Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is calling for a comprehensive provincial environmental impact assessment (EIA) of a proposed natural gas power plant in rural Tantramar.
“This is a huge project, and it needs to be taken seriously,” says Mitton. “There are environmentally significant areas involved. There’s water, air pollution, in addition to the province being responsible for the issue of greenhouse gas emissions,” says Mitton.
Hear the full, edited interview with Megan Mitton here, starting off with how she first heard about the project.
“I want in-person, public consultations in the area,” says Mitton. “We need to make sure that there’s adequate time for meaningful input from people who would be impacted by this project… to consider all of the different potential impacts.”
Mitton attended information sessions hosted by the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, and was left thinking “a lot of studies, a lot of research hadn’t been done… It’s really super preliminary, and so we would need a whole lot more information and study, and again, proper consultations.”
A spokesperson for the provincial department of environment says that the current provincial EIA will involve a technical review committee, “comprised of subject matter experts and specialists from provincial, federal, and local governments.” By email, spokesperson Vicky Lutes said the project “proponents are also required to conduct a public engagement program” as part of the process.
“The EIA review is underway, and no decision will be made until all relevant technical issues raised by the Technical Review Committee, First Nations and the public have been addressed,” wrote Lutes.
According to the province’s website, comprehensive EIAs happen less often than the more common determination review, which is now underway. Comprehensive EIAs take place “if the Minister suspects project impacts may be significant or decides that more study is needed to further assess these impacts,” reads the website.
Mitton says she first heard that the natural gas plant project was being planned for rural Tantramar on the morning of July 14, when someone sent her a press release from NB Power announcing the “Centre Village Renewables Integration and Grid Security Project.”
“I had this brief moment when I read the word renewable, where I thought there’s going to be a renewable energy project in our riding,” recalls Mitton. “And then I was quickly disappointed that actually, no, they’re building a fracked gas plant in our riding. It turned from, you know, a moment of hope to being not just disappointed, but frustrated and appalled.”
Mitton says she doesn’t quite buy the reasons given by NB Power to justify the construction of the ten-turbine gas power plant, namely that its needs to fill gaps in intermittent supply from planned future renewable sources, and that it can help provide grid stability through ‘voltage support’.
Mitton says she would like to see NB Power’s analysis of alternatives like battery storage, which she says is an option to be used with solar and wind. “Solar and wind with battery storage is becoming cost competitive, if not cheaper, than using natural gas,” says Mitton.
The MLA cites a recent UN report, “Seizing the moment of opportunity: supercharging the new energy era of renewables, efficiency, and electrification”, which makes the case that global trends around renewable energy, including falling costs as supply increases, will need investment and support in the coming decade.
“We have other ways to do this,” says Mitton. “We can look at storage. We need to improve the grid. We need to improve energy efficiency and focus on renewables. We can’t lock ourselves into at least 25 years more of burning gas.”
How much gas will the new plant burn?
Representatives of project proponents PROENERGY Canada have said that the plant may only be burning natural gas about 7% of the time, and the rest of the time it would have turbines spinning under electrical power to add inertia to the grid.
But with NB Power citing capacity needs, and a grid interconnected with both PEI and Nova Scotia, Mitton says she has a hard time believing the plant would only generate electricity 7% of the time.
“That doesn’t make sense to me,” says Mitton. “This is the type of infrastructure that costs money, and they’re going to want a return on their investment.”
“They will have an incentive to, basically, burn the gas and pollute in Tantramar, and sell the energy across the [provincial] border,” says Mitton.
“I just don’t buy that they’re barely going to use it,” says the MLA. “I don’t think that’s accurate. And again, they’re locking in for 25 years.”
Constituents ‘shocked’ by proposal
Mitton says that the federal impact assessment process for the project, which on Friday extended the deadline for public comments to August 13, is happening too quickly and in a way that minimizes participation. “It’s problematic that it’s in the middle of summer,” says Mitton, “and I think there are going to be people who come back from vacation and say, wait, what happened?”
The federal impact assessment is also limited in the scope of issues that may trigger a more thorough process.
Mitton says she’s heard from many of her constituents who feel “quite shocked, like this came out of left field.”
“Some people are worried about how this is going to affect their well water or the air, because they live near it. There are people who are extremely concerned about how this seems to disregard the science in terms of the climate crisis,” says Mitton. And there’s neighbours like the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, “talking about how this is an important area for wildlife connectivity between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.”
Mitton says she’s also heard concerns about the fact that PROENERGY is an American company, and the natural gas to be used in the project comes from American sources, via the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline.
She says many constituents are upset about the potential 25-year deal, “while we’re in the middle of an economic trade war with the United States.”
The MLA says she has yet to hear from constituents in favour of the project.
Along with her call for a comprehensive provincial EIA, Mitton says she wants NB Power to share more about the economics of the project. “We know solar and wind with battery is becoming cheaper than gas, and so I’d like NB Power to really, you know, show the receipts… Show their analysis of battery storage and show how much this is going to cost New Brunswickers.”
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