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Guest Post by For a New Earth For A New Earth (FANE) is pleased to present a public talk with David Vardy (Economist, former Public Utilities Board Chair, former Clerk of the Executive Council and Secretary to Cabinet) and with Grand Riverkeeper and Labrador Land Protector Jim Learning, at the Peter Easton Pub, on the future of Muskrat Falls on Thursday, March 1st, at 7:30pm. FANE co-hosted a public Symposium on Muskrat Falls in Happy Valley-Goose Bay last week, and will kick off Thursday evening with a public recap of the highlights of the event, which included a series of talks, presentations, sharing circles, and a final discussion on a formal resolution to be drafted. Vardy and Learning both participated in the event.  Vardy, who has now become one of the province's most knowledgeable and vocal critics of Muskrat Falls, has described Muskrat Falls as a public policy error and a failure for Newfoundland and Labrador democracy. He has been openly critical of the fact that...

Guest Post by PlanetNL PlanetNL7 � Can Muskrat Float After a Bailout In prior PlanetNL postings, Muskrat economics have been shown to be unaffordable to consumers and a major threat to the solvency and survival of the Government of the Province.  Write-offs are a certainty and there may be many who think the project might look good after that. Equity write-downs and restructuring of unmanageable debt are well known practices in the corporate world.  Does Muskrat have the potential to avail of such opportunities and would operations then make economic sense?  �������. A nalysis, Background and Assumptions The massive spreadsheet behind PlanetNL3 entitled "Muskrat Falls Subsidies Will Cause Gov't Debt Spiral" is employed again to create a series of charts to tell the story.  The fundamentals are the same: two Nalcor ATIPPA information releases provide cost and revenue breakdowns of the massive Power Purchase Agreement and the Nalcor forecast of Dividend and Export Rev...

Recently the Commission of Inquiry into the Muskrat Falls project announced that it had contracted the management firm of Grant Thornton LLP to conduct a Forensic Audit. What does Forensic Audit mean? What is involved? What will it accomplish? Who would answer those questions better than the  "Anonymous Engineer". He was the first person to ask for a "Forensic Audit".  Having worked on the project he made this declaration:  �I could not put up with falsifying information anymore." The whistleblower played a key role in bringing to public attention the issue of "falsified" or "low-balled" estimates. His concerns were first noted on January 30, 2017 in a post entitled  Muskrat Falls Estimates A Complete Falsification .  A more detailed explanation of what had occurred followed with a second post - February 6, 2017 - called  Muskrat: Allegations of Phony Cost Estimates . The Anonymous Engineer's revelations were ones that neither the Prem...

Stan Marshall's Muskrat Falls Update entitled �Understanding Muskrat� ought to have been an opportunity for the Nalcor CEO to engage with the public and sensibly discuss a litany of concerns. That's not what he had in mind. Perhaps it was the air of arrogance that killed the evening at Memorial�s Bruneau Centre, though the softening of his �boondoggle� coinage inspired a measure of incredulity. The readiness to bully every critic of the project � no matter the legitimacy of their claims � spoke to a man who needed understanding less than he did validation, though condescension is not normally known to help win friends. Photo credit: CBC The tone of the meeting was set by Nalcor's well paid booster, Dr. Wade Locke, who just made Uncle Gnarley's �Moonshine� List .   Locke's demeanor presaged Marshall's with the announcement that the CEO would take questions, whereupon he asked the audience to be �respectful�. Perhaps, given the average age of the attendees, he co...

FILLING IN They're filling in along the shore, On mudflat, bog, and gravel bar. At riverside and through the Bay No buffer zones enforced today. In many towns Municipal In Provincial Parks or Federal The excavators and big trucks On Preserves are dumping muck. Land levelled past the water line, With, gravel, soil, and rocky berm. At Bonne Bay, or in Codroy Cove, On wetland, water, the dirt is hove. Structures placed by sea and pond: Houses, sheds, wharves, beyond. To brace the view and winter winds That raise the heat bills to unkind. Once, were castles built on hill For defence, or view-the-mill. Now, they sprawl across the tide To access scene; show house pride. Vanity that impairs the coast? To shelter pleasure boats a boast! No public right-of-way enjoyed, And wildlife habitat destroyed. Has Tourism OK�d new view, Or Fisheries the coastal strew? Environment effects assessed? Storm and tidal flood ingress? Were permits got for work before? Were regulations all ignored? What'...

In June 2015, as a General Election beckoned, Abacus Data reported that only 3% of those polled perceived Muskrat Falls/electricity as �the most important issue facing NL�. Just 11% expressed concern over the deficit.   The election gave vent to a public which had watched the P.C. Party languish in a succession of �amateur hours�. They ran the gamut from Dunderdale�s #DarkNL moment to Frank Coleman�s transparently self-serving attempt to become First Minister for all the wrong reasons.  Tom Marshall left behind a legacy of deficits and not just those related to the Budget. There was the Humber Valley Paving affair and the charade of Muskrat Falls� oversight. The public was forced to suffer bemusement with the Corporal Premier, Paul Davis, as a confused mind miscalculated the preeminence of justice in the pursuit of public safety. They saw a neophyte giving appointment to an unelected Minister who wouldn�t run; an innocent advancing public policy which had been handed to him by...

David Vardy, Ron Penney and I have responded to the call of the Muskrat Falls Commission of Inquiry for submissions from the public on the interpretation of the Terms of Reference. Our submission encourages the Commissioner to give the Terms of Reference a broad interpretation. It proposes a complete review of the project - one that provides full context for the public policy decision to announce and then sanction the project. It also seeks an investigation into matters relating to the management of the project and its long term effects on ratepayers and all the citizens of the province.  David Vardy Writers on this Blog have been strong opponents of the Muskrat Falls project and equally strong proponents of processes of oversight and transparency. David Vardy and Ron Penney have been - and still are - two of the most articulate and forceful advocates.   David Vardy, in particular, has done the heavy lifting for this submission and Ron and I want to acknowledge that fact. Subm...