NB Power VP Brad Coady speaking to reporters during online news conference

NB Power Vice President Brad Coady says he understands that many people in Tantramar are angry about the utility’s plans for a 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village.

“I do sympathize with the anger and I commit that NB Power will continue our discussions with residents in the local area and throughout New Brunswick on what our energy future looks like,” Coady told reporters Thursday.

He spoke during an online news conference about an hour after the provincial Energy & Utilities Board announced it had approved the gas plant project as a financially sound investment that would help prevent power blackouts during periods of peak demand.

“I do want to emphasize that this approval today, while it’s important, isn’t the only approval for the project,” Coady said.

“We still have an outstanding environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval or determination that the proponent is required to get,” he added, referring to the U.S. company PROENERGY which would build and operate the gas plant for 25 years.

When asked for an update on the EIA approval process that the province is conducting, Coady replied that the prospects look good.

“My latest update, which came as early as this morning I might add, was that the proponent (PROENERGY) is on schedule to receive a favourable determination,” he said.

“All the work that they had to do for the regulator will be submitted by the end of day tomorrow, but I request that you ask the proponent for a more precise update than that.”

Future gas plants

Coady also told reporters that while NB Power has signed power purchase agreements for about 700 MW of wind in addition to the 400 MW that already exist, the utility also sees the need for additional fossil fuel turbines to meet power needs after 2030 along with battery storage systems and ways of managing demand.

He said NB Power is looking at sites across the province including the Scoudouc industrial park.

“It could be anywhere, including Scoudouc. More to come on that,” he said.

When asked about the EUB’s sharp criticism of NB Power for not filing documents to show the rationale for its investment in the gas plant project, Coady suggested the utility was following its rules for power purchase agreements which are not capital investments.

“All of our fuel purchases and all of our power purchase agreements follow a different track because these aren’t internal investment decisions by NB Power,” he said.

He added that NB Power is prepared to work with the EUB on how to handle the documentation for similar applications in the future.

‘Fight is not over’

Barry Rothfuss speaking at a recent rally against the proposed gas plant

“I’m obviously disappointed with the EUB decision,” says Barry Rothfuss, executive director of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, which would be only 4.5 kilometres away from the gas plant.

Rossfuss is also one of the founders of the Coalition to Protect the Chignecto Isthmus (CPIC) which argued against the gas plant at the EUB hearings.

“The decision was not unexpected because the EUB was only looking at the prudency of economic expenditures and not looking at the actual prudency of this project in terms of its effects on the environment or public health,” Rothfuss says.

“When it pollutes, it pollutes dirty,” he adds. “There is no peaker plant that operates without public health risks, just do a Google search and you’ll see.”

Rothfuss says the CPIC will continue to fight against the gas plant echoing a message in its news release which suggests the Coalition may ask the courts to review the EUB decision.

“We are exploring all available legal options to ensure that this decision does not stand as the final word,” the release states.

“We remain committed to protecting the Chignecto Isthmus, its people, its wildlife, and the generations of human beings not yet born who will live with the consequences of what is decided in rooms like this one. The fight is not over.”

NB Power ‘rushing’ gas plant

CCNB’s Moe Qureshi speaking during EUB hearings

Meantime, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, which also opposed the gas plant during EUB hearings, says approval of the project means New Brunswickers will be stuck paying costly bills.

“The decision will expose residents to higher power bills, more pollution, and decades of dependence on fossil fuels,” says Moe Qureshi, CCNB director of climate research in a news release issued shortly after the EUB decision.

The release says the plant would be one of the province’s top polluters producing toxins linked to cancer and respiratory diseases.

It accuses NB Power of failing to consider more efficient and cost-effective options such as battery energy storage systems while rushing ahead with the gas plant project to avoid stricter controls on carbon dioxide emissions.

“The federal government published the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) in 2025, which limit the CO2 emissions fossil fuel generators can produce,” the CCNB release states.

“Planned units that have started construction by 2027, however, will not be subjected to the CER until 2050. That means this plant could avoid stricter emissions requirements for decades.”

EUB avoids blame

Jim Emberger, anti-Shale Gas Alliance. Photo: Deborah Carr

In an e-mail to Warktimes, Jim Emberger of the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance questions why the EUB approved the gas plant in spite of the Board’s conclusion that NB Power had abused the hearing process “by filing applications and evidence at the last minute thus unfairly limiting review time needed by both the Board and interveners.”

He suggests that the EUB felt it had to grant regulatory approval on minimal evidence from NB Power.

“One suspects that the EUB, lacking really decisive evidence, acted out of a worry that if the project were denied and a serious blackout occurred later, they would be blamed,” Emberger writes.

“So they accepted NB Power’s questionable arguments as minimally ‘prudent’. But it was obvious that they felt like they were forced into a position and a decision with which they were not happy,” he adds.

“If this project proceeds, the province will be tied for over two decades to fossil fuels and their high costs, supply and price volatility, and climate damage — just as the rest of the world moves away from them.”