Fear and loathing on the energy campaign trail

Natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale is one busy minister these days.  She’s turned up in several interviews since the Muskrat Falls announcement to respond to criticise of the announcement coming from Roger Grimes.

As in her interview with CBC Radio’s West Coast Morning Show, Dunderdale dismissed Grimes’ comments.  She claimed he didn’t know what he was talking about when he talked about electricity prices going up dramatically if the provincial government’s proposal became a reality. The tone of her voice suggests a certain loathing for the former premier. 

That’s typical of the Danny Williams crowd, by the way.  They have a special and personal hatred for Grimes. So intense is the hatred that the Danny fans worked hard to vote in a recent CBC online poll and picked the one option that personally dismissed Roger Grimes as being irrelevant to the discussion just because he is Roger Grimes.

Funny thing, though, is that in every interview Kathy Dunderdale winds up explaining that electricity prices in the province would just about double. In her West Coast Morning Show interview she actually explained things such that you’d believe prices would go up even more than double. 

Dunderdale claimed that electricity prices would increase an average of five percent each year from now until 2017. That’s the year Nalcor would supposedly bring Muskrat Falls on line. So electricity prices would be about 35% higher than they are now, according to Dunderdale. 

At that point, as Dunderdale notes, Nalcor could start charging for the cost of power coming from Muskrat Falls. She’s already said that Muskrat Falls power would cost between 14.3 and 16.5 cents per kilowatt hour to produce. Add in a rate of return for both Nalcor and the electricity retailer and you are well on your way to electricity prices in the provinces being more than double what they are today.

Double the current price.

Guaranteed.

The provincial government thinks that they can justify their proposal because, as Dunderdale says, they have a projection that oil will be $120 by 2017 and could be as much as $200 a barrel within a decade.  So much power on the island currently comes from oil generation that electricity prices will go up because oil will be this and that price along the way.  After 2017, Dunderdale says, the increases from Muskrat Falls will be less than what they would be without it, all because of the price of oil.

Well, the truth is that electricity prices could be all those things, but then again, the world of the future could be completely different. That’s because those oil prices aren’t guaranteed. The number the provincial government has from its consultant is a guess.  it may be an educated guess but it is still a guess, all the same.

The government’s guess is potentially as reliable as the forecasts in the middle of 2008 that oil would hit $200 a barrel by the end of that year and continue upward thereafter.

We all know what actually happened.

For Dunderdale though – and really for the current provincial government – these numbers are real.  Listen to Dunderdale in that interview as she tells the host what oil prices will be next year.  She speaks as if it is already 2011 and the prices are known.  There’s something vaguely creepy about the way Dunderdale acts as if she and her colleagues can read the future.

It’s right up there with her other unsettling claim.  By 2019, claimed Dunderdale, “we will have an energy deficit so we will have to ration energy or we will not be able to provide to ratepayers electricity when they need it.”

Energy rationing. 

Maybe blackouts in some areas during the inter months – the peak demand times in this province – because the system can’t handle the demand.

Pretty scary stuff.

That’s the essence of the provincial government’s position:  support this or else the place will be a wreck.  Maybe super high electricity prices even worse than the super duper prices you are guaranteed to get under our plan for this super duper energy mega project.

Support this plan to jack up the public debt in the province with the horrendously high public debt already because, if not, you know,  we’ll have to cut off your granny’s heat for a few hours in the winter time.

Fear.

It’s been a powerful political tool for the current administration, so it’s no surprise they are using it.  They’ve thrived on mongering fear of outsiders. During the row last year over the government’s plan to sling power lines through a world heritage site, Danny Williams talked about the costs and possible cuts to health care.

Within the past couple of weeks he’s tossed out the view that the province might be descending into anarchy.  Why?  Because someone had a strong opinion that didn’t match is or something.

Only a week after the announcement and the provincial government is already resorting to fear as the major way of selling people on a giant electricity price increase and a gigantic hike in the public debt.

No surprise that fear and loathing are core elements of the Williams administration’s political arsenal.  it’s just a bit surprising that they’ve turned up [this quickly] as the core of their efforts to convince people to get behind what Danny Williams has described as his crowning political achievement.

