In his written reply to Shawn Graham released today, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams reveals that his government energy corporation was in discussions to sell power to New Brunswick from the still largely conceptual Lower Churchill project.
But Hydro Quebec – with as much power as the Lower Churchill may one day offer already under construction - evidently beat Williams to the punch.
The real source of Williams’ frustration at news of a deal to sell NB Power to Hydro Quebec is buried after six lengthy paragraphs of irrelevant frothing:
One of the potential impacts of Hydro Quebec’s dominance may be the premature cessation of current, good faith discussions between Nalcor Energy and NB Power to sell competitively priced Lower Churchill power to New Brunswick and jointly advance the long term, mutual interests of both of our provinces in conjunction with Nova Scotia and P.E.I. These discussions have not yet reached an advanced stage, so it is not possible to quantify the benefits that might be lost to our two provinces and all of Atlantic Canada if discussions are terminated. If New Brunswick narrows down its range of alternatives to a single-window with Hydro Quebec, full information may not be available to evaluate the opportunities that other alternatives may bring. I would reiterate that our province feels compelled to look into the potential of anti-competitive behaviour on the part of Hydro Quebec given the potential monopoly that could exist as the result of an agreement between them and NB Power. [Emphasis added]
The revelation that Williams had been beaten to the market by Hydro Quebec is almost as astonishing as word last month from Williams energy minister that he had been working for five years, making secret offers for Hydro-Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill project.
Williams criticises the Churchill Falls deal in the Graham letter but, according natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale, Williams was willing to set the issue to one side in exchange for Hydro-Quebec buying a piece of the Lower Churchill.
In 2006, Williams rejected a proposal from Ontario Hydro and Hydro-Quebec to jointly develop the Lower Churchill. Williams said the province would go-it-alone. He made no reference at the time to efforts to lure Hydro-Quebec into another deal, as Dunderdale revealed.
Hydro-Quebec already had significant hydro projects in the works and added about 4,000 megawatts of wind energy to its mix of new project.
The Lower Churchill proposal currently undergoing environmental review consists of transmission through Quebec and a line to bring power from the project to eastern Newfoundland. There is no proposal in public to run the power to New Brunswick.
The Lower Churchill project - estimated to cost between $6.0 and $9.0 billion – has no confirmed markets. An opening to Rhode Island apparently fell apart because power could not be delivered at a marketable price. That isn’t what the energy minister told the public.
-srbp-
3 comments:
This is the first I heard of the so-called Lower Churchill since two years ago when I saw some fella named Ed Martin trying to explain to BNN why his three year effort to find investors had landed him nothing more than an accounting firm.
P.S. - what the hell does Danny Williams know about 'good faith' negotiations? This is uncharted territory for the man.
P.P.S. - Premier Graham would have no reason to deal with HQ if Danny or Ed could give him one sniff of a hint of a faint hope of an iota of a possibility that Lower Churchill power would flow before, say, 2050.
P.P.P.S. - Is Danny Williams sane?
Ed: Since you've become an expert in parsing Your Dear Leader's prose, what does he mean by "anti-competitive behaviour"?
Forget my ignorance, but I always thought one needs to have a product or service to deliver in order to compete... unless Mr. Williams found a revolutionary way to harness his electric mind to deliver an endless supply of megawatts to power-starved New Brunswickers?
You are right Claude in that there is no project at the LC at all. It is entirely theoretical at this point since it has no customers, no funding and basically no real prospect of being built in the near to medium term.
This is just the usual emotionally distraught behaviour we've seen here for years. What's interesting this time around is that the lcoals are ignoring it - except for the fan Klub - while it's the outsiuders who are suckered into talking about it. Used to be it was the other way around.
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