The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Proposed LNG plant seeks federal funding
Pieridae Energy and environmental groups opposed to its proposed Goldboro liquefied natural gas export terminal have been exchanging ceaseand-desist letters.
It began after four environmental groups (NOFRAC, the Citizens Oil and Gas Council, Environnement Vert Plus and the New Brunswick Antishale Gas Alliance) penned an open letter to the federal and provincial governments that was critical of the company's financial viability and environmental claims.
The letter included a link to a presentation made by the company to government representatives in December. In it, Pieridae asks for $925 million in the form of a grant, loan or loan guarantee.
“To maintain Pieridae's commitments to both Uniper and the federal German government, a final investment decision must be reached by June 2021 and we must begin pre-site construction in late Q1 or early Q2 2021,” reads the presentation.
“To secure this timeline, we are requesting a Government of Canada grant, repayable contribution or loan guarantee of CAD$925 million. The funding would be staggered, based on predetermined metrics and tied to defined milestones . ... This ‘ask' is broken down into segments, including support to secure pipeline upgrades needed to transport natural gas from Alberta to the LNG facility, plus shovel-worthy, shovel-ready, bootson-the-ground COVID-19 recovery projects onsite.”
Pieridae promised to raise the other $12.75 billion required to create a liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Guysborough County coast through private sources.
The day after that letter was published, the company's lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to the environmental groups.
“You and the organizations which you represent and others have unlawfully used and disclosed that confidential information ... knowing, or which you reasonably ought to have known, was protected from any use and disclosure by unauthorized persons, and that you did so with the express purpose of causing economic damage to Pieridae,” reads the letter sent by Pieridae lawyer Thomas Ciz to the groups on March 19.
DEMANDS
The letter cites a non-disclosure agreement signed by those who were the intended viewers of the presentation and demands the environmental groups take down links to it, stop sharing it, disclose who leaked it to them and retract the letter to which it was attached.
Ken Summers, one of the letter's authors and a member of NOFRAC, said the groups took the link down and notified media outlets of the letter from Pieridae.
“There were no markings on the presentation or data that it was confidential, and much of the information could be found on their website or other places,” said Summers.
“It's clearly an intimidation tactic. I wasted a lot of time dealing with it and they are wasting a lot of time, too.”
On Friday, the Quebec Environmental Law Centre sent its own cease-and-desist letter to Pieridae via its legal partners. It demands the company stop interfering in the free speech of its clients.
“Our position is that this information isn't confidential, wasn't confidential and it is in the interests of the public to have such information,” said director Genevieve Paul on Tuesday.
“The public has an interest in general in information regarding public financing, but especially when we are talking about a project associated with a high environmental risk.”
FREE SPEECH
Pieridae claims it was never seeking to impair anyone's free speech and only objected to the release of confidential information.
In a written response, company spokesman James Millar said the company has been open about its attempt to seek government financial support.
“The reason for initiating these conversations is that capital markets have essentially frozen up due to COVID and other factors,” wrote Millar.
“We have discussed repayable bridge financing with government tied to certain terms to protect taxpayers to help get the project over the goal line. Had it not been for the current economics that have been in place over the last two years or so, we would never have taken this step.”
So far, there has been no announcement of provincial or federal financial support for the project.