Federal government again said it will help make hydroelectric project stable, but offered few details Stephanie Tobin · CBC News · Posted: Dec 17, 2020 11:32 AM NT | Last Updated: December 17, 2020 The federal government is again saying it will take steps to make Newfoundland and Labrador’s Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project financially stable — including waiving immediate payments
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PG&E bills to rise over $160 per year on average to fund wildfire risk reduction, SFGATE
Roland Li • Dec. 4, 2020 | Updated: Dec. 4, 2020 7:49 p.m. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will raise rates by an average of 8% for residential customers to fund improvements to reduce wildfire risk. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the rate hike, which is set to begin in March, on Thursday. Households are
MORE »Researcher raises Muskrat methylmercury alarm, but Nalcor contractor says levels safe, CBC
1 year after Muskrat reservoir filled to capacity, biologist says no surprises being found Terry Roberts · CBC News · Posted: Nov 24, 2020 7:00 AM NT | Last Updated: November 24, 2020 There’s mixed messaging emerging from the debate over methylmercury contamination in Labrador, with a U.S. researcher again raising the alarm about the toxic organic compound, while a contractor monitoring the
MORE »How PG&E Is Racing to Improve Safety as Fire Season Approaches, New York Times ($)
The utility, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, is upgrading power lines, trimming trees and making other changes to prevent another big fire. By Ivan Penn • Photographs by Jim Wilson NAPA, Calif. — Atop an electrical pole overlooking grapevines, Pacific Gas & Electric recently installed a piece of equipment that will allow it to quickly turn off power to
MORE »4 Things PG&E Must Do to Survive and Thrive as It Exits Bankruptcy, Greentech Media
California’s largest utility has escaped from bankruptcy after 18 months. Its next challenges are the same ones that put it there in the first place. Jeff St. John • July 02, 2020 Pacific Gas & Electric has officially ended its 18-month bankruptcy. Now it must undertake a years-long effort to prevent a repeat of the disasters that pushed
MORE »PG&E, Troubled California Utility, Emerges From Bankruptcy, New York Times ($)
The company, which has a new board and chief executive, said it had put $5.4 billion and its stock in a trust for victims of wildfires started by its equipment. By Ivan Penn • Published July 1, 2020 | Updated July 28, 2020 Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility, emerged from bankruptcy on Wednesday and put $5.4
MORE »Final report from Muskrat Falls inquiry released to the public, Globe and Mail ($)
Holly Mckenzie-Sutter · The Canadian Press · Published: March 10, 2020 | Last Updated: March 11, 2020ST. JOHN’S, N.L. The commissioner leading an inquiry into the troubled Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project says past provincial governments failed to protect the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. In a scathing report made public Tuesday, provincial Supreme Court Justice Richard LeBlanc concluded the government
MORE »PG&E reports $3.41 billion spend with diverse suppliers, WBEC Pacific
San Francisco, California (March 2, 2020) — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) announced on Monday its annual diverse supplier spend of $3.41 billion last year or 41 percent of total procurement. This is the eighth straight year the company’s diverse spend reached greater than $2 billion and the seventh straight year it exceeded 40
MORE »Ottawa to renegotiate terms of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Muskrat Falls deal, Globe and Mail ($)
Bill Curry & David Parkinson · Published February 10, 2020OTTAWA AND TORONTO The federal government will restructure the terms of its support for Newfoundland and Labrador’s controversial Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, as the province scrambles to protect ratepayers from a crippling spike in electricity rates stemming from the project’s cost overruns. Ottawa and the province announced Monday
MORE »As megaproject nears completion, methylmercury concerns at Muskrat Falls linger, Global News
By Holly McKenzie-Sutter · The Canadian Press · Posted July 30, 2019 12:57 pm The $12.7-billion Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam in Labrador is finally nearing completion, billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. But as the public is offered a final say at inquiry hearings Tuesday night in St. John’s and Aug. 8 in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, the
MORE »Weighing the methylmercury risk: What researchers say about country food, CBC
Bailey White · CBC News · Posted: Jul 26, 2019 7:00 AM NT | Last Updated: July 26, 2019 When the Muskrat Falls reservoir is flooded next month, people who harvest food from Lake Melville will have to make a decision. Should they keep the same eating habits they’ve always had, and risk consuming higher levels of methylmercury? Or,
MORE »Nalcor’s $10M deal with NunatuKavut hammered out in a page and a half, CBC
Bailey White · CBC News · Posted: Jul 24, 2019 2:56 PM NT | Last Updated: July 24, 2019 It took fewer than 300 words to cement a deal that will see Crown corporation Nalcor transfer $10 million to the NunatuKavut Community Council, an Indigenous group in Labrador. The page-and-a-half long agreement stipulates the council use the money to fund
MORE »Premier Dwight Ball defends decision to carry on with Muskrat Falls megaproject despite ballooning costs, Globe and Mail ($)
