Conservation council hails NB Power sale
Published Friday October 30th, 2009
Is it a handshake with the devil or a match made in heaven?
Thursday’s announcement that most of NB Powers assets will be sold to Hydro-Quebec could spell the demise of New Brunswick’s oil and coalfired plants.
The Dalhousie and Grand Lake plants are scheduled to close next year. Under the memorandum of understanding, Hydro-Quebec has the right to close Coleson Cove and Belledune with one year’s notice.
David Coon, policy director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, said the news is fantastic.
“We should be able to achieve the Copenhagen target that’s being discussed as long as we rapidly phase out all of the fossils (fuelled plants),” he said at Government House where Premier Shawn Graham and Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced the deal.
“It’s also going to remove some pretty important barriers to achieving a renewable energy feature in New Brunswick.”
Coon said New Brunswick should see beyond the ashes of NB Power to create a renewable energy corporation to help New Brunswickers move to renewable sources of energy production.
If Coleson Cove and Belledune are closed within the next four years, the New Brunswick government will more than achieve its climate change targets, he said.
Derek Oland, chairman of the New Brunswick Business Council, applauded the sale which will see NB Power assets sold to Quebec for the utility’s $4.75-billion debt.
“The promise of lower rates and access to abundant green power will help protect jobs in the province and encourage growth and outside investment, not only in our manufacturing sector, but also in new emerging sectors,” Oland said.
The business council supports the proposed rate freezes for commercial and residential users and anticipated rate drops for industrial users, but he said it wants to know how rates will be regulated beyond the five years.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will be keeping an eye on what happens to its members as the Belledune plant, fuelled by a Venezuelan oil product called Orimulsion, is phased out.
“It’s clearly a very comprehensive agreement, a game-changer, very interesting,” said Tim Curry, president of the Atlantica Centre for Energy, a Saint John-based organization made up of engineering and consulting firms, and key industrial players in the energy sector He said the organization’s board will be taking a long, hard look at the deal before making further comment.
Large industrial users in New Brunswick will be happy with the deal as they see their electricity rates drop about 30 per cent to meet similar rate levels handed to Hydro-Quebec industrial customers, said Louis- Phillippe Gauthier, president of the Moncton-based Economic Development Council of New Brunswick.
“Smaller-sized businesses have always been concerned about electricity rates, but is it one of their primary concerns? I would say that today and for the last few years the primary concern has been access to qualified labour,” he said.
“Overall, we would have probably liked to see more help brought to small businesses ... Unfortunately, we don’t necessarily see that today.”
What the organization is keeping an eye on, Gauthier said, is how New Brunswick can retain sovereignty when it comes to determining energy policy.
“That’s where the modifications and modernization of energy law in New Brunswick come in. That’s where the details will be,” he said.
“That’s why we’re reserving our full backing for this deal until we see what modifications are going to be brought to the energy laws in New Brunswick. The devil’s in the details.”
Northern regions will see another blow to their economies with the planned phasing out of energy plants and it will be incumbent on government to try to help them, he said.
David Plant, vice-president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said its preliminary evaluation suggests it’s a good deal for all ratepayers in New Brunswick.
“Of course, we’ll have to take a closer look at the specifics of the deal, but at the very least, it avoids the potential of significant rate increases in the future and I believe those increases could be double-digit. We’ve had proposals in the past that have proposed as high as 17 per cent on ratepayers,” he said.
The industry association is going to take a closer look at how Hydro-Quebec classifies its industrial customers and how that will affect the 1,200 manufacturing and exporting businesses in the province.
While there’s no cap on future rate increases for industrial users under the proposed sale, Plant said rates won’t rise as quickly as they would if New Brunswick continued to rely on NB Power as a standalone utility.
Anthony Knight, CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, said there’s a lot of positive elements to the deal, but the chamber will conduct a survey to see what its 900 members believe to be the right course of action for government.
The survey will be done early next week, Knight said.
There’s an investment attraction on the industrial side in the province, as major companies can expect to see their power rates drop to the same level that Hydro-Quebec charges its major corporations, which is about 30 per cent below current rates for that class of client in New Brunswick, he said.
“What are the long-term implications for this proposed transfer of assets,” Knight said.
“We want to look at it closely and talk to our members.”
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Notice how David Coon dosnt mention what the actual cost is going to be to ratepayers to get rid of Coleson Cove and Belledune. The science behind climate change is very debatable, but the cost of building a new power system will be very real and very expensive.
junkscience.com is a website that sheds light on the climate change issue.