According to natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy, criticism of the government’s refusal to give the public utilities board the time it asked for to complete a review of Muskrat Falls is “political white noise by those who are adamantly opposed to the project and will never agree, no matter what.”
That’s a weird idea given that the most recent person to say the PUB should be given the time it needs is none other than Muskrat Falls lover Wade Locke.
You can tell the provincial government is under intense pressure when its chief salesman for the $6.2 billion megaproject has nothing but personal smears for anyone who speaks unkindly of anything related to the project.
Kennedy also said that critics of the project are now focusing on the PUB deadline because “they’re finding difficulty in criticizing the project.”
Denial is not just a river in Egypt,after all. Truth is that so far the project’s critics have been able to call every single aspect of the proposal into question, including the notion that it is the lowest cost option to meet the electricity needs in the province.
That’s likely why Kennedy and his colleagues want to stifle further detailed public discussion. As it turned out, though, their decision to cut short the PUB review has just undermined public confidence in the process, let alone the project.
Incidentally, two public opinion polls by NTV News found that support for Muskrat falls plummeted from 71% of respondents in February 2011 to 42% by October. That was before the most recent series of problems for the provincial government, including the pissing match with the PUB.
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