NEED FOR POLLUTION CONTROLS AT HOLYROOD A CASE OF FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION

 Guest Post by PlanetNL

PlanetNL44: Holyrood Air Pollutants Surprisingly Low

Need for Pollution Abatement Equipment Was Another Muskrat Fraud

 As Uncle Gnarley properly pointed out in his post last week, the vilification of the Holyrood Thermal Generating Station was a central tactic of Nalcor and Government’s communications strategy for proceeding with the Muskrat Falls project.  Tremendous tales of woe were repeated ad nauseum about the risks of using the Holyrood plant by the shameless promoters of Muskrat. 

They were all untrue.

This post sums them all up with particular emphasis on the topic of pollutant emissions, a problem that had ceased to exist.  Not that Government or Nalcor could ever let something as simple as the facts stand in their way of building Muskrat.

POWER PLANT A CENTERPIECE OF CORRUPT GOVERNANCE

“The Provincial Government, through NLH (Hydro), has investigated the long-term options to address Holyrood emissions and decided to replace Holyrood generation with electricity from the Lower Churchill through a transmission link to the Island”.

Thus ran the 2007 energy plan of the Danny Williams Administration.

The die was cast for energy policy in NL. It meant Gull Island, Muskrat Falls or bust!

In that pursuit for more than a decade, deception, half-truths, outright lies and delusion all played a role in the sanction and construction of Muskrat Falls. Integral to the decision, was the disparagement of the Holyrood Thermal Generating Station (HTGS).

DISPELLING LIES AND HALF-TRUTHS ABOUT HOLYROOD POWER AND RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT NEXT BLACK-OUT

 Guest Post by PlanetNL

PlanetNL43: Assessing the Holyrood Life Extension Report

Dispelling Lies and Half Truths

On March 31, NL Hydro provided the Public Utilities Board with a consultant report assessing the Holyrood plant with a focus on continuing to use it for potentially decades more as a backup facility in the event of a major loss of power to the Island grid.  The report considers just one of several options being considered in a major Reliability Assessment hearing before the PUB started in 2018 and seems as though it may never conclude.

The new report provides a favorable review of the suitability of the plant, maintained as a backup facility.  To what should be no one’s surprise, the plant is not in an awful and unreliable condition and way past its prime.  It just needs what should be considered ordinary upkeep for any industrial facility.

What we don’t know, however, is what exactly Hydro asked the consultant to study or if the report accurately describes the way the Holyrood plant must be used to provide an acceptable level of utility reliability.  It appears Hydro has guided their consultant to the wrong scenario.