The $1.5 billion Maritime Link proposal to bring Labrador hydro power to Nova Scotia cleared two final hurdles on Friday, getting a thumbs up from both Utility and Review Board and a formerly hostile provincial Liberal government.

The URB hurdle was cleared only after the provincial regulator essentially rewrote a market Energy Access Agreement (EAA) between Emera and Newfoundland utility Nalcor.

Creatively, the board ruled the energy agreement would be interpreted to reflect all the verbal commitments and representations made by utility officials at the board's hearings, so that Nova Scotia Power ratepayers are financially protected from any risk of the deal not performing as advertised.

"In any issue related to cost recovery from ratepayers by NSPI," the board said, "the EAA will be interpreted in light of these representations and clarifications."

If the final agreement were different, the testimony provided by officials in response to the concerns expressed by the board and by hearing interveners would prevail when determining what NSPI could recover from ratepayers.

"NSPI bears all the risk that the EAA will be applied or interpreted in any way inconsistent with the Board's findings in this Decision," says Cheap Jerseys From China the ruling.

The URB will also continue to supervise NSPI decisions to buy or not to buy Nalcor's surplus "economy" energy under the deal just as it supervises all NSPI fuel and energy purchases under the existing Fuel Adjustment Mechanism.

The FAM process ensures customers pay no more, or no less, than the actual cost of fuel or purchased energy. The nfl jerseys china board can penalize the utility (and has) if it makes imprudent purchasing decisions.

And that process will now apply to NSPI decisions to buy or pass on the market energy Nalcor is required to offer Nova Scotia each year.

The board's decision also lifted the Link over its second hurdle. The new provincial government, which Cheap NFL Jerseys rejected the original project terms while in opposition, wanted eight conditions attached if the URB approved the EAA.

Energy Minister Andrew Younger said yesterday the government "feels the eight conditions are fully met" by Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping the board's decision.

"I'm satisfied ratepayers are protected and the risk is shifted to Emera and Nalcor," he told reporters Friday.

In a later interview, Mr. Younger said the province's legal advisers felt the board's safeguards went beyond the government's request because "everything they (the proponents) said in the hearings is part of the decision. That's huge. There is no wiggle room. We're happy with that."

The minister says his attention will now focus on discussions with Ottawa to minimize the risk Nova Scotia taxpayers would bear in relation to an indemnity agreement attached to the federal loan guarantee for the Maritime Link.

Ottawa Wholesale Basketball Jerseys wants the province to agree to be financially liable if any future provincial decision negated the regulator's approval and increased the risk of a loan default. Mr. Younger would like to build in some protection for Nova Scotia taxpayers, such as a consultation mechanism under which Ottawa would give early warning of any concerns about provincial measures that could impact the loan guarantee rather than demanding the province honour the indemnity with little notice. Given the huge potential liability here, such a crisis prevention clause is an excellent idea.

But the complexity of the Link agreements and Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale the approval process make it a hard sell for many Nova Scotians.

Last July, the URB gave conditional approval for the deal, under which Nova Scotia ratepayers will receive 20 per cent of the output of the Muskrat Falls hydro plant in return for covering the $1.5 billion cost of the Link subsea cable.

The board said this deal would only meet the approval test of being the lowest long term green energy option if Emera and Nalcor could guarantee access to enough additional market priced energy, surplus to Newfoundland's needs, to create a favourable blended price. The URB made approval of the Link conditional on the partners providing this guarantee. The EAA was their complicated response.

Not only the Liberal government, but a host of other interveners, including the board's consumer and small business advocates, argued that response fell short of the guaranteed access to market energy that the URB wanted. Critics were worried the guarantee of an average annual offer of 1.2 terawatt hours could be frontloaded, leaving nothing for later years. There were concerns that ratepayers would not be fully compensated when Nalcor exercised an option to interrupt a sale and re supply it later, that NSPI could not re sell any contracted energy if it overestimated its requirements, that the board couldn't audit Nalcor's supply forecasts and that dry weather or Newfoundland's needs could override Nova Scotia's access for years at a stretch.

Basically, however, the hearings forced the proponents to advance detailed solutions to all of these concerns, undertakings that satisfied the board. And it is those undertakings that the board has entrenched in its decision.

Rather than adding more conditions of its own, it has taken the wise course of ensuring that the proponents will have to make good on their own words, and bear the risk of that, as the ultimate condition for the deal.