Written by Grant G
"Shock the monkey"
Site C....2 years into a 10 year project and already it's nearly $3 billion over budget..from $8.2 billion dollar budget to a now projected $10.7 billion cost...expect that price-tag to rise to $14 billion...we're only 2 years into this 10 year project..
Why did John Horgan approve Site C?...Sunk costs...BC Hydro rate increases with nothing to show for it....future energy demand...nope, it wasn't any of those reasons...Sunk costs, all in was just over $2 billion dollars....BC Hydro claimed/submitted to the BCUC that Site C remediation would cost $2 billion dollars..that was never challenged...There are experts in the field who say they can remediate the site for $100 million...as of now, only 10% of Site C's land footprint has been cleared....if we used BC Hydro's remediation cost ratio...if 100% of the land was cleared...? would land remediation cost $20 billion?
Data submitted to the BCUC by BC Hydro is not accurate...there was deliberate effort to escalate the "sunk" costs upwards...
John Horgan could have pursued RFP proposals for site remediation...Horgan could have given the BCUC a different set of numbers....The BCUC review was set up to get us to the result we got today...suspending the project was ruled out of the question...BCUC was not allowed to consider the cheapest ways to generate lots of firm power...as in natural gas....Even with the BCUC review set up to fail...their report was still damning, so damning in fact that the big money proponents and lobbyists of Site C challenged the somber BCUC numbers in our MSM...they held pressers and met with John Horgan...they presented alternative numbers weeks before today's decision...yet they didn't present a case to the BCUC at the outset...their attack on the BCUC was through stealth, and it was late in the game...
Site C was never going to be cancelled, I know that now....
John Horgan is completing Site for the same reason Christy Clark started Site C...To lure big LNG to British Columbia...free electricity,..$14 billion Site C carrot power for natural gas frackers...
The same kool-aid.....Horgan is heading off to China in the New Year...number 1 on his agenda.."make a deal with China to buy LNG from British Columbia"
BC LNG is already uneconomical, we are greenfield, no infrastructure in place....For those that say...Supplying power for a nascent LNG industry is a good thing..
They won't pay, if LNG producers, and or LNG exporters added the cost of Site C power to the cost of their end product(LNG) ...once again, it would make THOSE OPERATIONS EVEN MORE UNECONOMICAL!
Should BC Hydro ratepayers be held hostage by natural gas/lng industry..our rates skyrocket so LNG Canada can get free or almost free electricity?..450,000 houses worth of electricity...Site C power is for a specific industry, oil n gas industry...
and it will be the little guys and gals who'll pay through the nose..
Did you read this....
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http://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/site-c/site-c-natural-gas-development-linked-dawson-creek-mayor-tells-horgan-1.23118003
The now $9-billion dam is part of BC Hydro’s Peace Region Electricity Supply project in the South Peace, needed to meet demands from natural gas exploration and development in the region, Bumstead said he told Horgan.
“That’s an important project. If Site C doesn’t proceed, then that project gets redesigned ... and moves supply of power into the region back another few years,” Bumstead said.
“It’s significant to the development of the sector.”
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That's right folks...John Horgan has drank the LNG Kool-Aid..The head of LNG Canada....Andy Calitz, ...He has asked John Horgan to lower BC's LNG taxation framework...Calitz wants all three levels of Governments to lower taxes...and Andy Calitz wants Canada to remove dumping duties it has imposed on South Korea, China and Spain...
Why does Andy Claitz want dumping duties removed? Because, just as Petronas told us...Their proposed Lelu Island LNG plant, an $11 billion dollar build cost...(More on dumping duties in below link)
Of that $11 billion, $8 billion would be spent overseas...mainframes manufactured in South Korea, barged to BC and assembled...in other words..LNG investment in BC is actually investing in South Korea..
Here is Andy Calitz..
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" The biggest hurdle for the project may be the question of tax competitiveness. The new NDP government plans to raise B.C.’s carbon tax from $30 per tonne to $35 per tonne, starting in the spring.
