Maryland knows very well the prohibitive cost of energy drives industry away while predictably priced reliable power attracts and keeps industry.
They are another example or victim of deregulation and privatization of energy resources.
In late 2005 Alcoa shut down its aluminum plant because:
"When we were first moving to idle that plant, we had said for about eight months in advance the plant was in danger because of the power situation,"...
Utility deregulation sent electricity prices to prohibitively high levels, forcing Alcoa to shut the aluminum smelter and lay off about 640 workers.
Recent Maryland state legislation that Lowery said Alcoa helped fast-track paved the way for public and private partnerships to develop power plants.
"We want to make metal there (Eastalco), and in order to do that we could no longer buy power off the grid. Now what we're looking into is whether it makes sense to do this another way," he said, referring to Alcoa coming up with its own source of electricity.
These quotes from a Reuter's Article on Friday.
There's no doubt government is working with the company to find solutions - and they do not have the benefit of a Lower Churchill supply. But private power pumped to the grid shut the aluminum smelter down and it's going to take public partnership for power to get the plant up and running again.
Having said that Alcoa - like Alcan and Rusal are on the lookout for places to build new processing facilities and replacement units for those shut down - primarily resulting from energy related concerns. That place should be Labrador!
2 comments:
I hope and pray our astute Premier Williams realizes that predicatbly priced reliable clean hydroelectric power attracts industry, sustains industry and keeps industry moving forward.
I don't think for one moment that Premier Williams is going to have the Lower Churchill energy project developed to provide power to other parts of the North American Continent so that places,other than Newfoundland and Labrador, can thrive and survice while we die.
That is not the premise on which our hard working Premier came to power on. I hope he will announce to us soon that he is not thinking on those lines just to allay our fears.
In order for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to survive into the next century economically, the Lower Churchill will have to be developed with Labrador and Newfoundland in mind. Our Premier should be advertising for Alcan and Alcoa plants and similar type plants to be built here. After all we are also situated on one of the most strategic shipping lanes in the world, the Atlantic Ocean. No place is more strategicly located on the Globe than Newfoundland and Labrador. We have so much going for us here with resources, both human and natural, and with our strategic location, a fool could start industry in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Premier Williams all you have to do is ignore the lobbyists who are lobbying on behalf of that wonderful energy sources and go ahead and do what should be natural, have the Lower Churchill Power Project developed with building industry for Newfoundland and Labrador.
The concern I have is the comment he made to the Corporate Knights Magazine...
Newfoundland and Labrador are set to develop the Lower Churchill’s hydro potential. Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams told me, “I recently [May 2006] wrote to the Premier of Ontario about [Lower Churchill], which will be online by 2015 and can provide 2,800 MW, enough to light up a million and a half homes in Ontario. We have some of the best wind regimes in the world; our projections indicate that by as early as 2009 we could have 300 MW, another 400 MW by 2013, with the potential of tens of thousands of MW of wind energy available through Labrador. Between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, we can provide [Ontario] with all the clean energy that you’re going to need over the next several decades.”
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