Holly Mckenzie-Sutter • The Canadian Press • Published: July 4, 2019ST. JOHN’S, N.L. Newfoundland and Labrador’s Premier says the joy of his 2015 election victory was short-lived as he began to realize the dire financial situation brought on by the Muskrat Falls hydro megaproject’s runaway costs. Liberal Premier Dwight Ball took the stand Thursday at the public inquiry
MORE »United Nations calls for methyl mercury mitigation at Muskrat Falls, The Telegram
UN special envoy on human rights calls on federal government to review methylmercury mitigation efforts David Maher · Published: Jun 07, 2019 at 9:15 p.m.ST. JOHN’S, N.L. The United Nations has called on the federal government to “prevent the release of methylmercury” at Muskrat Falls. Baskut Tunach, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and hazardous
MORE »Contested Muskrat Falls methylmercury recommendation could cost $742M, CBC
Environment minister says government reviewing report from committee established after hunger strikes Daniel MacEachern · CBC News · Posted: Apr 11, 2018 1:15 PM NT | Last Updated: April 11, 2018 One of several new Muskrat Falls recommendations has given the Newfoundland and Labrador government a tough choice. The government can remove soil from the project’s reservoir to help keep methylmercury levels
MORE »Advisory committee recommendations about Muskrat Falls deserve action: chair, The Telegram
Important to spread message Lake Melville area fish, seal safe to eat Ashley Fitzpatrick · Published: Apr 08, 2019 at 9:52 p.m.ST. JOHN’S, N.L. Premier Dwight Ball is preparing for a meeting with Indigenous leaders to discuss methylmercury and the recommendations of the Independent Expert Advisory Committee (IEAC) for the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project. The Telegram was
MORE »How PG&E Ignored Fire Risks in Favor of Profits, New York Times ($)
By Ivan Penn, Peter Eavis and James Glanz | Graphics by Keith Collins and Jugal K. Patel • March 18, 2019 Tower 27/222 looms almost 100 feet tall in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a hunk of steel that has endured through 18 United States presidents. The transmission lines that it supports keep electricity flowing to
MORE »Even as Trudeau Reaches Out to First Nations, Mercury Rises, New York Times ($)
OpinionOP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Stephen Marche · New York Times · Nov. 27, 2016 Billy Gauthier, an Inuk artist who lives in Labrador on Canada’s remote northeastern coast, began his hunger strike on Oct. 13 after a plate of salmon. The meal was highly symbolic. The Nunatsiavut government in Labrador had released a study from a Harvard mercury researcher on the effects
MORE »Canada’s Big Dams Produce Clean Energy, and High Levels of Mercury, New York Times ($)
By Ian Austen • Nov. 10, 2016 OTTAWA — Protests. Hunger strikes. Sit-ins that disrupt construction. At the immense Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam project in a remote and rugged part of Labrador, the indigenous people who live nearby have been raising louder and louder alarms. But it is not about the dam itself. The controversy is
MORE »How Dams Risk Poisoning Indigenous Diets, The Atlantic ($)
A new hydroelectric facility in Canada could push dangerous amounts of methylmercury into communities that rely on seafood. Joshua Sokol · November 9, 2016 On October 13, Billy Gauthier, an Inuk sculptor in Labrador, Canada, uploaded a picture of what he called his “last meal” to Facebook. It showed the split head and tail of a smoked
MORE »Indigenous leaders tell Muskrat Falls protesters to ‘go home’, Globe and Mail ($)
The Canadian Press • Published: October 26, 2016ST. JOHN’S, N.L. Indigenous leaders and the Newfoundland and Labrador government are telling protesters at the site of the Muskrat Falls hydro project they can “go home.” The leaders emerged from a marathon meeting with Premier Dwight Ball early Wednesday touting significant progress made to address environmental concerns with the
MORE »Scientists back Inuit in efforts to limit mercury poisoning risk from Muskrat Falls hydro project, CBC
Agreement between N.L. and Inuit leaders a victory for ‘evidence-based decision-making,’ geographer says Sheena Goodyear · CBC News · Posted: Oct 26, 2016 4:56 PM ET | Last Updated: October 26, 2016 An almost two-week occupation at the site of a multibillon-dollar hydroelectric project in Labrador is winding down after Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball vowed to make all future
MORE »Methylmercury levels expected to rise at Muskrat Falls reservoir: Nalcor, Globe and Mail ($)
The Canadian Press · Published: October 19, 2016ST. JOHN’S, N.L. Methylmercury levels are expected to rise in the reservoir created by construction of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador, officials with Nalcor Energy confirmed Wednesday, saying local residents can eventually expect an advisory warning them to limit their consumption of fish. The prediction came
MORE »Inuk artist on hunger strike to push for clearing of Muskrat Falls reservoir, CBC
‘Without Lake Melville, my family couldn’t have survived in this area,’ says Billy Gauthier CBC News · Posted: Oct 14, 2016 12:47 PM NT | Last Updated: October 14, 2016 An Inuk artist from Labrador says he’s going on a hunger strike until Nalcor commits to fully clearing the Muskrat Falls reservoir. Billy Gauthier ate what he
MORE »N.L. promises to re-examine Muskrat Falls reservoir clearing as Indigenous groups push for change, CBC
Muskrat Falls will ‘lose everything’ if initial flooding doesn’t proceed as planned: Environment Minister Bailey White · CBC News · Posted: Oct 04, 2016 8:28 AM NT | Last Updated: October 4, 2016 After months of protest from Inuit and other Indigenous groups over Muskrat Falls flooding — including a demonstration this past Monday at the construction site — the province’s minister of environment
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