Now, Mr. Speaker, we have recall power from the Upper Churchill that is now available for industrial use in Labrador.That’s the power former finance minister John Collins suggested to bring to the island to help displace Holyrood.
According to Nalcor boss Ed Martin on CBC Radio Noon the very same day Dunderdale said that there is very little of that recall power that isn’t already used in Labrador.
What is left over is sold to Emera.
At a loss.
He left out that last bit because it is a rather inconvenient truth.
Martin left out lots of inconvenient truths in his interview.
Like why Emera isn’t actually buying power from Nalcor at Muskrat Falls in a power purchase deal.
He neglected to mention that when they talked about selling power, Nalcor couldn’t get the power to Nova Scotia at a price Emera would pay.
Martin didn’t do much talking about how cheaply Americans can produce electricity from natural gas either. That pretty much kills off any chance of selling that super expensive Muskrat Falls power to the Yanks.
But just go back and think about that problem Martin is having making a buck selling Churchill falls power to Emera right now, today, as you read this.
Nalcor is losing money selling power to Emera that Nalcor got for next to nothing. Churchill Falls is paid off so the only cost is what it takes to run the place.
That’s exactly the same thing Martin wants to do with power from Muskrat Falls that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador will pay for in full and with a tidy profit for Ed martin’s company. He wants to take that power and sell it to Emera or whoever else will buy it at prices far far lower than what he will charge people in the province.
Yet somehow Martin wants us to believe that he will make money doing that at Muskrat Falls with super-expensive power even though he is losing money right now doing it with power from Churchill Falls.
Ed and Kathy need to get their stories straight on the recall power.
Among other things.
Maybe Ed needs to get his story on exporting power squared with the sorry experience we already have of losing money on bone-headed power development schemes.
After all, if this keeps up people might start to wonder what else Ed and Kathy aren’t telling them.
- srbp -