Climate Politics
Big Power Shortfall Looms After Quebec Wooed US With Cheap Hydro
Surging demand may spur producer of North America’s cheapest electricity to build more dams, risking ire of environmentalists
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The region that produces North America’s cheapest power faces a threat that seemed impossible just a few years ago — running short of electricity.
Quebec spent years working to convince US states to buy its abundant clean energy, only to realize now that it won’t be able to produce enough electricity by harnessing the flow of moving water. That creates a conundrum for the Canadian province: build more dams that could reshape pristine rivers and slash swaths of forests — an environmentally damaging process that would boost hydropower supply — or temper economic policies that pin its prosperity on the resource.