Atlantic premiers meet to discuss regional energy projects
Last Updated: Thursday, May 8, 2008 | 2:13 PM AT
The Canadian Press
The four Atlantic premiers will meet in Fredericton Friday to discuss closer co-operation, especially the sharing of energy resources such as the Lower Churchill Falls development in Newfoundland and Labrador.
New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham, host of the one-day meeting, says he thinks there's room for at least two massive power projects in the region — Lower Churchill and a possible second nuclear reactor at Point Lepreau, N.B.
The premiers are under pressure to find ways to ease the region's heavy dependence on fossil fuels to generate electricity, and there's growing interest in the massive potential of the Lower Churchill in Labrador.
The Lower Churchill project would have an estimated capacity of more than 2,800 megawatts, enough to power 1.5 million homes.
The possibility of importing Lower Churchill power to the Maritimes depends on the cost of transporting it to the region, likely via undersea cable, said Economist Jim Feehan of St. John's, N.L.
Nova Scotia utility Emera Inc. recently signed a memorandum of understanding "to explore the possibility" of bringing energy from the Lower Churchill project to markets in the Maritimes and New England.
