The ever suspicious Everwind

 Dear Premier Houston - emailed Mar 27

I lived in Newfoundland during the Sprung Greenhouse scam. I am naturally suspicious of folks like your Australian private equity wizard. Private equity is the source of many of today's woes. 

I heartily recommend Robert B. Reich's recent memoir "Coming up Short"  He is a brilliant man, a succinct and clear writer, a Rhodes Scholar, an economist who worked under several US administrations and was a much beloved university teacher (Harvard, Brandeis and Berkeley). His memoir tells in plain English what has happened to the US in the past decades and brought on this ruin. He also knows what needs to be done to restore trust in governments and make capitalism work for the many and not just the few. Aggressive deregulation has lead to many disasters (like 2008 etc), and increasing wealth gap which is leading to increasing anger, instability and divisiveness.  Angry people are easily swayed by demagogues.  He believes public education is the greatest asset a country can have, and speaks of he career as a teacher the highest point in his life. 

I, too, want Answers to Becky Druhan's Questions* 

Druhan: 
One of the businesses receiving cheap access to billions of litres of Nova Scotia water is EverWind. EverWind also received hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in federal funding. They have exclusive use of Nova Scotia crown land for a processing fee of under $1,500 and as a green hydrogen proponent, they stand to benefit from the $3.6 million earmarked in this budget to power our future. Despite all of this, the minister of Energy has said very little publicly about EverWind but we do know they’ve met multiple times, including over dinner and at the private residence of Everwind’s ultra high net worth New York based investor. So I’m wondering, can the Minister of Energy tell Nova Scotians what was discussed at those meetings? 

Lohr: 
Well, we continue to work hard in the energy sector. We continue to do many different things. We have programs for consumers. We’re working to secure Nova Scotia’s energy sector. We’re working in the solar sector. We’re working in wind. We’ll continue to do all those things in the energy sector.

Druhan:
So many questions, so few answers. EverWind was also granted crown land rights in Newfoundland for a similar project. There, they were required to pay a fee equivalent of 3.5% of the market value of the land. But after failing to advance the project and failing to pay their bills, EverWind is now being pursued by the Newfoundland government for the recovery of millions of dollars. Green hydrogen is a high risk early stage sector. 

If Nova Scotia can deliver on this great hope, I will be thrilled. But the job of our energy minister is  to make informed and responsible decisions to protect Nova Scotians, not to build a plan on hopes and wishes in New York dinners. So can the minister tell Nova Scotians what protections he has put in place to ensure that taxpayers won’t be left footing the bill like Newfoundland is now? 

*  as reported in the Halifax Examiner