Calitz made it clear that it’s not carbon taxes per se that are the big concern. Rather, it’s the full suite of taxes, from the municipal to federal level, that need to be considered.
“There should be a tax on carbon,” Calitz said. “It’s not the first increment of $5 per tonne that scares me, but somehow we need an indication from the government as to where that will go.
“We need the government of British Columbia specifically, but also the federal government, to take a last look at the fiscal tax competitiveness of Canada for an LNG project.
“This is an important but also a sensitive matter. We do not seek any form of subsidy at all. We pay our full tax burden. One of the conditions of the new government is that there should be a fair return and benefit for British Columbians. We will do that. We need them to look at the full complexity of federal, provincial, local and other taxes that we pay to say, ‘Does this still make sense? Is this still competitive?'”
One of the biggest criticisms from the industry’s standpoint of the former Liberal government’s tax and royalty regime for LNG was a special LNG tax, which companies in regions like the U.S. and Australia do not pay.
Asked if that LNG tax was something LNG Canada needs addressed, Calitz indicated it was."
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Andy Calitz specifically stated that he wanted British Columbia to adopt Australia's LNG taxation model...
Houston, we have a problem...Australia isn't making any money on LNG, big LNG companies have offshored profits and created tax shelters everywhere...Don't believe me, believe this..
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With US$197 billion in market capitalisation, Chevron is the world’s third largest and most profitable Oil & Gas Company – yet, Chevron has:
- stashed over US$35 billion in un-taxed revenues in off-shore accounts
- at least 600 shell companies -and likely hundreds more- registered in Bermuda and Delaware
- set up a new tax scheme, currently being audited, to reduce its tax bill by AUD$35 billion or more
- amassed credits to avoid royalty payments on the Gorgon project, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, for the first 8 years of operation or longer
- had operating revenue in Australia every year since 2011 of over AUD$2.5 billion, but managed to receive over AUD$30 million in tax refunds
Additionally, Chevron’s own annual report reveals that tax filings have not been approved by the United States government since 2008; in Nigeria since 2000; Angola since 2001; Saudi Arabia since 2012 and Kazakhstan since 2007. Chevron is unable to estimate the tax it may be required to pay given the ongoing examinations by tax authorities in countries around the world.
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That is what CEO of LNG Canada wants....Andy Claitz wants the Australian LNG taxation model...Who wouldn't....!
Let me be perfectly clear....If Site C power is going to be consumed electrifying BC's gas fields, in order to launch an LNG industry...then let big LNG pay for Site C...Move all Site C costs from BC Hydro books and transfer that debt to the province...
So there you have it...John Horgan believes he can land an LNG project in BC..all he has to do is offer free electricity...
$12 billion...$14 billion...ratepayers shock..Shock the monkies....John Horgan is heading to China on a LNG trade mission in the early new year...LNG is what Horgan's selling..
Yet...the LNG glut is now expected to go out to 2030....John Horgan is chasing gloden unicorns..
http://www.afr.com/business/energy/gas/lng-oversupply-to-last-until-2027-macquarie-20171205-gzzjw3
China won't buy BC LNG..they'll take it if its dirt cheap....There's a growing LNG glut...only those who can go real low will secure any Chinese buyers...Which means there is no provincial profit to be had..
More LNG glut...This, a brand new up and running for 5 days Russian LNG plant..
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Putin-Inaugurates-27-Billion-LNG-Arctic-LNG-Plant.html
Horgan is racing to the bottom, begging for LNG.....Now, as for Site C...
China won't buy BC LNG..they'll take it if its dirt cheap....There's a growing LNG glut...only those who can go real low will secure any Chinese buyers...Which means there is no provincial profit to be had..
More LNG glut...This, a brand new up and running for 5 days Russian LNG plant..
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Putin-Inaugurates-27-Billion-LNG-Arctic-LNG-Plant.html
Horgan is racing to the bottom, begging for LNG.....Now, as for Site C...
Total Sunk costs on Site C...all in, including remediation...$2.2 billion dollars...not $4 billion dollars...