Sorta takes the shine off the tiara.

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* edited to add words for clarification and to correct typo

The political uses of talk radio

From a story on the front page of the Wednesday Telegram:

Open-line has little impact on the formation of big-picture public policy, but does have a strong effect on government behaviour, with political actors paying "considerable attention" to what is said on VOCM. 

That has translated into partisan efforts to control the frequency, as it were - intense monitoring of open-line programs for rapid reaction to issues that may arise; promoting party positions through stacking the lines to suggest grassroots support; and using the airwaves to avoid answering difficult questions from other media outlets.

Sadly, it isn’t available online unless you are a Telly subscriber.

The story discusses an article by Memorial University political scientists Alex Marland and Matthew Kerby who conducted a detailed study of politicians and talk radio in the province.  As part of the research, Marland and Kerby compiled statistical analysis of callers, frequency of calls and dates as well as a series of in-depth interviews with politicians, political staff and journalists.

Regular readers of this corner of the universe will recognise the discussion, for example, in this section of the Telegram story about planted callers,

Marland and Kerby found that the limited pool of callers to open line presents "a very serious credibility gap," with line-stacking so prevalent it is believed that the lines are monopolized by a pool of just 30 to 100 callers. 

"The prevalence of political calls questions whether the openness and spirit of talk radio is supplanted by parties' efforts to control the shows' content," the MUN researchers note in their paper.

There’s also a section on poll goosing, that is timing announcements and open line activity to coincide with CRA polling periods.

And the bizarro attention paid to VOCM Question of the Day? Here’s a tiny bit of the Marland and Kerby take on things:

One respondent provided us with tabular data of efforts to influence the outcome, which involved hundreds of automated repeat votes that were critical of Williams, and which almost instantly provoked an apparently automated response supporting the premier. This occurred only during the workday and not in the evening (one minister told us that party staff‘go crazy’ clicking during the day).[Note:  Marland and Kerby here are referring to political staff working in government offices]

The one thing they really don’t make clear is that the level of this sort of activity since October 2003 dwarfs anything that went before.  Some people may like to think otherwise, just as some people like to deny this sort of stuff goes on at all. The evidence speaks loudly for itself, however.

“The audience is listening: talk radio and public policy in Newfoundland and Labrador" is available in the November 2010 issue of Media, Culture and Society, a peer-reviewed journal of research on communications and society. Individual articles are available for purchase online or through your local library. 

The Memorial University Library subscribes to MCS for those who can access it.

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Doubling electricity rates for the Lower Churchill: then and now

"If we had to pay for it ourselves it would be safe to say the rates in Newfoundland would double," Marshall said.

Turns out that Fortis headman Stan Marshall might have been in tune with a higher celestial power even if he was 12 years ahead of the rest of the world.

Stan Marshall gave that comment more than a decade ago to the Telegram business editor Chris Flanagan. The story – titled “Deal would double rates: Fortis boss skeptical of Quebec to Newfoundland line benefits” – appeared on the front page of the Saturday, February 21, 1998 edition of the province’s largest circulation daily.

Marshall was talking about a then-rumoured proposal to build an 1,100 kilometre, $2.0 billion line from the Lower Churchill to Soldier’s Pond. He told the Telegram that in his view the line would wind up being severely underutilized in the short-term and would cause financial headaches for the provincial government for maintenance and replacement.

At the time, however, the provincial government and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro weren’t proposing that provincial taxpayers foot the bill, as with the proposal announced last week by Premier Danny Williams.  In 1998 and in some subsequent discussions the whole line would have been cost-shared with the federal government. 

What’s more, while power rates may well have doubled under the 1998 proposal, the provincial portion of the entire project would have been supported by the sale of power from the much larger and more lucrative Gull Island portion of the Lower Churchill to markets in Quebec and potentially elsewhere.

In the Williams version, Newfoundland and Labrador taxpayers would pay for the Muskrat Falls dam and the line to St. John’s.  Ratepayers in Newfoundland and Labrador would cover the cost through higher electricity rates and, in all likelihood, by carrying an additional $4.5 billion in public debt on top of the province’s existing, enormous public debt.

