..txs orange crushed.
.....last one i promise..the halting of site c dam which is being built to power the fracking industry in bc. bc dosen't need the power otherwise. the land to be flooded is prime growing soil. it is said the farming can be expanded on this land and could feed a million people. this is political.There is not a shred of evidence that Site C is being built to provide power for fracking.
As far as BC needing, or not needing, the power, you should study up on the Columbia River Treaty with the USA. BC receives a portion of the power generated by the Columbia River hydro as compensation for upstream water storage built by BC Hydro. That agreement is up for renewal, and there's nothing in the present agreement that guarantees BC will receive that same amount of power in the future.
As to the fertility of the Peace River valley, I guess my question is, how many people is it feeding now? For those not familiar with the geography of BC, Fort St. John, which would be the closest town to Site C is almost as far from Vancouver as San Jose, CA. Driving wise, taking into account fuel prices, etc, it's cheaper to truck fresh produce from California than from the Peace Valley. What is grown in the Peace Valley now? Mostly forage crops for cattle feed.
..there are plenty of shreds. i posted a few myself in the site c thread. one of the last was from a hydro official finally admitting that the dam will power some fracking. up to this point the libs and hydro were denying any connection at all. there is a lot of good reporting on site c here. i've grown to respect and trust damien gillis. he is quite knowledgeable and grew up in the region.
..i'm not fully up on the current farming in the area but i have listened to speakers that talk about not only prime growing soil but also unique in some of the things they grow. the expansion idea comes from the alliance between first nations, farmers, ranchers and others..in the area. and the drought in california makes that a dead end for food. they are in deep crisis there and local is most often the better option anyway. here we have some control over how food is grown and transported. this is a political issue as much as a survival one. a couple years back i read they were transporting grains on sailboats in the kootenays. local can be very inovative.
eta: i'll look into the the columbia river treaty