We now have 137 signatures and 65 people have shared our cause on Social Media. That’s a great response but nowhere near what we need to get BCUC’s attention.
News articles and letters to the editors have been sent out to BC news media and the plan is to widen this broadcast in coming days. Here’s an example: http://oliverdailynews.com/letter-to-the-editor-97/
Nick and Mark have now connected with Dr. Nicholas R. Swart who has agreed to join our team. Nicholas is very knowledgeable on this subject and submitted this letter to the Oliver Daily News: http://oliverdailynews.com/at-the-request-of-a-reader/
If you haven’t done so already but agree with the cause, please sign the petition here and also share with your friends: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/bcuc-must-end-its-discriminatory-electricity-pricing-against-rural-customers.html
A few notes:
- If you don’t currently live in BC, please sign anyway. Just add a comment that you are planning to build/buy soon.
- Fortis doesn’t have a huge area in BC but consider sharing with friends who are with BC Hydro. This 2-tier plan could set a precedent and be adopted by BC Hydro.
- Your e-mail address will not be shared and is only required to ensure that you are not a “bot” and are legitimately signing as opposed to some nasty bug going through the system and posting as a virus.
- If you are nervous about sharing your name, you can opt for anonymous but please add your city and postal code to give reference to where you live.
- If you are spouses or family members and have separate e-mail addresses, please sign individually.
- You can view the list of signatures here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/bcuc-must-end-its-discriminatory-electricity-pricing-against-rural-customers/signatures.html You can see that this petition is reaching folks outside of our area. Take a moment to view the comments. They are professional and represent folks who understand the issue.
Many residents attended our community meeting with Linda Larson, our MLA; on December 18th. We have requested a meeting with the Minster of Energy & Mines, to press our concerns about the Fortis electricity rate structure. We believe the more we show our collective concerns the better. Please look at Nick Marty’s post below, which urges you to sign our petition to have the rate structure redesigned. Your support is needed if rural residents are to be provided fair electricity prices in rural BC.
Mark McKenney, President
Anarchist Mountain Community Society
mckenney@vip.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many rural residents in B.C. have experienced unacceptable increases in electricity rates over the past two-and-half years. The reason for this increase is that the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) approved a faulty rate structure as proposed by Fortis called the Residential Conservation Rate (RCR) resulting in funds being inappropriately transferred from rural residents who use electricity for heating to urban residents who have access to natural gas. To date, the BCUC has refused to acknowledge this error and order Fortis to rectify the design of this unfair rate structure.
This petition demands that BCUC immediately fix the RCR and end this discrimination against rural residents. If BCUC refuses to act, this petition demands that the Government of BC instruct them to do so.
Please sign this petition if you are affected by this discriminatory pricing system or object to an “energy conservation” initiative that actually encourages the majority of customers to consume more electricity. Please forward it to everyone you know who might disagree with this discriminatory electricity policy. This injustice needs to end now.
Nick Marty
teresanick.marty@gmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click below to view and sign the petition: