Parole d’expert – L’analyste en réglementation de l’énergie Jean-François Blain répond aux questions de la Fondation Rivières, en décortiquant le projet de loi n°69 et en expliquant les impacts sur la société québécoise.
From August 23 to August 25, 2024, the Upper Gatineau Whitewater Festival takes place. It's a battle to save the falls on
In its energy bill and energy policy, the government plans to raise the threshold for the private sector to build and operate power generation facilities from 50 to 100 megawatts. This is very worrying, as it opens the door to the unbridled construction of "small" hydroelectric power plants all over the country, already that the current 50 MW threshold corresponds to a dam as big as the one in place on the Rivière des Prairies north of Montreal and operated by Hydro-Québec.
Fondation Rivières welcomes the government corporation's willingness to take charge of wind power development in Quebec through its wind power development strategy. This opens the door to orderly planning of energy production on the territory, to a genuine social dialogue on energy production, and to a significant reduction in the impact of wind power production on the territory if new production is concentrated on already disturbed territories.
In January 2018, Hydro-Québec CEO Éric Martel said, "If people start self-generating with solar, it's going to make electricity rates explode: it's the risk of the 'death spiral'." His logic was as follows: if customers start self-generating, there will be fewer customers to share Hydro-Québec's fixed-cost bill. Rising costs would become inevitable, pushing more customers to opt for self-generation. A downward spiral of customer attrition and economic death would follow.
Normand Beaudet, in charge of mobilization at Fondation Rivières, talks about the TES Mauricie file and the mobilization against mega-wind turbines. Fondation Rivières is concerned. Undermining the social acceptability of wind energy is a threat to rivers. We need wind power to achieve our decarbonization objectives.
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