The only power export guaranteed under the new proposal would be 170 megawatts handed to Nova Scotia-based Emera in exchange for its building the line to get the power to Nova Scotia.  Under the proposed agreement, Emera could buy up any other export power at the Cape Breton landfall. What’s more, while Nalcor might get some right to wheel power through Erma’s Canadian transmission holdings, Emera could also step in to replace Nalcor in an export deal provided Emera compensated Nalcor.

In a media interview this week, provincial energy minister Kathy Dunderdale said power from the proposed project would cost at least 14.3 cents a kilowatt hour to produce;  she also gave a figure of $165 per megawatt hour which translates to 16.5 cents a kilowatt hour. 

But that’s the wholesale cost for the Williams proposal.  The rate for consumers would likely be higher in order to allow Nalcor and its partner Emera an appropriate rate of return.  The consumer rate would also have to include a return for electricity retailer Newfoundland Power, a Fortis company.  Taken altogether, rates on the island for residential users would likely be double the current rate of about 9.5 cents a kilowatt hour.

According to Dunderdale, the provincial government is justifying its projected rate hike based on a single projection from one consulting firm that the price of oil in the later part of this decade will be around $120 a barrel.  According to Dunderdale,  without the line from Labrador, the only alternative will be continued use of expensive diesel fuel for the large diesel plant at Holyrood as well as some additional wind and small hydro generation.

By comparison, [according to the provincial government] the Labrador dam and the new power line would be cheaper for consumers than the alternative.  To date, the provincial government hasn’t released any details to support their claims about the cost of alternative power generation to meet anticipated demand.  The only documents they’ve released are a graph and a chart without any of the context used to come up with the figures.

The provincial government also claims that the Labrador dam and new line would “displace” Holyrood’s diesel generation.  That claim isn’t backed by Nalcor’s own plans.

In 1998, Stan Marshall also had concerns about the cost of maintenance on the new line:

"If there's a real ice storm it will have to be rebuilt and I hope somebody's going to pay for that," Marshall said. 

Marshall said the line simply does not make economic sense. 

"If someone offered you the transmission line or $2 billion, you'd  take the $2 billion," he said, but added there are political and long- term factors others might want to consider. 

"I don't know what the political agenda is here and what the
government is trying to achieve," he said.

Plus ca change?

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*updated – words added to clarify attribution

Related:

• NL and US taxpayers may help subsidize costly big-hydro project (09 November 2010)

Coming soon:  demand projections and crude price forecasts

Ontario to double electricity rates

Ontario’s new energy plan will see the province’s electricity rates double, but in 20 years, not seven.

[Globe and Mail] This is the government’s second attempt to chart a long-term plan. While the latest version is broadly similar to the document released in 2007, it differs in one key respect: costs for building new power systems are estimated to be 45 per cent higher.

As a result, residential electricity prices will climb to $228 a month by 2030 for the average consumer who uses 800 kilowatt hours a month. This compares with $114 today.

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Williams on his political future

CBC’s Debbie Cooper put the question to Premier Danny Williams last Thursday at the end of a sit-down interview on his Lower Churchill announcement.

“Is this your swan song?” she asked.

Williams has usually tied his political future to a Lower Churchill announcement. Your humble e-scribbler put it this way back in 2006 when Williams talked about not seeking a third term in 2011.  At that point, he’d already established a timeline for the Lower Churchill that put a decision to go-ahead with it in 2009 or 2010:

Williams announced his resignation - actually that he would not seek a third term in 2011 - in comments made to VOCM and then repeated in subsequent year-end interviews.
Williams' resignation, likely to come in 2009 or 2010 after a decision on the Lower Churchill, comes at the end of a year of continued set-backs for the premier who has been in equal measures petulant and posturing.

The prospect of his resignation came up earlier this year.  The Western Star – the province’s second daily newspaper suggested the Premier should consider resigning. He didn’t take well to the idea in April, but Williams was in a decidedly different mood with Debbie Cooper.

In answer to Cooper’s question, Williams called Thursday’s announcement the crowning achievement of his political career.  While he said he would likely run again, Williams did acknowledge there “could be circumstances that creep in, like health”.  Williams also said he was always reassessing the situation.
That, too, is a marked change from previous comments on his political future.