John Horgan is hoping his Hail Mary LNG pass is caught...
Site C......It's not about powering up BCers...it's about a gift to LNG exporters....
Well Premier John Horgan....
LNG isn't coming to BC....and besides that free Site C power...Andy Calitz wants you to tear-up that BC Liberal LNG taxation framework...remember that LNG taxation model John...Your entire party voted against it...all you NDPers, and many others called that LNG taxation framework...
"A generational sellout" ...here is a BC Liberal describing BC's LNG taxation model...a taxation model that IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR LNG CANADA CEO ANDY CALITZ..
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Martyn Brown: Our children will pay for B.C.’s Petronas LNG precedent
Well, that didn’t take long.
With minimal legislative resistance, the Christy Clark government’s Liquefied Natural Gas Project Agreements Act is now law.
As in Faust, the deal has been done. Only, in the government’s bizarre twist on that legend, the ones who sold their soul pretty much did so without demanding anything at all in return.
Plus, the term of this particular covenant runs for one year longer than Faust’s 24-year pact with Mephistopheles. Which would only be a “win” if the term of that contract had deferred our date with destiny.
Clark’s deal doesn’t even do that. It rather defines our time in purgatory: 25 years, to begin immediately, after each new LNG project is confirmed.
We will all have to pay the big oil companies subsidies for their pollution.
We will be obliged to guarantee them tax credits that are probably too rich and unnecessary.
We will be bound to give them tax rates and tax avoidance measures to which no else is entitled, locked-in for 25 years.
And as a “capper”, we will be forced to absolve them of any higher specific costs that they impose on our environment in intensifying the challenges of climate change.
If that’s our idea of unbridled “worldly pleasure” in a Faustian sense, we really do deserve to be eternally damned for our stupidity.
For a deal that is mostly motivated by corporate greed and the promise of untold wealth for all, the government seems awfully content to rely on Big Oil’s word that the benefits it seeks will flow as it envisions.
“Trust us,” the companies said, “you are going to love the cash we create for your government coffers and the jobs we will create for your families.”
That was good enough for the Clark government, which was far too quick to sign its own name in blood to give Big Oil its insisted dues.
The government dared not demand any hard benefits in return, too scared that their imagined benefactors might lose their patience and walk away. Given what has transpired, I wish they had......(read more at link below)
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So...Site C is an LNG carrot....and considering Site won't be complete until 2025/2026....Andy Calitz has plenty of time to beat Horgan down and get his coveted Australian taxation model..
Nothing ever really is what it seems..nothing is real and all politicians lie....
John Horgan believes his savior from Site C boondoggle is landing a big LNG project....
With Australia's taxation model.....the only ones who'll be needing saving will be the taxpayers of British Columbia ....
The LNG curse continues
One more thing....Justin Trudeau has tag-teamed with John Horgan in that LNG push...
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/12/11/news/environment-canada-touts-good-progress-climate-after-scathing-audit
Justin Trudeau, a fake, a liar, a conman......Paris Accord and pipelines, tarsand expansion, lng expansion....According to Justin Trudeau, our commitment to the Paris accord and fighting climate change involves more Canadian fossil fuels being exported to markets overseas......oh, and as for Kinder Morgan....John Horgan isn't fighting that anymore either....He's made a deal with Trudeau in exchange for fast-tracked wildfire relief money, in fact Horgan has more than one deal cooking with Trudeau...Horgan and Trudeau are attempting to leverage Kinder Morgan bitumen exports to China with LNG from B.C,,,Kinder Morgan is now a go under Horgan...Sorry folks, that's my source, ..look at Trudeau's record on China...he fast tracked that shady Anbang deal...he approved Petronas LNG on the Skeena river estuary (of all the places not to build a plant), he approved Kinder Morgan, which everyone knows the NEB review had a predetermined outcome...Trudeau attended multiple pay to play parties with Chinese influence(rs)....Trudeau is determined to link Bitumen exports to China.... and no, an impending federal carbon tax and a emissions cap for Alberta tarsands, an emissions cap which industry won't reach for over a decade....and when that cap is eventually met...a stroke of a pen and it's gone..no Justin Trudeau, no John Horgan...Those federal measures are not social license to ram a pipeline trough, or permit a LNG plant on a salmon nursery...Sheesh
Here is Justin Trudeau in his pursuit of LNG from B.C. to China
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December 4th/2017....from the Trudeau Federal Government..
