‘Making Muskrat right’ requires cancelling project
The “Make Muskrat Right” campaign is finally rallying some public opposition to the magnificent mistake that is the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, but it doesn’t go far enough. The only way to “make Muskrat right” is to stop it outright.
There seems to be a pervasive resignation that the massive blunder is “unstoppable,” as numerous people have put it.
The same trancelike acceptance of the approval of the project several years ago has apparently overtaken the citizenry, who now blithely believe the multibillion-dollar folly must be followed through.
The arrogance of the Progressive Conservatives who approved the project has been succeeded by the arrogance of the Liberals who now oversee the project. Propaganda, lies and manipulation comprise the strategy of both.
And the NDP? If ever there was a time that the beleaguered Newfoundland (and Labrador) voter needed the leftist crowd to stiffen its spine and speak up to demand an end to this ongoing disaster, it is now. Alas, all Earle McCurdy can muster is a meek request that the House of Assembly be opened early so politicians can discuss it some more.
It is futile. The political parties are like three skydivers plummeting earthward at terminal velocity and arguing about gravity, with none daring to be the first to suggest they save themselves by opening their parachutes.
Don’t be fooled for a fifth straight year (or seventh, by another reckoning). As surely as gravity will suck you down, so will Muskrat Falls.
When Muskrat Falls juice begins to flow in 2019 (or 2020 or 2021), your power bill will charge 21 cents per kilowatt hour — approximately double the current rate.
This week, the Ontario Energy Board set electrical rates for consumers in that province at 8.7 cents per kWh.
Check your most recent bill from Newfoundland Power. It’s two cents higher than Ontario’s rate. Think of it as your contribution to Fortis Inc.’s triumph of being listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Muskrat defenders will predictably point out the Ontario Energy Board’s 8.7 cents per kWh rate is for off-peak hours, and mid-peak and on-peak rates — during certain days and hours — are 13.2 cents per kWh and 18 cents per kWh, respectively.
If people use power during periods of high demand — i.e., weekdays between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. — they pay the highest rate.
This is an intelligent effort to encourage conservation, and to spread out power usage so demand isn’t concentrated in the same period, putting a strain on the system. The result is that two-thirds of Ontario’s power usage is at the 8.7 cents per kWh rate.
Was a pricing system such as this given consideration in this province regarding the so-called “least-cost option”? No.
Was the concept of conserving energy a major factor in that process? No.
Do Newfoundlanders — and their power system — enjoy the benefits of staggered pricing to encourage usage during offpeak hours? No.
Those are question worth pondering if you doubt the reference above to “lies and manipulation.”
And let’s not forget — magical Muskrat Falls was going to earn big money by selling power to Ontario (and New England and New York). Get out a pencil. Let’s see, we’ll produce power at a cost of 16 cents per kWh and sell it to mainlanders for 8.7 cents per kWh … wow, look at the profits add up.
Once again, Newfoundlanders are paying the price for their habit of being late to clue in. Many people are belatedly lamenting that the Muskrat Falls project was ever approved, even though there were valid warnings about it for years.
When the expensive power starts to flow, there will be equal lamentations that the project wasn’t cancelled when it became obvious that continuing with it was as big a mistake as approving it.
The political parties are like three skydivers plummeting earthward at terminal velocity and arguing about gravity, with none daring to be the first to suggest they save themselves by opening their parachutes. Brian Jones