2011 could turn out to be a very interesting year in politics across the province.

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Average annual real GDP growth lower since 2003

The province’s real gross domestic product has grown at one third the average annual rate of the period from 1997 to 2003, according to figures compiled by Statistics Canada.

GDP  - the value of all goods and services produced in the province - grew by 3.0% annually, on average, from 2003 to 2008.  But between 1997 and 2003, GDP grew by an average of 8.9% a year.

Labour productivity increased by 6.4% annually, on average between 1997 and 2003.  However, between 2003 and 2008, productivity increased by 2.1% annually, on average.

this sort of concrete information should make anyone think twice about all those goofball commentaries claiming there was something they called the Danny Williams Effect driving the economy to unprecedented heights.

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Muskrat Falls = expensive power

In an interview with CBC Radio’s St. John’s Morning Show on Monday, deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale told listeners that Muskrat Falls power will cost between 14.3 and 16.5 cents per kilowatt hour to produce in 2017, the year of first commercial power.

Jeff Gilhooley: And how much – I’ve only got a minute left here unfortunately – I didn’t hear that in the announcement on Thursday, what is the new power going to cost us?

Kathy Dunderdale: The new power is going to cost us about $165 a megawatt hour.

Gilhooley: And how does that compare with what is coming out of Holyrood now? Any idea?

Dunderdale: Ah, I wouldn’t be able to give you that comparison right off the top of my head, Geoff, I don’t have those numbers before us, before me, but in terms of when we bring that on in 2017 that’s the cost in 2017, $165, or excuse me it’s $143 a megawatt hour. Anything that we would do other than Muskrat Falls would be either the same cost at that time, but escalating right up through the roof over the next 10, 15, 20 years.

The provincial government has not released any information the models they used to forecast prices for alternatives to building Muskrat Falls.  As such, Dunderdale’s claim about prices escalating through the roof is as reliable as her claim about the death of the Rhode Island memorandum of  understanding.

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Technicolor Dreaming Update:  In an interview with CBC’s supper hour news program, Dunderdale said that government’s price estimates for electricity include a PIRA forecast of crude prices being 50% above current levels by 2017-2020.  That would put crude at prices above US$120.

Double Down Update: nottawa takes this a step further and offers a link to a comparison of electricity prices over the past decade.  The Williams Muskrat Falls proposal is based on the idea electricity prices will double within the next 10 years.

Lower Churchill opinion: The End

The votes are tallied and despite an overnight dump of about 20,000 electronic “votes” the forces desperate to goose the VOCM question of the Day in favour of the Premier’s Lower Churchill proposal came up short.

If they weren’t obsessed with this sort of trivia, imagine what they could have accomplished.

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NL posts lowest productivity in Canada in 2009

Figures released on Friday by Statistics Canada show that Newfoundland and Labrador posted the largest drop in labour productivity in the country in 2009.

Productivity fell by 8.7 percent.  The second biggest drop was 4.1% in Saskatchewan. According to Statistics Canada,

Real output was down for the first time since 2004, because of a sharp downturn in oil and metallic mineral extraction. At the same time, hours worked fell by 6.3%, also the largest decrease among the provinces.

Real gross domestic product as down 14.5% from the previous year, but total compensation was up 2.4%, hourly compensation was up 9.4% and unit labour costs were up 19.8%. In each case those figures were the largest for the 10 provinces.  Only the territories saw higher increases in unit labour costs and hourly compensation.

Broken down by the goods and services sector, the figures showed higher losses in the goods producing sector.  That’s consistent with the declines in oil and mineral production in the province.

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No US market for Lower Churchill power: NL deputy premier

A VOCM news story running this weekend contains the following comments attributed to the province’s deputy premier, Kathy Dunderdale:

Dunderdale says the power Nova Scotia is buying from Newfoundland will be used domestically and nowhere else.

Dunderdale says the price that Nova Scotia is paying for the power is higher than market prices in the United States. She says there is no market for Nova Scotia to take our power and sell it elsewhere.