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Double trouble coming BCers....Horgan believes he has a political-out on Kinder Morgan.... when construction starts...(talking points are already in place)..Horgan will publicly stomp his feet but behind the scenes he will do nothing that will hinder the project...Horgan's fallback position is, and I quote {Kinder Morgan is federal jurisdiction, we tried to stop it but ultimately is was the BC Liberals fault for not rejecting it earlier..my provincial hands are tied}........Horgan could have halted C...he had all the power.....as for Kinder Morgan?
Imagine that...and no my friends...The date is not April 1st....The date is...
Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss...!
(P.S.....Thanks to the NDP insider who leaked me parts of Horgan's game-plan...albeit a little late, it made connecting the Federal/Provincial dots a little easier)
The Straight Goods
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/12/11/news/environment-canada-touts-good-progress-climate-after-scathing-audit
Justin Trudeau, a fake, a liar, a conman......Paris Accord and pipelines, tarsand expansion, lng expansion....According to Justin Trudeau, our commitment to the Paris accord and fighting climate change involves more Canadian fossil fuels being exported to markets overseas......oh, and as for Kinder Morgan....John Horgan isn't fighting that anymore either....He's made a deal with Trudeau in exchange for fast-tracked wildfire relief money, in fact Horgan has more than one deal cooking with Trudeau...Horgan and Trudeau are attempting to leverage Kinder Morgan bitumen exports to China with LNG from B.C,,,Kinder Morgan is now a go under Horgan...Sorry folks, that's my source, ..look at Trudeau's record on China...he fast tracked that shady Anbang deal...he approved Petronas LNG on the Skeena river estuary (of all the places not to build a plant), he approved Kinder Morgan, which everyone knows the NEB review had a predetermined outcome...Trudeau attended multiple pay to play parties with Chinese influence(rs)....Trudeau is determined to link Bitumen exports to China.... and no, an impending federal carbon tax and a emissions cap for Alberta tarsands, an emissions cap which industry won't reach for over a decade....and when that cap is eventually met...a stroke of a pen and it's gone..no Justin Trudeau, no John Horgan...Those federal measures are not social license to ram a pipeline trough, or permit a LNG plant on a salmon nursery...Sheesh
Here is Justin Trudeau in his pursuit of LNG from B.C. to China
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December 4th/2017....from the Trudeau Federal Government..
- "will be chaired by Natural Resources Canada and the National Energy Administration of China. It will provide a forum to facilitate clean energy solutions, including the transition from fossil energy to cleaner fuels, such as nuclear, renewables and natural gas. Canada and China will seek ways to expand our energy trade (including liquefied natural gas), as well as accelerate commercial progress in our nuclear energy sector, including through the joint development of the Advanced Fuel CANDU Reactor in China and third country markets, and the expanded trade of uranium. The Memorandum of Understanding in the Field of Energy, which Natural Resources Canada and the National Energy Administration of China renewed in June 2017, as well as the Canada-China Track II Energy Dialogue will also be key platforms to advance trade and investment opportunities."
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Double trouble coming BCers....Horgan believes he has a political-out on Kinder Morgan.... when construction starts...(talking points are already in place)..Horgan will publicly stomp his feet but behind the scenes he will do nothing that will hinder the project...Horgan's fallback position is, and I quote {Kinder Morgan is federal jurisdiction, we tried to stop it but ultimately is was the BC Liberals fault for not rejecting it earlier..my provincial hands are tied}........Horgan could have halted C...he had all the power.....as for Kinder Morgan?
Imagine that...and no my friends...The date is not April 1st....The date is...
Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss...!
(P.S.....Thanks to the NDP insider who leaked me parts of Horgan's game-plan...albeit a little late, it made connecting the Federal/Provincial dots a little easier)
The Straight Goods
Cheers Eyes Wide Open
15 comments:
smoke and mirrors a feather in horgans capp.?
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/trade-tribunals-ruling-could-derail-future-of-lng-in-bc/article37300960/
3.85 to 2.85 in 12 months-
http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/natural-gas.aspx?timeframe=1y
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Putin-Inaugurates-27-Billion-LNG-Arctic-LNG-Plant.html
When you have a close call to make, a 50/50 risky’ decision, one that may appear to be no win.. it is best to go with the action that takes the high ground no matter the challenge. Inspire and lead for the right reasons and long term.
This is a cowardly decision. ‘Christy’ Horgan breathes new life into the almost dead SiteC rogue white elephant. A huge disappointment and failure for us and future generations.
This SiteC decision is a continuation, a capitulation to more of the same Christy Pirate BC Liberal (and Trudeau neoliberal) action plan.
This billion dollar boondoggle only supports profits for the select few and and enormous costs for our future. The resulting major pollution and attack on our natural world. Here in BC and every where on our world the living environment is being destroyed t an accelerating rate. So much for profits and a promising future. I do not see much hope. The fix is in and we seem to be racing towards self destruction..
Thanks for all your insight and passion Grant. We need an uprising to take back our sanity and future.
Still reeling over this decision. Politics in this province is a horror show - they look like normal people by day, but they are all marching zombies. Yesterday the truth was revealed. I thought Mr. Horgan looked very nervous and uncomfortable giving the announcement. As well he might. What a rotten day for BC!
Grant, I know from a previous post you were planning to take a vacation from blogging. For that reason, I just want to give a special thanks for taking the time to do this post now as it is a great comfort to those of us left flabbergasted by this awful decision and wondering what the hell happened.
Your work is very much appreciated.
Premier Horgan threw all of us under the bus with this one so I just tossed the NDP under the bus. I have voted NDP in every election since the 70's but no more. This is a huge disappointment and I can no longer support them in good conscious. I thought they were better than this but no longer. I contacted the BCNDP and told them so. What a disgrace.
A former big NDP supporter.
Like JR, I have been a NDP supporter since the late sixties. I contacted the BCNDP a week ago telling them my family support, both financially and at the voting booth would end if they went ahead with this project. Just cancelled my monthly donations and support. This felt worse than losing a election!
Horgan did not drink the kool aid, oh no, he drank electoral hemlock.
The NDP are a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Party all normal before an election but all BC Liberal stupid after the election.
A NDP type has told the "Eye", that Geof Meggs is actually running the party and Horgan is a mere figurehead, over his head in BC politics.
Unwilling or unable to read history, they have just said "fuck off" to their base and embraced the criminal Christi Clark!
I;m afraid this is the end for the NDP as it will morph into a true labour party, supported by the big public unions, but no more.
Mr. Weaver and his Greens, will become the official opposition in the 2021 election (or before) as the Liberals will again run the province for the next 30 years.
The NDP are for all intents and purposes dead, they stand for nothing and they will do nothing; a yesteryear's party fighting yesteryear's problems.
The Green Party has now become he peoples party, with all its warts and abrasions. Horgan has killed the NDP in one fell swoop and the sad thing is, he doesn't realize it yet.
The "Eye has always suspected that the NDP had a Liberal plant, a Quisling, in the NDP hierarchy to ensure bad decisions are made and losing platforms become common place. Take your choice, Horgan himself; Geoff Meggs, Adrian Dix; or Carole James?
Sad to say, my money is on all three Meggs, Dix and James.
Adios the NDP and good riddance!
I'm curious now whether the NDP will also capitulate on electoral reform and whether the fix is already in for the "review" of professional reliance.
https://www.coastclarion.ca/im-extremely-disappointed-site-c-is-a-monument-to-nineteenth-century-technology/
Just so I'm clear on this: BC hydro rate payers and tax-payers are supposed to fund a $10.7 billion (that number keeps growing) dam project, in order to provide subsidized electricity to the natural gas industry for fracking and piping?
