RELIANCE ON FOSSIL FUELS

Another community concern has been the reliance on fossil fuels for power generation. This is especially true in the case of the usage of diesel generators, propane, and fuel oil for space heating. Especially applicable to Wilp Luutkudziiwus’ camp at Madii Lii and Bear Claw lodge, community members who are off grid, this reliance on diesel gives rise to several problems.

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These include reliance on a fuel whose usage is an active pollutant compared to other options. Consequently, such usage leads to increased GHG emissions, in direct contradiction of the regions’ goals to foster an environmentally friendly energy mix and reduce emissions. Diesel usage actively contributes to the total GHG emissions of the rural Upper Skeena and this has numerous social, economic and environmental impacts as detailed earlier.

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In addition to being a source of increased GHG emissions, the usage of diesel generators also places additional burdens on community members. These generators must be maintained and serviced regularly in order to maintain efficiency. The systems are more prone to be unreliable since a host of issues can affect their performance, leading to more problems for community members. This has resulted in community members demanding low maintenance energy systems with a higher degree of reliability to meet their needs.

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Reliance on fossil fuels for meeting the community’s energy needs places the rural Upper Skeena at the mercy of volatile energy markets and fuel costs, which are in perpetual flux due to a wide variety of factors out of residents of the rural Upper Skeena’s control. This has several cascading effects such as being unable to plan accurately for future needs, inefficient/inaccurate cost forecasting, vulnerability from potential fuel shortages and wide fluctuations in costs depending on fuel prices.