MONTREAL – Last Saturday, Jean Charest was the first Canadian to take the podium at a historic gathering in Washington, D.C., of some of North America's leading politicians.

With one eye on the clock and another on the opinion-makers gathered at a hotel near the White House, the Quebec Premier dived into what has become standard repertoire for any speaking gig touching on energy and trade.

Quebec "sells clean, renewable hydroelectricity to our neighbours," Charest told the first joint session of the Canadian premiers' Council of the Federation and the U.S. National Governors Association.

"There should be a recognition that large-scale hydro is renewable energy."

Among those already sold on the concept was the chair of the U.S. association, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, whose state gets one-third of its power from Hydro-Québec.

But in 2010 America, the idea that Canadian hydroelectricity is something the United States should plug into is a hard sell.

In the U.S., large hydro projects are seen as belonging to another era, for economic as well as environmental reasons.

Big hydro projects aren't planned for the U.S., which means no domestic lobbying - certainly nothing with the clout of the U.S. coal lobby.

In political and business circles, interest is focused on profiting from "a clean energy economy" using such sources as wind or biomass.

Or tapping into the billions of dollars in loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear reactors.

Amid all of these competing domestic interests, Charest wants federal and state authorities to officially recognize Hydro-Québec's power as "renewable" energy in various pieces of legislation.

That recognition would put big hydro on equal footing with electricity from wind, solar or micro-hydro projects and make it easier for Hydro- Québec to win long-term supply contracts with U.S. utilities.

A key bill before the House of Representatives would have "renewable" energy make up at least eight per cent of a utility's energy portfolio by 2012 and grow that to 20 per cent by 2020.

More than half of the 50 states already have enacted minimum renewable-energy requirements.

But when Charest belts out his Big Blue is Green standard, he isn't just talking to Americans.

He is also appealing to Quebecers and hard-nosed taxpayers, if not the eco-sensitive souls who point to 13 of the largest 16 rivers in Quebec already disfigured by large hydroelectric projects that, they contend, are less environmentally friendly than such alternatives as wind energy.

Publicly owned Hydro-Québec is in expansion mode, even as it sits on surplus energy and a mothballed co-generation plant.

An estimated $25 billion will be spent by 2013, and 4,500 megawatts of new hydro projects launched by 2015, including the centrepiece $6.5-billion Romaine Complex, where work began in May.

Already Canada's largest electricity provider, Hydro-Québec is pushing into the Maritime provinces.

It already has a controversial $3.2-billion deal that would see it supply electricity to New Brunswick as well as take over most of NB Power Corp.'s assets, including transmission lines that carry power to Maine.

It has a new transmission line to Ontario with a view to transporting energy through that province into the U.S. Midwest.

Another project, involving U.S. partners, would see a new 1,200-megawatt transmission line connecting with the New England power grid.

It's a venture that could lead to Hydro-Québec's first new long-term power deal in decades.

With expansion and energy exports as cornerstones of Hydro-Québec's strategic plan and a premier who has been known to proclaim "Energy is in our DNA," the current offensive in the United States seems sensible.

But Jean-Thomas Bernard, a Université Laval professor and economist specializing in energy, figures it's wasted effort.

"That war is lost," he said.

U.S. policymakers want to promote energy independence, but also create jobs - the more the better, he said.

Quebec is no different in wanting job creation and local economic development, Bernard said, pointing to Quebec requirements that a significant portion of wind-energy projects be built in the province.

Americans "don't want a big shift of wealth out of the state, never mind out of the country," Bernard said.

Should Hydro-Québec not win recognition in the U.S. as a renewable energy, the impact would be minor, the utility says.

"It would be better if large hydro was recognized, but that won't hinder our exports," spokeswoman Marie-élaine Deveault said.

Joseph Doucet, a University of Alberta professor and energy policy expert, agrees with that assessment. "It's not a game-changer."

If a utility's renewable-energy portfolio is pegged at 25 per cent, "it still means that they have 75 per cent of non-renewables, so Hydro-Québec could continue to sell and even expand their sales into the U.S.," Doucet said.

Hydro-Québec now has only two long-term contracts, one with Cornwall, Ont., for 0.2 terrawatt hours annually and a 2-TWh contract with Vermont.

Equal to one million kilowatt hours, one TWh can meet the annual energy needs of about 60,600 average Quebec homes.

Short-term contracts have been lucrative for the utility. In 2008, it exported 15.2 TWh of electricity, or eight per cent of its sales volume, generating $977 million in revenue.

While the utility figures its exports will grow in the short term, the revenues from it won't.

Export income will drop by $62 million in 2013 from 2008, says Hydro-Québec, which figures it will export 24.9 TWh.

Recessionary pressures on large power customers have also translated into surplus energy, which is expected to reach 37 TWh by 2013.

Hydro-Québec is paying Trans-Canada Energy to suspend contracted delivery of power from a new natural-gas powered facility at Bécancour, a cost of about $140 million a year.

The situation causes some concern to Claude Garcia, a corporate director at the Montreal Economic Institute and critic of the utility.

It's not that Garcia fears Hydro-Québec won't eventually find a market for its power.

Energy exports will pick up and any international agreement to reduce carbon emissions will push the demand for hydroelectricity higher, he said.

"What I'm worried about is that ( with a surplus of energy) they could decide to give it away to aluminum companies" which will pay a fraction of the cost of power coming out of new projects, he said.

SOURCE: The Montreal Gazette