Hydro Project Not Clean Energy

SYDNEY, NS – In a few days’ time Bruno Marcocchio will begin a long and treacherous 2000 km drive north to Happy Valley – Goose Bay from his home in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Marcocchio will be hazarding the long wintery road solo in his 1995 Ford Escort.

Marcocchio, who has been active with Sierra Club Canada (SCC) since 2002, has volunteered to act as intervener on behalf of SCC at the upcoming Environmental Assessment Hearings concerning the proposed Lower Churchill Hydroelectric megaproject. The hearings will take from March 4th until April 16th, 2011.

“The proposed Project is not clean, not green and not needed,” says Marcocchio, who has been working to stop the dam since its announcement in 2008. “The UN World Commission on Dams has stated that large scale hydro is not green energy.”

John Bennett, Sierra Club Canada Executive Director says: “Bruno is someone you can count on… He is a meticulous researcher who marshals arguments like a lawyer. He’s outspoken with a quick wit and a big vocabulary. He is a force to be reckoned with”.

As for Marcocchio, he hopes “…to convince the panel conducting the hearings that this project is destructive, unnecessary and bad economics.”

Using a poll conducted Federal M.P. Todd Russell, Marcocchio will also make the case that the project is unwanted. “We will urge them to reject this project,” said Marcocchio. “It’s clear that the people of Labrador don’t want it.”