OF DECEIT, EMERA AND MUSKRAT MADNESS

GUEST POST WRITTEN BY CABOT MARTIN

Close observers of things Muskrat are by now getting used to troubling news regarding this benighted project.

However, the most recent Uncle Gnarley posts building on revelations first made by a former Muskrat Falls project engineer (aka the Unknown Engineer) on UncleGnarley on January 30, 2017 must have shocked even the most cynical.

Seriously - are we talking about someone playing fast and easy with the numbers?

If true, would be big time shit.

Then came last Wednesday’s stellar CBC St. John’s Morning Show interview by Anthony Germain featuring the disguised voice of the “Unknown Engineer” repeating on the public airwaves his astounding assertions ending with a call for a “Forensic Audit” of the manner in which the Muskrat project costs were prepared.

The next day Mr. Germain followed up with an extended interview on the mechanics of a Forensic Audit with financial wiz Larry Short – all of which served to turn up the heat on this issue in dramatic fashion. 

MUSKRAT MADNESS: NEW BOOK A WAKE UP CALL TO GOVERNMENT

Cabot Martin, lawyer, the former senior advisor to several Premiers, and Muskrat Falls critic, has just published a new book entitled “Muskrat Madness”.   

The book is self-published and available at Afterwords Bookstore, 245 Duckworth Street, St. John’s for $16.95.

Martin is a prominent spokesperson on the perils of the “Quick Clay” instability problem at the ‘North Spur’; a point of land that extends into the Churchill River forming a natural damn structure on which the Muskrat Falls hydro project relies. 

He has researched the issue extensively compiling a variety of technical studies conducted since the 1960s, offering an analysis of the problem, its threat to the geological integrity of the Muskrat Falls project and the dangers to residents downstream in Goose Bay and Mud Lake. 

While the issue of “Quick Clay” is a major preoccupation, “Muskrat Madness” engages in a much larger overview of the Muskrat Falls project providing keen perspective on the history of the project and an intelligent analysis of the many technical, market and financial risks Nalcor ignored in order to obtain project sanction.