsuitable to head B.C.’s major publicly owned company,” he added. It isa sad commentary, he noted, that the old B.C. Electric Company (which was nationalized and trans- formed into B.C. Hydro) allowed for greater public input than presently is the case with Hydro. “Tt would almost appear that the heads of Hydro are attempting to operate in a way that discredit publicly owned corporations and discourage any further demands for public ownership of B.C. companies.” scarcity ‘“‘grossly pessimistic.” “Facts”? were manipulated in 1976 to show a shortage looming, the brief contends, ‘‘because the dominant desire of the companies in the period from 1974 to 1976 was to cash in on the four-fold rise world oil prices and to break the Canadian government’s resolve to maintain a domestic oil price significantly below the world price.” The oil corporations are still talking about how we are running out of oil, but daily world pro- duction of oil exceeds consumption by two million barrels, the union brief says. In Canada, oil reserves far ex- ceed the 1976 NEB estimates, which completely neglected a number of major new discoveries and new technology such as: e The ‘‘West Pembina’’ field, discovered since the earlier NEB forecast, which probably contains at least one billion barrels of oil. This discovery alone exceeds the most-optimistic expectation of the NEB. There have been other new discoveries as well which promp- ted the head of Petro-Canada, William Hopper, to state last Oetober that NEB estimates. of conventional oil reserves should be revised upward by as much.as 10 times; e Improved methods of recover- ing oil which has greatly enhanced - the recoverable reserves. Previous technology could extract only about 30 per cent of the total oil in ‘the reservoir at the time of discovery; e New methods of extracting oil from the Alberta ‘‘tar sands” and heavy oil deposits which will permit faster and cheaper access to the world’s largest single petroleum deposit — more than one trillion barrels. In addition, gas and coal can be used as effective petroleum sub- stitutes, although, the union warns, “Fossil fuels reserves are finite and because they can serve us better as chemicals than as fuel, the government should seek to conserve them by embarking immediately on aggressive research and development of all: ‘renewable energy sources.’ ” Of six ‘renewable energy sources’’ the union rated in order PACIFIC TRIBUNE—May 12, 1978—Page 3 of energy potential and potential oil saving: “Biomass” energy sources, using urban, agricultural, and forest waste products; ‘“‘solar’’ energy; ‘‘geothermal’’ energy; “tidal”? energy; ‘“‘wind” energy; and “wave” energy. __ Countering the common asser- tion that energy waste is a problem of personal habits, the brief maintains that ‘‘the causes of our high rate of energy consumption lies within our economic system, the management of which is ul- timately government respon- sibility.” Prompt and firm government measures to greatly conserve energy use in Canada would in- clude: % ; e The building of efficient, modern rapid transit systems within and between large urban centres, thus trimming the more than half’of Canada’s trans- portation energy currently con- sumed by the automobile; e Insistence upon energy- efficient methods of manu- facturing, packaging, distribution and merchandising of goods and services; e The installation of a trans- Canada, east-west electrical power grid to make use ‘df time changes as it affects péak load demands. The flow of electricity across an east-west grid would greatly reduce the need to burn oil in thermal plants; e The restructuring of electrical power charges to make rates pro- portional to the amount used, rather than the present formula. by which large industrial users pay less according to the greater volume used. “Tronically, in the midst of in- calculable energy resources, renewable and non-renewable,” the union concludes, ‘‘Canada is indeed faced with a crisis — but it is not one of an imminent shortage of oil or gas. Rather the crisis is one of lack of government credibility and leadership. “An abdication of the role of initiator and long range planner by our elected representatives has left a political and economic vacuum, allowing profit-motivated torpora- tions to assume the role of leader. ... “This anarchistic model of managing the nation’s energy resources and needs has now reached the crisis stage.” Oil company profits are so large, it is difficult to grasp their meaning, the brief said, but they are the funds that rightfully should be used as the basis for a public in- vestment program to transform Canada’s energy industry and raise living standards. The union called for a 10-year timetable for the complete public ownership and control of the Canadian petroleum industry. The first steps should begin now, it said, with the phasing out of special incentives including tax, royalty and depletion concessions to the oil companies. The logical tool for such a pro- gram is Petro-Canada, the govern- “ment owned oil company. It should be ‘redefined and expanded into manager and operator of govern- ment-owned industry rather than its present role of junior partner to multinational corporations.” _ Finally, what is called for is a full public inquiry into the for- mulation of a national energy policy, it adds, that would en- courage public participation by funding public interest groups to participate and by allowing adequate time to carefully ex- amine all the evidence.