Muskrat Madness
by Cabot Martin
(Available at Afterwords Bookstore, 245 Duckworth Street, St. John's
and Online at: http://www.muskratmadness.ca/)
Cabot Martin has once again
rendered a major public service to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador by
writing his new book Muskrat Madness.
It is required reading for those interested in sound public policy.
This is the same Cabot Martin
who advised Premiers Frank Moores and Brian Peckford in the early days of
offshore development and who helped develop policies to ensure maximum benefits
to the people of the province from oil and gas development.
Cabot has now prepared a
memoir on Muskrat Falls, an invaluable document that does not claim to cover
everything that happened, but which covers many of the key issues including
project costs and how they fit into the energy economics of 2014.
His memoir
includes some of his letters to the Telegram. In one of these he concluded that
“Muskrat is a dog-unless, of course, you are Nalcor.” In June 2012 Cabot opined
that future oil prices are key to the viability of Muskrat. He said “the
combination of, say, a 25% increase in cost and a fall to $100 per barrel…would
result in a similar eradication of
Muskrat’s economic advantage even as constructed by Nalcor-and that’s actually
where we find ourselves in the summer of 2012.”
