Large industrial companies in New Brunswick are making a push to exit the N.B. Power grid and generate their own renewable electricity in a move the utility says could leave other ratepayers facing higher bills. The request — delivered publicly by J.D. Irving Ltd. to a committee of MLAs last September — has now earned the backing of the province’s Liberal natural resources minister. John Herron says high power rates threaten the future of forestry jobs and if companies can generate their own cheaper electricity, the government should remove the legal barriers that now prevent them from doing so. …In December, N.B. Power signed an agreement with J.D. Irving to buy 200 megawatts of power a year from its Brighton Mountain wind farm, the company’s first venture into wind energy. …Irving Pulp and Paper vice-president Mark Mosher said “Our ultimate goal is to get into the wind business to feed our own internal operations.”