PUB SHOULD TREAT HYDRO'S RATE HIKE HARSHLY

When government agencies engage in self-aggrandizing claims, they really should try to support them with something more than rhetoric.

The public awaits PUB approval of a NL Hydro sponsored electricity rate increase of 6.6% in 2018 and another 6.4% in 2019. The PUB has adequate reason to reject at least a part of the request.

Hydro’s Rate Application (Vol. I, page 3.5) reads that the rates increases are necessary because: 

“Hydro has prudently increased investment in its capital program. In 2016, Hydro spent approximately $204 million on capital work (infrastructure). In 2017, Hydro plans to spend $370 million. These investments, including the new transmission line TL267 from Bay d’Espoir to Western Avalon, are necessary to secure the long-term reliability of the system for Hydro’s customers.” (bold added)  

BARD OF PYNN'S BROOK GETS WINDY

WIND 

Offshore mills!  The wind is strong:

A grandiose scheme, beat the gong.

Beothuk sings a heady song 

To let power flow To let  flow to Up-along? 

Think Muskrat Falls a precedent,  

A template for a cost-ascent
That promises our discontent 
As heat bills to the heavens sent.  

Wind power widely subsidized: 
Rates are low, cost high-sized.
Many projects ill-advised, 
Markets often un-realized. 

To fill Brakes Cove, what's the need? 
There's lots of wharf, and land in weed
Sees little use, that could be freed
To development if must proceed. 

For short-term jobs, the mayors bray:

Assemble mills in filled-in Bay.
The public signed for cost to pay?
To facilitate power give-away.

That old hype pattern on project moot. 
We can't afford the bill to foot -
The peoples bill! Who gives a hoot? - 
- Demand a stop to our cash input. 

John Tuach

Pynn's Brook
August 18, 2017 

"EMPTY WORDS" FROM CONSUMER ADVOCATE DRAWS REPLY FROM ANONYMOUS ENGINEER

EDITOR'S NOTE: We haven't heard from the "whistleblower", referred to as the "Anonymous Engineer", in awhile. But it is important to remember that he is the engineer who originally disclosed falsification of the estimates for the Muskrat Falls project on January 30, 2017. His revelations were described in a post entitled Muskrat Falls Estimates A Complete Falsification and a second post on February 6, 2017 called Muskrat: Allegations of Phony Cost Estimates, as well as to the CBC. Writing today, the whistleblower responds to Consumer Advocate, Dennis Browne, whose recent public comments suggest he is confusing "Forensic Audit" and "Forensic Accounting". - Des Sullivan

Guest Post by the "Anonymous Engineer" 

The letter to the Editor of the Telegram and the concurrent discussion with the journalist Pam Frampton by the Consumer Advocate Dennis Browne of August 19^th, 2017 was a futile exercise in public relations.

Mr. Browne did not say anything that the public had not already heard from Premier Ball, Minister Coady and CEO Stan Marshall. At least there is one remarkable element of consistency – they are all singing from the same sheet of music, which no one believes.

NALCOR LOSES $66.9 MILLION IN 6-DAY FAILED HEDGING SCHEME. PUBLIC NOT TOLD.

Introduction
Just when you thought the incompetence couldn't get any worse at Nalcor, along comes another scheme to up the ante on deceit and dumb.

This blogger has just learned that Nalcor lost $66.9 million following management's decision to place a bet of $1.82 billion - public money - in the “futures” market.

Nalcor even tries to put the blame on U.S. President Donald Trump.

To add insult to injury, Nalcor and the Ball Government did their best to cover up the failed scheme.

The losses occurred in May of this year. An eagle-eyed Nalcor watcher, able to parse Nalcor’s most opaque assertions, brought the contents of the corporation’s last quarterly financial statement to my attention.

