Thursday, May 10th, 2007

Minnesota demands accounting from Hydro Impact on First Nations focus of new state law; Manitoba utility risks losing its biggest customer. A new Minnesota law will force Manitoba Hydro to account to its state legislature every year on the impacts of its hydro electric dams on the environment and First Nations people covered by the Northern Flood Agreement.

If it doesn't, the utility risks losing its biggest American customer. Minnesota buys nearly $800 million worth of hydro power from Manitoba every year.

The law is a last-minute addition to an omnibus energy bill, unanimously passed by the state's Democrat-led legislature and senate. Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the bill into law Tuesday night.

The state Environment and Energy Omnibus Bill requires Manitoba Hydro officials to report on environmental damage to shorelines, including claims against the utility.

The new law would also make the utility report to American legislators on the incomes of First Nation residents and their jobs from Hydro.

A spokesman for Fresh Energy, a green energy policy group based in St. Paul, said the group has been lobbying for eight years to force Manitoba Hydro to provide more information to the Minnesota government about conditions in the First Nations communities where the provincial Crown Corporation operates.

The spokesman said they were happy to see the omnibus energy bill included a section requiring more accountability of Manitoba Hydro concerning First Nations communities.

Another senior policy associate with Fresh Energy said several members of Minnesota's Democrat-lead House of Representatives had seen a documentary called Green, Green Water by Minnesota-based filmmaker Dawn Mikkelson.

The documentary explores the relationship between Manitoba Hydro and some northern aboriginal communities in light of the Northern Flood Agreement, with Manitoba Hydro shown in an oft unfavourable light.

"I think what we saw was the opportunity to create the mandate for a reporting requirement that we've been lobbying for and that the tribes have been asking for in northern Manitoba for some time," said Timothy Rose, spokesman for Fresh Energy.

"Politics being the way it was, it was an opportunity to get it into this omnibus energy finance bill, and we were able to get it through." Some of getting the section regarding Manitoba Hydro into the bill is influenced by current political trends in Minnesota, said Rose.

"Part of what's been happening this year is that there was an increased focus on energy, not only renewable energy standards, and energy efficiency and global warming solutions, but also looking comprehensively at where we get our energy from," said Rose.

"We want to make sure indigenous people or aboriginal people aren't unduly impacted, whether it's in their habitat, or in their economies, their villages, their towns....we've been working with the tribes up there for some time now to try and bring light to the fact there are native fishing habitats, there are native communities, native economies that are impacted by how Minnesotans get their power."

Manitoba reaction to the law is split into two camps.

Environmentalists and one northern Cree First Nation hailed the measure as a victory for the environment and indigenous rights.

Manitoba Hydro isn't nearly as green as the province insists and Minnesota state legislators know it, Canadian and American environmentalists said.

The federal and provincial governments and two northern Cree First Nations are lining up with Manitoba Hydro to protest the law.

Manitoba Hydro officials warn the law is a legal ambush that could cost the province it's biggest single export customer.

Critics also see the Minnesota law as American might muscling into Canadian jurisdiction.

The law violates the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, federal trade officials and Manitoba's Premier Gary Doer warned in letters of protest to legislators and the governor in the days leading up to the passage of the law.

Canada's Consul General Kim Perry Butler called the energy law a significant barrier to electricity trade between Canada and the United States.

--Staff

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