“The Lower Churchill hydro project has passed the environmental review process,” CBC news tells us, and as a result the project has cleared “… another hurdle to the Labrador power generation plant becoming a reality. VOCM used the same word in its headline. Hurdle. It means an obstacle, a hindrance
Continue readingTag: Muskrat Falls
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Nova Scotia would get Churchill Falls power for free #nlpoli
If you’ve been following the ongoing Muskrat Falls saga, you will recall that energy analyst Tom Adams raised some questions a couple of months ago about whether or not Muskrat Falls could actually produce the power Nalcor and the provincial government claimed. The problem basically came down to this: January
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: It’s all about export, eh #nlpoli
On Tuesday, natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy told the House of Assembly: Essentially, what Muskrat Falls does, it allows 40 per cent of the power for the Island to meet the Island needs, 20 per cent for the export – 170 megawatts which allows us to then gain access to
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Discussion is healthy, indeed #nlpoli
From the Telegram a former chief of staff in the Premier’s Office puts it as eloquently as only he could: If public discussion, questions and debate on any issue should be dropped because “the people who have the political and corporate power to make it happen want it to happen,”
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Kremlinology 38: what they left out #nlpoli
In a news release from the federal natural resources minister that heralded the future of Newfoundland and Labrador is energy, they didn’t mention the Lower Churchill once. – srbp –
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: How much is that Muskrat in the window? #nlpoli
So without much effort, the cost of Muskrat Falls, also known as the island infeed project, has gone from $6.2 billion to $8.9 billion. That’s without factoring in labour costs. Alberta is already starting to see skyrocketing costs and worker shortages: Two years ago, the Alberta government forecast a shortage
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Checking Jerome’s Numbers #nlpoli
In the House of Assembly on Tuesday, natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy said: The Muskrat Falls Generating Station will cost $2.9 billion and the Labrador-Island Link will cost $2.1 billion. That is $5 billion, Mr. Speaker. Into that, there is built in 15 per cent contingency and escalation costs. Before
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Countering Nalcor Negativity #nlpoli
In a speech to the St. John’s board of trade this week, Nalcor chief executive Ed Martin dissed natural gas as a possible alternative to his expensive Muskrat Falls scheme. According to the Telegram’s Wednesday edition – not online – Martin told the business audience that a 2001 study said
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Danny and Jerome! on Muskrat Falls financials #nlpoli
Former member of the House of Assembly and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro director Danny Dumaresque made the news over the weekend with a claim that he had a document showing that the provincial energy corporation had no luck raising $4 billion in the money markets. On Monday natural resources minister
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: An energy strategy or tunnel vision #nlpoli
For those who may have seen natural resources minister Jerome Kennedy’s handful of tweets selectively paraphrasing bits of the American president’s speech, here’s the whole thing, via whitehouse.gov. Take a few minutes and listen to the speech. Read the transcript. The context of Obama’s words are important if you want
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Adams is at it again #nlpoli
Energy analyst Tom Adams is at it again. He’s sent a bunch of technical questions to the consumer advocate to ship along to Nalcor about the Muskrat Falls proposal. Let’s see what happens. – srbp –
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Own goal: Muskrat Falls edition #nlpoli
Jack Swinimer is a resident of Holyrood. He’s a retired bank official. He’s also a big Tory supporter who calls open lines shows regularly to talk up his team or, more importantly, talk down anyone else. With Muskrat Falls on the go at the public utilities board, no one was
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Dip-Flop Fly #nlpoli
Twitter flame wars between cabinet ministers and Dale Kirby over Muskrat Falls. Surely Darin, Jerome and Clyde have better things to do with their days. Then again, maybe not. But at the heart of the whole flare up was Lorraine Michael’s theatrical delivery of a letter to the public utilities
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Others, a.k.a the Ghost and Mrs. Dunderdale #nlpoli
Regardless of any change in the cost of other forms of energy,… we will have stability in this province that few parts of the world could depend on with the same reliability. Did Premier Kathy Dunderdale say that? During the provincial election last fall, she told The Scope that Muskrat
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: NDP MHA not helping consumers #nlpoli
George Murphy is the NDP member of the provincial legislature best known for pushing the government gas price gouging scheme that forces consumers to pay prices for gasoline that benefits the provincial government and the gasoline retailers. Murphy says he is on the side of consumers. Now Murphy thinks that
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Natural gas and electricity #nlpoli
Cabot Martin knows what he is talking about. His speech to the St. John’s Rotary Club on Thursday opened a great many eyes to the potential for natural gas as a means to produce electricity locally. By extension, martin also got at a key aspect of why the Muskrat Falls
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: In the democratic have-not province… #nlpoli #cdnpoli
For all those who have really been paying attention, here’s a simple question: How many independent reviews of the project people call Muskrat Falls will there have been have there been by April 1, 2012? While you are pondering that one take a gander at what is happening in Nova
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: PUB concerned about Nalcor capex and electricity rates #nlpoli #cdnpoli
The province’s public utilities board is concerned about the impact Nalcor’s capital works programs will have on consumer rates even without taking Muskrat Falls into account or considering any increase due to fuel costs for thermal generation. The comments are in the board’s approval, issued January 24, for Phase I
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No kittens were harmed… yet #nlpoli #cdnpoli
It is wonderful to be proven right. Sometimes being wrong is nicer. In this case, wrong would be the prediction from this corner that the Great VO Muskrat Falls debate would be like tossing kittens off the overpass into oncoming traffic. The reaction to the hour-long radio program seems to
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Jumpin’ Jack Flash #nlpoli
It’s-uh gas, gas, gasAn 824 megawatt combined cycle gas turbine electricity generator plant would cost roughly CDN$950 million. The gas to power the plant is readily available from the local offshore. It can be landed using a conventional gas pipeline that would cost around CDN$500 million to build. That’s based
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