BATHURST - Campaign-style rhetoric is heating up over the future of the Dalhousie power plant - and the election is still five months away.

The Minister responsible for northern New Brunswick is taking issue with Opposition comments suggesting the Graham government hasn't done enough to keep the oil-burning generating station running.

Conservative energy critic Paul Robichaud said earlier this week that NB Power and the Liberal government should consider other fuel options besides oil.

Donald Arseneault said that's nonsense.

"For him to have the audacity to say that the government has not looked at the Dalhousie (power plant), it's just pure politics," Arseneault, the Liberal MLA for Dalhousie Restigouche-East, said in an interview.

"My point is, don't start talking about Dalhousie when you are coming into an election time, saying you are going to keep it going."

Arseneault said the government is still hoping to find a buyer for the oil-burning generating station, but that it's not economically feasible for the province to keep it running.

"If it was, then NB Power would be doing it," he said.

The thermal generating station has a contract in place to burn oil until the end of June.

Once an agreement with Venezuela for $20-a-barrel oil expires, the generating station will be too costly to continue operating, according to Gaetan Thomas, the utility's acting president and chief executive. The plant will be run strategically, during periods of peak consumption, to extend its operations for as long as possible.

Robichaud, however, said there are alternatives that haven't been looked at, such as wood products.

"We will do everything that we can to maintain that power generator," he said. "One thing is for sure, with a Liberal government, it will close."

On Wednesday, Progressive Conservative leader David Alward took a similar position.

"It's not good enough to say automatically Dalhousie will close," he told reporters in Fredericton, at a news conference announcing the consultation process that would shape his party's energy policy, if elected. "We need to look at biomass, for example, or maybe natural gas opportunities in the north," Alward said.

"I've said all along to the people of Dalhousie - if it does not make sense from an economic point of view to produce power with petroleum, orimulsion, heavy bunker or pet coke, we need to turn over every other rock to look at other opportunities for Dalhousie."

But Arseneault said the Progressive Conservative's pledge to consult extensively on the energy file, and explore other possibilities for the Dalhousie plant, is a sign the party lacks vision. "He's trying to be everything to everyone, but it's getting to crunch time," he said.

Arseneault said options like pet coke or forestry biomass aren't realistic alternatives for the plant.

"You're going to have to take the wood away from every mill or burn the whole forest to burn a 300-megawatt," he said.

He said that, with a debt of about $190 million and a life expectancy of another 15 years, making a major investment in the plant probably doesn't make economic sense.

Don Desserud, a University of New Brunswick political scientist, said Arseneault's comments are consistent with the Liberals new strategy. "They don't have much right now, but they have to say, we at least will tell you the truth," Desserud said in an interview.

He said the Tories, meanwhile, are trying to capitalize on one of the main criticisms against the Liberals - a lack of consultation.

But that could up hurting them, if they fail to offer viable alternatives. "At the end of the day, what the public really wants are solutions," he said.

NDP leader Roger Duguay said in an interview that it's important to listen to the workers at the plant, many of whom say that there are ways to keep the plant running.

But he also said that NB Power would know better than the NDP whether keeping the plant open is realistic.

Earlier this month, NB Power announced it will be putting the Dalhousie generating station up for sale once its fuel supply runs out, likely at the end of next winter.

The closure of the plant will cut the Dalhousie's $6 million tax revenues by $1.6 million, or about 25 per cent.

The roughly 90 plant workers will be offered positions with NB Power elsewhere in the province.

Published in the NB TELEGRAPH JOURNAL- Friday April 23rd, 2010
Posted April 23 2010, Source ,