I am listening carefully to the politicians - particularly the Premier - squirm when asked questions on the Lower Churchill project. Labradorians are pretty aggressive when it comes to this resource - and certainly have good reason to be.
Let's deal with the Straits - first of all part of this problem was caused by the MHA Yvonne Jones and her weak position during the initial discussion on the energy plan. Sue's Blog pointed out that concern on January 12 and January 29 2007. Please review the posts - and you will note that Yvonne was advised that the Lower Churchill plans should not have moved one inch until the energy plan was released and secondly when asked about the use of energy in Labrador and the pending energy plan - Jones pointed out she wanted subsidies for thermal generation.
Now the "Plan" is out and it shows a power line to the Island while Yvonne's district stays on thermal generation.
Danny for his part says it's too expensive to bring the line to the region - but when there is an industry that wants it - well then that's different.
Let's use logic - if the line comes to the Island while regions of Labrador are not inter-connected where do you think industry will seek to go? In other words - there goes the horse again and we forgot to close to barn door. Further Cartwright - L'Anse au Clair has hydro potential that could play a role in Danny's "energy warehouse" but where is that in the plan?
It is a little more than embarrassing Premier that this area of Labrador gets some of its power from Quebec.
The vision has to be Labrador first on this power - and industrial development in the big land. If you used one tenth of the cash that it would take to connect the Island and used it to attract industry in Labrador - that vision could become a reality.
As long as we keep talking about powering a million homes in Ontario and removing all the thermal generation on the Island while whole regions of Labrador are not connected - Joey's vision lives on.
There is no evidence that Labrador could not be as successful as Iceland with respect to energy for industry. Oil is over $80 bucks now right? "Green" agreements and treaties are the order of the day - yet not one of our politicians can see the watts through the trees. That ladies and gentlemen has been and is our biggest failure.
While we wallow in a sea of incompetence - Iceland has now announced it will be eliminating all fossil fuel use through hydrogen cars and then by converting the fishing fleet. Oh that's right - they still have fish. I'm sure that's the next topic.
1 comment:
Hi Sue, first of all, your own energy and efforts to seek what is best for Labrador and the province is appreciated. I do not have the knowledge of energy developments like you and others have, but I was still surprised with the announcement that a transmission line is intended to be constructed to the island from the Lower Churchill (LC) energy. It left me with questions like, what percentage of the energy from the LC would that equate to? Could enough power be left for industrial development in Labrador, and to power energy for individual homes throughout Labrador? And, how much could, or should be diverted to the island?
Your statement was interesting:
"If you used one tenth of the cash that it would take to connect the Island and used it to attract industry in Labrador - that vision could become a reality."
Perhaps you were touching on one of the questions I ask. Could you either elaborate, or provide a link that would be more informative. Thanks.
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