Fed Govt is trying to tell us that LNG is a clean alternative to fossil fuels - duh. LNG is a fossil fuel.
See number 7:
https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/12/04/canada-china-joint-statement-climate-change-and-clean-growth
Mr. Horgan also said recently that Site C was for providing capacity for additional renewables (IPPs). Oh wonderful.
I cannot believe that Hogan is so stupid to even think, that LNG would ever happen. Still, I am bitterly disappointed in the go ahead decision. As stated, the costs will balloon to at least 14 billion. They only needed to look at Keeyask and Muskrat Falls. What is wrong with these people. The MSM is already on the offensive. As if they stated any facts in LNG or Site C. What hypocrites.
Off topic in the news today:
"Wild salmon exposed to open-net fish farms are much more likely to be infected with piscine reovirus (PRV) than those that don't have that contact, a new study has concluded."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/new-research-shows-wild-salmon-exposed-to-fish-farms-have-much-higher-rate-of-disease-1.4446839
Thanks Grant for posting on this and allowing comments before taking a well-deserved Christmas break.
What a heart-breaking decision, so stupid and so short-sighted; not governing for "seven generations" at all and betraying the province, their core supporters, First Nations and the environment. There's no way I can vote NDP again or donate or canvass.
After a few days of mulling things over, I wonder if the NDP got snookered by the senior bureaucrats and the Vision Vancouver types who were so liberally (pun intended) recruited into the new governing "elite". An elite who are relentlessly conventional and can't see the forest for the trees.
The financial "justification" for going ahead with Site C is complete and utter bullsh**.
But I could see the senior mandarins and bankers successfully "baffling them (the new NDP cabinet) with the bullsh**" of a supposed downgrade of the province's credit rating.
I still think John Horgan is a good guy and that there are many fine and principled MLAs and Cabinet Ministers.(Although Michelle Mungall and George Heyman leave me cold). And maybe big money influenced the mandarins? I sure hope it is not LNG and/or water for California.
Very sadly I also don't think this terrible decision augurs well at all for tackling the housing crisis, restoring the ALR, protecting the environment or all the other problems besieging our province which need a very strong and very progressive approach a la Bernie Sanders/Tommy Douglas/Dave Barrett.
Andrew Weaver leaves me cold too. I have some hope that Sonia Furstenau has principles, a solid commitment to the environment and political acumen.
off-the-radar
Site C is a drop in the bucket compared to the IPP fraud.
Geez haven't heard much about that from the NDP.
After a lifetime of disappointment we should realize that the left/right paradigm is the real culprit.
A false paradigm that always keeps liars in leadership no matter what color their tie is.
Cheers....
Hi Grant, wondered what you thought of this. Does this sound like what's happening in BC?
From:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-one-belt-one-road-loans-debt-by-brahma-chellaney-2017-01?barrier=accessreg
China’s Debt-Trap Diplomacy
"Through its $1 trillion “one belt, one road” initiative, China is supporting infrastructure projects in strategically located developing countries, often by extending huge loans to their governments. As a result, some of these countries are becoming saddled with debt, leaving them even more firmly under China's thumb.
NEW DELHI – If there is one thing at which China’s leaders truly excel, it is the use of economic tools to advance their country’s geostrategic interests. Through its $1 trillion “one belt, one road” initiative, China is supporting infrastructure projects in strategically located developing countries, often by extending huge loans to their governments. As a result, countries are becoming ensnared in a debt trap that leaves them vulnerable to China’s influence.
Of course, extending loans for infrastructure projects is not inherently bad. But the projects that China is supporting are often intended not to support the local economy, but to facilitate Chinese access to natural resources, or to open the market for its low-cost and shoddy export goods. In many cases, China even sends its own construction workers, minimizing the number of local jobs that are created."
BC keeping the public in the dark?
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