The export question

The Act protects the ratepayer from the risks of the first, but not the second. [...] The paper has four main sections: • a brief description of how BC’s electricity trading works and a summary of electricity trade trends in the province; • a discussion of the province’s evolving policy towards electricity exports; • a discussion of the factors influencing the potential export market for BC electricity; and • an evaluation of a range of issues tied to designing export policy, along [...] The largest of these is the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) made up of the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, the northern portion of Baja California, Mexico, and the 14 western states in between. [...] The most significant change in the Act is a dramatic reduction in the scope of authority of the BCUC. [...] The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission estimates that electricity prices declined by nearly 50% and “the majority of the drop in prices is attributable to the drastic decline in fuel prices.”31 Low prices for electricity throughout WECC reduces the competitiveness of BC’s supply, given both the additional costs of transmission associated with moving electricity southward and the substantial US s