REFLECTIONS ON THE MUSKRAT FALLS PROJECT

Guest Post by David Vardy

Introduction

The sanctioning of the Muskrat Falls project in December of 2012 was a huge mistake, one which has spiralled into a major economic and environmental catastrophe. 

The warnings of the joint federal provincial panel were ignored, as were those of the Public Utilities Board. These warnings relate to the lack of a business case for the project, the high risk for a small province, the adverse demographic factors, the lack of export markets and the high unit cost.

A Gamble that failed

In a Telegram article dated May 25, 2013 the Honourable John Crosbie said that “Muskrat Falls is worth the risk”, quoting T. S. Eliot on the subject of risk: Only those who would risk going too far can possibly find out how far you can go. Since then we have sailed on a sea of risk and reaped the whirlwind. 

THE AG AND THE CONSUMER ADVOCATE DO THE PROVINCE A DISSERVICE

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is, it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

— Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Only within the upside-down world of Alice would much of what is occurring in this province make any sense. Still, the behaviours of such an inverted — some would say perverted — place, their origins in the Premier’s Office, ought not to extend to our few institutions.

But they do.

Politics in NL has been turned upside down.

An excessive level of stupidity, denial and self-interest — far more than normal — has infected our political process. That the Ball Liberals have prolonged the madness begun by the Tories does not make it any less mad. It has been allowed to run through the senior bureaucracy, too — try as the government might to create the perception of normalcy.

COADY WRONG ABOUT NORTH SPUR REVIEW, SAYS SENIOR ENGINEER

Guest Post by James L. Gordon, P. Eng. (Ret’d)

THE NORTH SPUR DESIGN HAS NOT BEEN REVIEWED BY

MULTIPLE GEOSCIENCE ENGINEERS!

The presence of quick clay and soft sensitive clay has been known ever since the Spur was first investigated in 1965. Several consulting engineering companies have looked at the Spur and issued reports on their investigations. Many have proposed solutions to stabilize the Spur.

However, all this work can be regarded as preliminary since the geotechnical investigations were incomplete. None of the proposed solutions were “approved for construction”, nor intended to be. They were the first attempts to find a suitable solution to the instability demonstrated by the many landslides in the vicinity of the Spur, and on the Spur.

SNC have undertaken further geotechnical tests and have developed a design which has been “approved for construction”, and has been built.

However, the design has not been reviewed by senior geotechnical engineers with experience in sensitive and quick clay, contrary to the assertions of Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady.

NL NEEDS A REVOLUTION. YOU WILL HAVE TO LEAD IT.

NL needs a revolution. It’s just possible that the seeds of revolt are germinating. A recent VOCM “Question of the Day” Poll may have revealed such an undercurrent.

It wasn’t a scientific Poll in the tradition of CRA, MQO or one of the many market opinion research entities offering political parties and detergent retailers essential feedback.

Neither did it offer a representative sample of a defined population or even a statistical probability of accuracy (as in 19 times out of 20).

But it boasted three compelling components which, taken together, stand out: it was strikingly relevant, offered a choice of unambiguous answers, and attracted a high level of respondents — in excess of 10,000.

The question read simply: What measures will you take if power rates continue to increase?

THE RISE AND DECLINE OF CATHY BENNETT

When I wrote “Cathy Bennett’s Days in Finance Are Numbered” little more than ten months ago, I seriously doubted her tenure would last more than a few weeks.

I had assessed the province’s financial position and her first Budget. It was easy to see that the restraint measures she proposed — mostly increased taxation — were the work of a hapless political amateur delaying the axe-wielding necessitated by a widening fiscal chasm. 

The exigencies of politics demanded execution at the start of the government’s term. Even if one cared not a whit about the province’s finances, delay bore far more political landmines than decision.

Admittedly, the September piece had poorly assessed the importance of ego, partisanship and ambition over common sense. Still, in the circumstance, a savvy Minister of Finance should have presented an ill-equipped Premier the fiscal ultimatum commanded by a dreadful Tory legacy.