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WHEREAS geothermal power has the potential to supply clean and sustainable power and heat, reduce the cost of power transmission for BC Hydro, strengthen the power grid by supplying consistent baseload power without transmission line outages and increase the standard of living in remote communities;

AND WHEREAS electricity required for new industries, including proposed pipelines, require firm baseload power resulting in greater loads on the existing transmission system; possibly requiring new diesel generation even as renewable power options are being dismissed;

AND WHEREAS BC Hydro has removed geothermal power production from its latest Integrated Resource Plan while every other developed nation on the Pacific Ring of Fire uses geothermal to generate electricity;

AND WHEREAS inadequacies in the province’s geothermal permitting and leasing process have failed to produce a single operating geothermal power plant:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the provincial government support development of geothermal power in British Columbia, by addressing deficiencies in the province’s geothermal permitting and leasing process, by encouraging GeoScienceBC to survey provincial heat resources, by including geothermal as a resource option in BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan, and by working with BC Hydro to facilitate interconnection and a payment structure that promotes geothermal power.