Dunderdale says the power will be used in Nova Scotia to replace coal-fire generation and to meet their energy targets.

Of course, if there is no market for Nova Scotia’s Emera to sell Muskrat Falls power in the United States, there’d be no market for this province to do it either.

That’s pretty much what your humble e-scribbler’s been saying about the Lower Churchill as well.

Meanwhile, from a PostMedia News story on last week’s Muskrat Falls announcement, comes an assessment by energy analyst Tom Adams:

However , Tom Adams , a Toronto-based energy consultant, says the once-rich markets of the Northeastern U.S. are now awash in cheap natural gas and demand there is also depressed by U.S. economic woes -- making it difficult, if not impossible, to sell much of the power from the Lower Churchill at feasible prices.

As a result, Adams says the economics of shipping electricity from the remote reaches of Labrador south by sub-sea cable simply won't work. He says Thursday's announcement wasn't a firm deal at all, but merely a "lobbying campaign" by Newfoundland and Nova Scotia for a "federal handout."

"There is a lot less here than meets the eye," he says.

Turns out Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial government had the same thought.

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Unpublish update:  Good thing the copy is here because VOCM disappeared that story from its website. See the comments section for more.

Crude at US$60 in 2011: forecast

Now there’s a thought sure to frighten the bejeebers out of any ruling political party headed toward an election and a leadership racket, planning on spending voters into a stupor along the way and knowing the oil production on which it depends for revenue is also on the downward slope.

It’s only one projection mind you. 

Capital Economics forecast that crude prices will head downward in 2011 as the Untied States economy recovers.

The National Post reported at the end of October:

Julian Jessop, analyst with the London-based firm, predicts the price of a barrel of oil will slide to US$60 a barrel by the end of 2011 as the U.S. dollar recovers and global demand disappoints. This would be the same level as prices in the first half of 2007, before oil went into a bubble that touched highs of almost US$150 a barrel in the summer of 2008.

Interesting thought, that.

Very interesting indeed.

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We are all Newfoundlanders

The global economic problems are weighing heavily on some brows, so heavily in fact that some are musing on the idea that “nous sommes tous des terre-neuviens”.

We are all Newfoundlanders, via le monde.

Quand on sait que les Chinois et les Japonais détiennent respectivement 883 et 865 milliards de dollars de bons du Trésor américains, on n'ose à peine imaginer ce qu'il resterait de la paix mondiale si les Etats-Unis faisaient défaut sur leur dette. Ou la réaction des investisseurs étrangers qui possèdent 70 % de la dette publique française si celle-ci n'était plus remboursée. On se sentait déjà un peu irlandais ou grecs. On se sent un peu terre-neuviens aussi.

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Lower Churchill Opinion: the Battle of Shallow Valley

Helms Deep, it ain’t.

The struggle between the clicks overnight changed the results of the VOCM question of the day.

The VO computers have registered over 45,000 votes and the “No” side is back on top.

The Reform-based Conservative socks have evidently been busy, but not quite busy enough.

Don’t be surprised if they redouble their efforts after a night’s sleep, a case of Red Bull, a few hot pockets and some cold packs for their wrists. The Old Man would be mightily displeased if Gerry Phelan had to report a loss in so vital a test of political strength, especially during poll goosing month.

Updated:  verb tense corrected and a set of related links added.

Edward R. Murrow Flashback Update:  It’s like da blitz, b’ys.  As of 1300 hours local on Sunday, the QOTD is showing about 46,500 votes and the numbers are still running heavily for the “Hates It” forces.

At this rate, the “Loves It” crowd will have to push the total vote to over 100,000 to get the 70/30 split they drove for on Saturday.

That would be an all-time vote record and could well crash the VOCM system for only the second time in the history of the idiocy.

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Related:

• Lower Churchill Opinion: and then, like magic …
• Lower Churchill Opinion – Falling down on the job
• How the Tories get 28% more votes thanks to CRA
• Now that’s really suspicious
• The media and the message
• Shaping political attitudes

Lower Churchill opinion: and then, like magic…

[Note:  This was originally written on Saturday night and time-delayed until Sunday morning.  However, as events overnight changed the story, here it is with a new post to update is on the way.]

