Kootenay East’s MLA is calling on the BC Government to renew Skookumchuck Pulp Mill’s Energy Purchase Agreement to generate and sell green electrical energy to BC Hydro. Tom Shypitka touched on the subject at last week’s Regional District of East Kootenay meeting. The current agreement sees the mill burning biomass, mostly bark, with a portion of the generated energy powering the mill, and the rest is sold to BC Hydro. “They collect bark all over the Kootenay’s, close to 10,000 trucks a year,” says Shypitka. The biomass is burned at a high temperature, and the energy generated from that practice is used to power the mill, while the rest is sold to BC Hydro. The agreement was put into place in 2001 and expires at the end of the year.