NS Power considers legal action against Venezuela company

Nova Scotia Power is poised to take legal action against Venezuela's state-owned coal company after it abruptly cancelled a coal contract with the electric utility, says NSP president Ralph Tedesco. Tedesco told a Halifax newspaper editorial board yesterday his utility, a subsidiary of Emera Inc., received a brief letter from the company last year saying that it was no longer honouring its coal deliveries to NSP for 2008. 'The letter we received from the coal company is quite concise -- about three lines,' Tedesco said. 'The first one begins, 'The contract is no longer in our interest.'' The deal with Carbozulia was for 750,000 tonnes of coal, which represents about eight per cent of NSP's coal requirements, he said. The company made public the cancellation of the contract last month when it released its first-quarter results, which also revealed record-breaking profits of $57.9 million.