______________________________________________

The poll goosing army got its act together.

A little over 12 hours after your humble e-scribbler pointed out that the Old Man’s retirement scheme wasn’t polling too well at voice of the cabinet minister, things changed.

From a little over 7200 votes on Saturday morning there were an astonishing 25,413 votes later on.  Suddenly 70% of the universe is loving the retirement idea.

Here’s what the results were at about 10:30 Saturday morning:

This is a just a reminder that someone in the province’s reform-based Conservative Party pays way to much attention to this sort of trivial stuff. 

No one has documented the whole foolish business as consistently as labradore.   In January 2008, for example, labradore noted the gigantic number of votes on question of the day polls that were important to the Premier (or mentioned him by name) versus some other topics.

In October 2009, he noted the same trend with the new VOCM website even though some technical changes made it harder for some dork to sit at a computer and mouse click his way to premature carpal tunnel all to make the Old Man look better.

Now that one is interesting because it makes it pretty clear that the vote total earlier on Saturday was actually higher than the average already.  The late night total was more in line with the ludicrous numbers from the old-style VOCM website.

Meeker on Media has also done a few posts on it.  One titled “Vote fixing” appeared in 2008.  It’s been re-dated as a result of the recent switch to a new layout at the Telegram website.

After Meeker blogged about one technique for rigging the poll, someone must have tried it.  The resulting click duel wound up crashing the VOCM poll system. Meeker’s comments at the time are worth repeating because they show a similar pattern of insane click counts as we’ve seen so far on November 20:

I saw some irony in the question. I also noticed that, at the time (about 12:30 pm), there were almost 2,000 votes at the site, with 63 per cent disagreeing.

My prediction was that, if the Yes votes made a sudden resurgence, the Trained Monkeys would immediately start clicking No and the voting numbers would go into the tens of thousands (they usually like to maintain a 70 per cent share of the vote).

And my prediction was correct. People did want to play this game. Within an hour, the number of votes had doubled, and the Yes side was out in front. At 2:30 pm, I had to go to a meeting, and at that point the Yes side was still leading, with 55 per cent of 10,000 votes cast.

That's right, ten thousand! It was wild.

When I got home later in the evening, the No side was winning. Votes at that point were around 25,000, and they were back around 60 per cent.

While I was talking live on the radio with Linda Swain, the number of votes was actually increasing by the thousand, as the minutes went by. The last tally I saw was 53,000 votes, with No holding at about 60 per cent.

This poll question will be up all weekend. It’s going to be fun watching to see what happens by Monday morning when the VOCM will likely change the question.

In the meantime, as you look at this an laugh, just recall that someone has obviously been organizing this intense idiocy for the past seven years. 

And then Danny Williams complains about what he could get done if he wasn’t distracted.  Well some of us have been saying that for years. 

When this sort of foolishness turns up again, you have to wonder how much could have been accomplished if all the rest of his Fan Club actually did real work instead of obsessing with this sort of trivia to the point they spend an unhealthy chunk of a November Saturday making sure VOCM  news told the right story in its QOTD report on Monday

Incidentally, just for fun watch and see if the comments section of this post starts turning into a laundry basket full of Conservative sock puppets (right, not exactly as illustrated).

Odds are good it will happen just like they all turned up on the earlier one about poll goosing.

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Offshore board announces results of bid call

From the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (19 Nov 10):

“The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board
(C-NLOPB) announced today the results of the 2010 Call for Bids NL10-01 (Jeanne d’Arc Basin )for exploration rights in the Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area. Bidding closed on November 17, 2010 and successful bids were received on both parcels offered totalling $16,300,000.

The bids represent the expenditures which the bidders commit to make in exploring the respective parcels during Period I. If companies discover significant quantities of petroleum resources as a result of the exploration work, they may then seek a Significant Discovery Licence from the C-NLOPB. Any significant discovery licences issued in respect of lands resulting from these exploration licences will be subject to rentals which will escalate over time.

