Premier Tony Wakeham admits there is a cost to NL gaining access to U.S. energy markets, but he considers gaining that access – which had previously been denied – a major victory.

Questions have been raised about what it means for Newfoundland and Labrador and how the province will benefit.

It’s one of the provisions included in the latest agreement reached on Churchill Falls hydro development.

“There are some transmission costs that are always part of these things, but we have the right to transmit through both the New York line and the other line into New England. In the past there was always a thing where…we’re selling power at one price and Quebec is making huge profits off it, by selling it elsewhere. We’re going to get the same price that Hydro Quebec gets, so that’s all the workings inside this deal.”

Premier Wakeham says the power is being sold through CF(L)Co, of which Quebec owns one third. He says everything sold through the marketplace is negotiated, but the modeling put forward in the latest agreement “shows exactly what we’re getting as a province.”