Democracy and the Space of Energy Flows: The Practice of Bordered Transnationalism in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

This article presents an empirical analysis of border place-making in the Fraser Lowland cross-border region (CBR) of southwest British Columbia, northwest Washington, often referred to as the Pacific Northwest. For five years, beginning in 1999, a protracted legal battle over the construction of a power plant, Sumas Energy 2 (SE2), on the Washington side of the border forced regulatory agencies in the US and Canada to define a regional public vis-à-vis energy provision and its impacts. Their decisions on jurisdiction were mixed and, in some cases, unprecedented. Taken together with the implicit pursuit by the North American Free Trade Agreement of a borderless trade in energy, we explore the nature of border space that came to be applied to this CBR.

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the thoughtful comments made by this journal's anonymous referees.

Notes

1 With regard to population, the Fraser Lowland is dominated by the Vancouver metropolis, which includes the City of Vancouver in the extreme west, and is functionally integrated with suburban communities in the eastern periphery. This functional region is roughly equivalent to the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD—now officially known as “Metro Vancouver”) which also corresponds with the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). The GVRD has a population of 2,116,581. A second population base on the Canadian side of the border, to the east of the GVRD, is the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD), with a population of 257,031. Three communities dominate the FVRD: Abbotsford (population: 123,864) and Mission (population: 34,505), which together constitute the Abbotsford CMA, and further east, Chilliwack (population: 80,505). Although distinctly more rural in character than the GVRD, the FVRD is nevertheless rapidly urbanizing, as its connections to the Vancouver metropolis expand. The average five year percentage change in population (2001–2006) for the three dominant centers of the FVRD was above 9% and, for the FVRD as a whole, 8.2%.

2 As cited in EFSEC's Order. “All new sources of air emission regulated by the [United States] Clean Air Act Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program are required to utilize Best Available Control Technology (BACT). BACT is defined as an emissions limitation based on the maximum degree of reduction for each pollutant subject to regulation, emitted from any proposed major stationary source or major modification, on a case-b y-case basis, taking into account cost effectiveness, economic, energy, environmental and other impacts” (EFSEC 2002, 39).