Hydro-Quebec has suffered what has been called its greatest blow since the Great Whale project was cancelled.
In its first major decision, the newly created Quebec Energy Board has torn the heart out of Hydro-Quebec’s strategic plan and rejected the utility’s proposal to keep the costs of its projects hidden from the public.
Hydro’s plan met with a wall of furious opposition from every organization that testified at the board’s hearings, including the Crees. A Cree witness, U.S. energy analyst Robert McCullough, ridiculed the proposal as one of the most backward things he’s ever seen proposed by a utility anywhere. He called Hydro the most secretive utility on the continent.
The utility was also opposed by the forestry industry and other business groups, environmentalists and consumers.
It had argued that it needs to hide its production costs to compete in the U.S. market. But Hydro’s critics ridiculed this argument, pointing out that its costs are well-known by U.S. regulators and the utility’s competitors.
The only ones kept in the dark would be Hydro’s own owners, the Quebec public.
The plan was seen as a way for Hydro to end all the embarassment it had to endure whenever the public scrutinized its projects.
Great Whale, for instance, proved to be so costly it could have bankrupted the province had it actually gone through, something Hydro quietly acknowledged this year.
The utility was also taken to task over the costly Churchill Falls II project announced earlier this year.
The squashed plan was part of a new Hydro policy in which a large body of information has been deemed a commercial secret. The utility has refused to release information on water levels in its reservoirs, emergency plans for its dams and other basic information.
The Energy Board accepted most of the arguments marshalled by Hydro’s critics in shutting down the utility’s proposal.
Even since the decision was handed
down, the Quebec government and Hydro-Quebec have been pulling their hair trying tofigure out a new plan of action. A Hydro spokesman passed our request for a commenton to a utility vice-president, who has yet to return our call.
