Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (Oct 28/02) - Paul Campbell says the Kyoto Protocol will have little, if any, positive impact on hydro power development on the Taltson River.

At least not in the foreseeable future.

"I'm sure Kyoto will have some impact down the line," says Campbell, the director of the South Slave/Deh Cho with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. But he says he could not guess when that might be.

At a couple of recent meetings in Fort Smith, some people speculated that the need for clean energy under Kyoto might hasten development on the Taltson system.

Kyoto is an international agreement, under which most countries, including Canada, have committed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

He noted Alberta requires 800 megawatts of new power each year, while Taltson only has about 150 megawatts of overall potential.

Currently, a hydro site on the river can produce a maximum of 20 megawatts.