UARB set to release decision on Maritime Link
Posted Jul 22, 2013 06:30:20 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s an important day for the future of the Muskrat Falls project.
We find out at 9:30 a.m. this morning if the 180-kilometre Maritime Link portion of the hydroelectric project will be a go.
The Utility and Review Board will rule on whether building the link represents the lowest long-term cost alternative for the province’s electrical users and whether the $1.5 billion project meets requirements governing the release of greenhouse gases and air pollutants.
The decision is expected to reignite political debate on the controversial power project and with a provincial election looming, Corporate Research Associates president and CEO Don Mills said the political calculus could be changed if the board were to rule in a way that would have an obvious long-term impact on people’s pocketbooks.
“If the outcome was that for the next ten years your power bills are going to be this much higher, that’s probably not going to be positive for the government because people are very sensitive to the cost of living today,” he explained.
The project has garnered growing criticism from Nova Scotia’s political opposition, while the NDP government has backed it as the key to the province’s energy future.
Mills said it’s hard to speculate exactly how the public will react to whatever the board decides because the issues around the project are so complicated.
“It may not be as big a deal as either proponents or opponents to it feel because in the everyday world of an average Nova Scotian, they’re not spending a lot of time thinking about it,” he said.
Todd MacDonald with the Lower Power Rates Alliance said he has no idea what the decision will be but he hopes the link will be rejected.
“Every major user group and consumer group has opposed it,” he said. “There’s only one company in favour of it and that’s Emera. All the lawyers and consultants who have studied it have clearly said that the risk is all with the ratepayer of Nova Scotia.”
He maintained all the risk of the project sits with Nova Scotia ratepayers.
“If i said to you, you can lock in your mortgage rate for 35 years at a 13 per-cent interest rate, would any part of that be good for you?” he asked. “My answer to that, and I don’t mean to be flippant, is absolutely not.”
He added the process is being rushed and there’s no reason to make a decision today on power rates in 2050, especially since we have a declining population that uses less power every year.