The following bids have been accepted:

Call for Bids NL10-01 (Jeanne D’Arc Basin)

Parcel 1 (139,617 ha)
Husky Oil Operations Limited (67%)
Repsol E & P Canada Ltd. (33%)
$1,150,000

Parcel 2 (29,783 ha)
Husky Oil Operations Limited (50%)
Statoil Canada Ltd. (50%)
$15,150,000

Subject to the bidders satisfying the requirements specified in the Call for Bids and Ministerial approval, the Board will issue an exploration licence for both parcels in January 2011. The licences will be for a term of nine years, with an initial period of five years.”

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Falling down on the job – Lower Churchill opinion

Not so very long ago, the Reform-based Conservative Party had an army who spent their time clicking madly to make that any question of the day on the VOCM website went the way the Premier would like.

It was all part of the machinery designed to maintain an illusion that the regime du jour is wildly popular. Incidentally, November is one of the four months of the year when the entire poll goosing apparatus usually goes into high gear.

How times have changed.

At 10:30 AM on Saturday, the VO question of the day results looked like this:

Only one third of the respondents – out of a hefty 7207 - like the Premier’s Lower Churchill deal. Almost half did not like it and, curiously enough, another 21% were not sure about it.

Not sure?

Perhaps someone is falling down on the job.

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World of Tomorrow: media studies ph.d, Ver. 2.0

In 1969, the province’s major daily newspaper proudly declared that the contract to develop Churchill Falls was a good thing:

Fears that Newfoundland came out on the short end of the stick in the agreement to develop Churchill Falls appear to be unfounded.

In fact, Newfoundland fares quite well, although it may appear otherwise on the surface.

At the same time, the paper’s John Carter did acknowledge that the “$950 million project in Labrador… probably would have come earlier had it not been for Premier J.R. Smallwood's uncontrolled outbursts of provincialism...”.

Fast forward four decades and it is clear that, to paraphrase Premier Danny Williams from Thursday’s dog and pony show, the experience of that disastrous contract has surely taught everyone in the province a few lessons on what not to do the next time.

Over at the Telegram, they learned their lesson very well about waiting until they had an actual agreement to study before heaping on the praise.  Friday’s editorial begins with these sober and cautious words:

Lower Churchill is no longer a dream. It’s a reality.

Uh huh.

Right.

And the editorial accepts every single statement by every single government official from Thursday without question at all.

Lesson learned, indeed.

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Sky Captain and the Traffic of Tomorrow, November 15 - 19

Good boy, Dex.

People are loving the deal that wasn’t.

Here are the top 10 posts at Bond Papers for the past week, as determined by what the visitors are reading.

1. The World of Tomorrow:  media studies Ph.d edition
2. Muskrat Love
3. The World of Tomorrow
4. Williams announces political exit plan
5. The World of Tomorrow:  Basic Math
6. The politics of energy subsidies
7. Lower Churchill MOU – developing
8. Hydro:  different province.  same political problem.  same political solution
9. Court docket now online
10. Full of sound and fury

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AbitibiBowater announces pensions agreement

Issued by AbitibiBowater on Friday, November 19:

“MONTREAL, Nov. 19 /CNW Telbec/ - AbitibiBowater announced today that, as part of its restructuring process, it had entered into agreements with the Government of Ontario related to funding relief in respect of the material aggregate solvency deficits in the registered pension plans the Company sponsors in Ontario and Quebec. The agreements will enable the Company to seek the waiver of the conditions, as detailed in its restructuring plans, regarding the adoption of funding relief regulations. On September 14, the Government of Quebec announced an agreement between the Company and the Régie des rentes du Québec for similar relief measures. The agreements finalized with the provinces of Ontario and Quebec provide, among other things, that the Company will meet its future pension obligations in full to the beneficiaries. 

"The best way to ensure pension benefits continue to be paid out is to ensure a company stays in business. We are pleased that AbitibiBowater will continue to operate, that thousands of Ontarians will continue to be employed, and that existing pensioners will continue to receive their benefits," stated Dwight Duncan, Ontario Minister of Finance.

In addition, an agreement for the next five years has been entered into by the Government of Ontario and what will become one of AbitibiBowater's Canadian subsidiaries post emergence, AbiBow Canada, regarding its pulp and paper operations in the province. AbiBow Canada has agreed to apply specific measures regarding its governance and investment levels as well as the sustainability of its operations in Ontario.

