19 November 2010

The World of Tomorrow: media studies ph.d edition

When there is so much official bullshit flying around, it shouldn’t be surprising that conventional news media wind up piling it higher and deeper on their own.

From the only newspaper Newfoundland nationalists care about comes a comment that ties Shawn McCarthy with the Ceeb’s Vic Adopia  for most ludicrous assertion of the day by a reporter:

He has been battling Quebec Premier Jean Charest for years over Hydro-QuĂ©bec’s refusal to transmit power from the Lower Churchill project through its existing transmission grid to markets in Ontario and the United States.

Hydro-Quebec hasn’t refused to wheel Lower Churchill power.  NALCOR energy has refused to option space on the grid or start talks to build any needed extra transmission capacity.

But it gets better. 

Since April 2009, NALCOR has been wheeling Churchill Falls power through Quebec to Emera at the New York border. That deal – which came long after the Lower Churchill transmission requests involved in recent Regie decisions – prompted Danny Williams to state proudly that Labrador power was no longer stranded:

This is truly a historic and momentous occasion for the people of our province, as never before have we been granted access through the province of Quebec with our own power.

But what is really amazing about the Globe piece is that Danny Williams actually spent five years trying to get Hydro-Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill without redress for the 1969 deal set to one side.

Oh, and just for fun, here’s what Danny Williams said in St. John’s on Thursday about whatever it was he announced with Darrell Dexter:

This is a day of great historic significance to Newfoundland and Labrador as we move forward with development of the Lower Churchill project, on our own terms and free of the geographic stranglehold of Quebec which has for too long determined the fate of the most attractive clean energy project in North America.

Historic agreement with Quebec. 

Historic agreement with someone else because Quebec wouldn’t agree.

Which is it?

- srbp -