THE DECEPTION OF PARITY: PREMIER'S CLAIM BUSTED

Guest Post by PlanetNL

PlanetNL10 – Atlantic Canada Energy Rates – the Deception of Parity

Where Muskrat Falls is concerned, the Government, regardless of party, has a clear track record of getting the facts wrong. The trend continues as we transition toward the operations and cost recovery phase of project.  The latest misguided gem – being relied upon by NL Hydro at the General Rate Application hearings last week – is Premier Dwight Ball’s stated rate target of 18 c/KWh for residential rates.  The Premier defends this as being comparable to expected rates in the other Atlantic Canadian provinces.  It doesn’t take much research and insight to demonstrate that the Premier couldn’t be more wrong on this issue.
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EXPERT PANEL NEEDED NOW TO EXAMINE NL'S FINANCIAL MESS

Noticeably more people, including readers of this Blog, want to see public discussion of a resolution to the financial mess created by Muskrat. While their numbers are still small, their voices are discernible. It seems that most people are still in denial as to the scope of the problem. Delusion causes them to believe that government would never imperil the solvency of the province.  

Yet, as one Muskrat watcher observed recently, the public will be in a "rage when they learn just the simple truths" of what the project will cost them in relation to the cost per KWh of thermal generation at Holyrood.  Likely, that rage will be compounded when people learn the extent to which the Tories and the Liberals failed to share with them the whole truth of the debacle.

MUSKRAT FALLS: BETTING ON THE WRONG HORSE

Co-written with PlanetNL

Netflix features an interesting PBS documentary called The Race Underground dealing with the technological, political and social challenges of building the first U.S. electric subway, in Boston, in the late 1800s. 

The project had a lot of naysayers. Some were concerned about the destruction of the historic city (especially Boston Common, America’s oldest public park); others about the enormous financial risk described as “… a jump into the unknown.”  The superstitious and the religious feared that going underground meant getting close to “the netherworld”. Then there were the dangers of electricity.

A vote “by the narrowest of margins” brought the matter to a close and the subway was built. The people loved it. The subway cars were clean and clothes ceased being fouled by sooty coal-fired steam engines. Congestion in downtown Boston disappeared and allowed even more people to come in. The suburbs grew rapidly. Not lost on anyone was the presence of far fewer stinky, slow horses on the streets. For investors, the new system was more profitable than the old one. 

ED AND STAN WOULDN’T LIKE GORD

Forgetfulness must be nature’s screen; one that affords people the capacity to not be weighed down by the skewed and self-serving utterances of others.  Gord, an old University friend, had a single word for them… which I plan to share with you.

Not surprisingly, the press release recently issued by former Nalcor CEO Ed Martin on the heels of comments by Stan Marshall comes to mind.

Ostensibly, the current CEO was attempting a little morale building — at the expense of the truth — following the successful transmission of Upper Churchill “recall” power across the Labrador Island Link. Understandably, he couldn’t wait for VP Gil Bennett to get the lead out on the generation component of the Muskrat Falls project.

JIM GORDON'S FINAL COMMENTS ON THE NORTH SPUR

THE NORTH SPUR – MY FINAL COMMENTS
Guest Post by James L. Gordon P.Eng.(Retired)

Way back in 2014, my interest in the North Spur started when I read a short book by Cabot Martin titled “Muskrat Madness”. It concentrated on the questionable stability of a natural side dam called the North Spur which contained layers of sandy silt and sensitive clay. I emailed Cabot, a member of the 2041 committee, on August 27th commenting on his book, and have commented several times on the Uncle Gnarley blog on the North Spur safety. NALCOR describes the Spur as -

The north spur forms a natural earthfill dam, with a crest elevation of about 60 m, and about one km long, which connects the rock knoll to the north bank of the valley……. The crest width varies from about 1,000 m at its north end to about 70m at its south end where it has been narrowed by erosion and landslide activity in the past. The head across the spur is presently 16 m from river level upstream to downstream. The impounding of the reservoir to El. 39 m will increase the hydraulic head across the spur to 36 m and stabilization measures are then necessary to ensure its long-term stability under both normal and extreme water levels. The soils forming the spur consist of a complex interbedded sequence of relatively low permeability silty sands and sands, and sensitive marine clays.