"The agreement affects thousands of workers, retirees and families in Ontario and allows the Company to move towards the finalization of its emergence from creditor protection. We are all very pleased to see AbitibiBowater get back on its feet, and I am especially appreciative of the support of my colleague at the Ministry of Finance, Minister Dwight Duncan, for making this happen," said Michael Gravelle, Ontario Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry.

This agreement will become effective as of the time of AbitibiBowater's emergence from creditor protection. Moreover, the parties have agreed to re-evaluate the covenants of the agreement at the end of the initial five-year term in light of the Company's situation, the conditions affecting the pulp and paper industry as a whole and the solvency of its pension plans.

"We have signed today an agreement that is a significant step toward our emergence. We are convinced we have obtained the best deal possible for all our employees and retirees in Canada, and we would like to thank the Government of Ontario for its ongoing support," stated David J. Paterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of AbitibiBowater.

The Company directly employs approximately 8,500 workers and has in the order of 20,000 pensioners in Ontario and Quebec. These agreements are subject to AbitibiBowater's and its subsidiaries' emergence from creditor protection, which is expected to occur this fall, and is subject to confirmation of its U.S. plan of reorganization.

AbitibiBowater produces a wide range of newsprint, commercial printing and packaging papers, market pulp and wood products. It is the eighth largest publicly traded pulp and paper manufacturer in the world. AbitibiBowater owns or operates 19 pulp and paper facilities and 24 wood products facilities located in the United States, Canada and South Korea. Marketing its products in more than 70 countries, the Company is also among the world's largest recyclers of old newspapers and magazines, and has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to sustainable forest management standards. AbitibiBowater's shares trade over-the-counter on the Pink Sheets and on the OTC Bulletin Board under the stock symbol ABWTQ.

For further information:

Investors       
Duane Owens 
Vice President, Finance   
864 282-9488
Media and Others
Pierre Choquette
Director, Public Affairs - Canada
514 394-2178
pierre.choquette@abitibibowater.com

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Aboriginal land claims remain substantial barrier to Williams’ legacy plan

Innu leader Joseph Roche may have been at the news conference announcing something or other about Muskrat Falls but, as he told the invite-only audience, the whole thing isn’t going anywhere until the Innu land claims issues are settled.

"One of the key outstanding issues now is the consent of our Innu people," Riche said.

"But we cannot do that yet, we need the federal government to resolve outstanding issues for our land rights agreement … it has been thirty years in the making and we have lost many of our elders and leaders in that time. Without this, the Lower Churchill project can not proceed." [cbc.ca/nl]

Riche was one of the invitees and the provincial government distributed a backgrounder on Innu issues.  But, as Premier Danny Williams knows already, the New Dawn agreement is stone cold dead. Riche reportedly put a damper on the excitement at the hotel news conference when he reminded people this thing wasn’t close to being a deal as far as Innu were concerned.

Chief Riche was talking about issues with the federal government, a key player the provincial government left out of the talks to this point.  That’s just one of the problems.  There is a substantial opposition within the Innu community to the project self and they aren’t interested in seeking anything happen on the river, period, full-stop, end of story, do-not-pass go and forget about the two hundred bucks.

And for those who missed it, someone seems to think that by selecting Muskrat falls as the first site, that will outflank the Innu opposition.  Elizabeth Penashue’s annual walk to Gull island doesn’t mean that Muskrat Falls isn’t as important.

The Innu aren’t the only aboriginal group with a claim that needs attention.

So far the provincial government has ignored the Metis of Labrador even though the Lower Churchill dams would be within the Metis claim area.  What’s worse for Williams is that the Metis are still smarting over his broken election promise from 2003 or his comment in 2009 that the project needed the Innu but not the Metis.

Other Premiers have long under-estimated the challenges of aboriginal land claims issues.  At the time he announced a memorandum of understanding to do way more that Danny Williams proposed, Premier Brian Tobin boasted he could finish a land claims deal with the Innu in 12 weeks.

That was 12 years ago. 

And Tobin’s proposal had a far more substantial basis for agreement than a terms sheet.

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