• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA June 4, 2023
Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest June 4, 2023
Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing June 4, 2023
2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season June 4, 2023
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Next
Prev

Commissioner Scorches Newfoundland’s ‘Blind Trust’ in Troubled Muskrat Falls Megaproject

March 17, 2020
Reading time: 3 minutes

erik.altitude/flickr

erik.altitude/flickr

1
SHARES
 

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball is calling in the police and the provincial justice department, following the release of a scathing report last week that found a previous provincial government failed to protect residents’ interests during construction of the 824-megawatt, C$12.7-billion Muskrat Falls hydro megaproject.

By assuming the dam had to be built no matter what, then placing “blind trust” in the leadership team at Nalcor, the Crown corporation overseeing the project, the province “failed in its duty to ensure the best interests of the province’s residents were safeguarded,” wrote provincial Supreme Court Justice Richard LeBlanc, head of an inquiry into the deeply troubled project.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

Nalcor “exploited this trust by frequently concealing information about the project’s costs, schedule, and risks,” he added.

“The megaproject’s costs have essentially doubled since it was sanctioned in 2012 under a previous Progressive Conservative government,” The Canadian Press writes. “It now accounts for about a third of Newfoundland and Labrador’s considerable debt and has been referred to as a ‘boondoggle’ by Nalcor’s current CEO, and the province’s ‘biggest fiscal mistake’ by its current premier.”

Once the project begins transmitting electricity to Newfoundland and eventually Nova Scotia via underwater cables, “it’s set to produce more power than the province needs and its financial structure, which Ottawa has agreed to reconfigure, would leave electricity ratepayers to pay for the extra costs through their monthly bills.”

In his six-volume report, LeBlanc questioned the assumption that Muskrat Falls was the least-cost electricity option for Newfoundland and Labrador ratepayers, CP says. “He wrote that the project’s economics were not sufficiently tested and that Nalcor failed to consider all potentially viable power options,” and called out former CEO Ed Martin and other company executives for “unprincipled steps to help secure project sanction”.

He contended that they concealed information that could have weakened the case for the project, including a 2013 risk analysis by SNC-Lavalin that added a possible $2.4 billion to Nalcor’s previous calculations.

LeBlanc also concluded that “government and Nalcor officials failed to research well-known risks related to megaproject cost and schedule runs, writing that ‘their failure to do this is indefensible’,” the news agency adds. The commissioner “wrote that Martin fostered a culture of superiority within the project’s inexperienced senior management team, which regularly ignored the advice of more knowledgeable individuals, and that executives took advantage of government officials’ lack of knowledge about hydro projects.”

While he faulted the government for providing insufficient project oversight, LeBlanc said there was “no doubt” that Martin “must be faulted for intentionally failing to disclose…relevant information on costs, schedule, and risk”.

The commissioner also concluded that the province “did not act appropriately” on environmental and health concerns raised by Indigenous communities, provoking “an environment of mistrust” that led to protests and further delays. “Even today,” he wrote, the government “has failed to ensure that its commitments, and those of Nalcor, regarding environmental matters related to the project are being properly tracked, monitored, and acted upon.”

Among LeBlanc’s 17 recommendations, CP cites his call to limit Nalcor’s ability to withhold information on legal or commercial grounds, and for the government to engage independent experts and provide “well-defined” oversight on any projects worth more than $50 million.



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Community Climate Finance, First Peoples, Health & Safety, Hydropower, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Pixabay
Solar

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
103
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr
Cities & Communities

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 4, 2023
65
Natural Resources Canada
Drought & Wildfires

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
132

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

/MaxPixels

‘Substantial Damage’, No Injuries as Freight Train Hits Wind Turbine Blade

May 25, 2022
14.6k
Natural Resources Canada

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
132
sunrise windmill

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 4, 2023
112
Pixabay

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
103
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
497
Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
854

Recent Posts

Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 4, 2023
65
Clairewych/Pixabay

Demand Surges for Giant Heat Pumps as Europe Turns to District Heating

June 4, 2023
76
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
32
moerschy / Pixabay

Federal Climate Plans Must Embrace Community-Driven Resilience

June 4, 2023
44
debannja/Pixabay

Austin, Texas Council Committee Backs Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 4, 2023
72
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
75
Next Post
Petcoke pile on Chicago's south side U.S. EPA/Wikimedia Commons

Derailed Petcoke Train Near Prince George Also Carried Methanol, LNG

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}