Academics from across the province have called on Premier Susan Holt to immediately suspend the Tantramar gas plant.
The letter, signed by 130 academics and released on February 7, also called for NB Power to issue a call for tenders for an electricity battery storage project, and to redirect investments towards renewable energy solutions and energy efficiency
Mario Levesque, a professor of Canadian Politics and Policy at Mount Allison University, was one of those who signed the letter and hopes it sends a clear message to the premier.
“For the actual letter in here, it’s to say ‘hang on Madame Premier and the government, the scientific community is not behind you on this at all.'”
The letter came just two days before the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board was set to begin week-long hearings in Moncton into the proposed Centre Village plant.
It says the project “appears to be scientifically, environmentally and economically nonsensical.”
For Tim Reiffenstein, associate professor and current department head of Geography and Environment at Mount Allison, it was an easy choice to add his name to the long list of other academics against a project he says has plenty of problems.
“I see a number of things that are wrong with it and I question NB Power in particular.”
Part of that questioning has to do with a lack of trust in NB Power, said Reiffenstein, as well as something else the letter points out— both the company Pro Energy and the gas, which will power the plant, come from south of the border.
But he also sees that American connection as a potential way to get out of the project, he said.
“Read the room. The timing of it at a moment when even former Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying we need to reduce our dependence on the United States, I think there’s a very easy out saying ‘actually, we’ve changed our mind about this.’”
Levesque also has little faith in the power utility due to its lack of transparency and accountability.
“To be truthful, I wouldn’t trust NB Power to run a lemonade stand, let alone what they’re charged with in this process” said Levesque.
While he may not be entirely hopeful the project can be stopped, he knows from experience it can only happen in one of two ways. One is to get the active participation of Indigenous and First Nations communities. The other is to get loud.
“Just make as much noise as possible all over the place to publicize the incompetence and ineptitude of NB Power in this process.”
Read the full letter and list of signatures here.
