Objections to Proposed Tantramar (Centre Village) NB Gas Plant

                                                                                                                                                September 7, 2025

                                                                                                                                                Fredericton, NB E3G 7S6

Dear Proponents of the Tantramar Gas Plant, Premier Holt, NB Power CEO Clark, NB Power Board members and others:

RE:        OBJECTIONS TO PROPOSED GAS PLANT, TANTRAMAR, NB

I am submitting these comments on the above-noted gas plant. I have forty plus years working in the environmental field, including on climate adaptation. Currently I am on Fredericton City Council, although these comments are mine and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Council.

Were battery storage and demand management even considered in the assessment of alternatives by NB Power? What, except the lack of expertise at the utility, could explain why they were not considered?

The calculations you did for GHG emissions may have shown this gas plant to have the lowest emissions, but that could only be because renewables and storage were not considered. They are by far the cheapest, most efficient sources of energy for the New Brunswick grid. And if the grid isn’t ready—please work to GET IT READY for integrating clean energy. Don’t keep denying that the energy transition applies to everyone else except New Brunswick. This is insulting and dangerous.

Why is New Brunswick always last in adopting cheap, clean energy? All around us Maritime provinces are jettisoning fossil fuels in favour of clean energy sources. Why are we always last? And still NB Power calls itself a “leader.” This is a joke. In signing this contract with an American company NB Power demonstrates its profound disconnect from citizens, trade turmoil or developments in clean energy.

Does NB Power even acknowledge the climate crisis? Are you aware of the International Court of Justice ruling of July 23, 2025 (https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/187/187-20250723-adv-01-00-en.pdf), that states that jurisdictions (including our province) that perpetuate the use, exploration, development, exploitation, infrastructure of fossil fuels may be found guilty of an international crime by worsening climate change? Your lawyers may advise you that this ruling doesn’t apply to your utility, but this would be highly ignorant and negligent. Of course it does. If you feel it doesn’t, kindly explain that position to New Brunswickers as you prepare to import US fracked gas to this province.

Where is demand management in the utility? There is no time-of-day pricing or any evident move to motivate citizens to use non-peak hours to do things like laundry or EV charging. Why? Where is the public education that even municipalities like Moncton are putting on their websites advocating non-peak hour electricity usage? The best way to avoid new infrastructure cost is to reduce load all around NB. People would willingly do this, but we are not asked to (our household does).

New Data Centres that come to NB should be required to generate their own clean energy. The Electricity Act should be changed to lift the stranglehold NB Power has on generation and distribution so that big drains on the system can create and consume their own energy. I understand the rationale for a monopoly, and acknowledge the historic debt carried by the utility. I am also aware that less fortunate New Brunswickers need inexpensive power and cannot continue to shoulder continual rate hikes imposed by their own community utility. But exceptions can be made, and more innovative approaches can help our utility catch up with the rest of North America.

Interestingly, the last (Conservative) Government in NB adopted a “Roadmap” for Energy that did not include this gas plant. Furthermore, if we are to achieve a net-zero fossil free grid by 2035, how does a 40-year lifespan of a fracked gas plant fit into this? The answer is: it doesn’t.

An article (https://nbmediacoop.org/2025/09/02/yes-alternatives-exist-to-more-fossil-gas-in-new-brunswick/) by Tom McLean of Coalition for Responsible Energy NB that appeared in this month’s NB Media Coop critiques this gas plant on the basis that it is unnecessary and an antiquated means of generating electricity. We must simply stop burning things to power our society. It never ceases to amaze me the number of well-positioned politicians and engineers who fail to grasp this concept. Even if the numbers say this gas plant will be beneficial to the climate (over heavy oil existing plants) we should not be relying on the latter to take us into the future.

Finally I leave you with a statement from Bill McKibben (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9MmJkkv780), who has studied solar systems and storage solutions gaining momentum world-wide. McKibben says: “Forty years from now we’re going to run the planet on sun and wind. But if it takes us anything like forty years it’s going to be a completely broken planet that we run on sun and wind. And by broken, I mean, we’re now watching the Jet Stream and the Gulf Stream flicker and falter in ways that are almost unimaginable. The deepest systems of our planet are now beginning to unravel, and we don’t have much time to fix them.”

Thank you.

Margo Sheppard

Fredericton, NB