For the third day in a row, Alberta went into an electrical grid alert on Sunday. At one point it had no contingency reserve left at all, but imports from BC appeared to save the day. While it looked a little hairy there for a bit, there was no emergency alert declared, unlike Saturday.
Did I mention before that Alberta has more coal, oil and natural gas than God? Because guess what? It still does.
Alberta’s electrical grid stood at the brink of blackouts Jan. 13, before pulling back in the nick of time.
It was the second evening in a row Alberta saw “grid alert” issued, but this time, it was a much closer-run thing.
Alberta’s electrical grid was in such peril of falling into rotating blackouts on Saturday night, the provincial government urged people to even turn off their bathroom fans, among other things.
Also, from Western Standard:
STIRLING: When magical thinking meets a polar vortex cold, hard reality follows
Alberta went under grid alert for just under 5 hours on Jan. 12. And yes, the AESO suggested people shouldn’t run their dishwashers. Alberta has more coal, oil and gas than God, because God gave all his to Alberta, and people there shouldn’t have washed their dishes lest the lights go out. That is no word of a lie. I was up all evening monitoring it, as you’ll see in the story.
And all of this is before four million Albertans are forced to buy electric cars and pickups.
Also:
It looks like Trans Mountain might, indeed be allowed to finish the darn pipeline in weeks instead of years. That is, unless they find another hummingbird on the right of way. The Canada Energy Regulator apparently removed its head from its posterior.
Canadian Press story on record cold in BC, AB.
Did you read that in the voice of “Mortal Kombat?”
Steven Guilbeault accuses Danielle Smith of “trying to tear Canada down”
Ask Pipeline Online readers are aware, whenever this minister speaks of such issues, it is useful to provide his entire discourse, verbatim and unedited. Especially the part about the evils of methane from cows. So here it is, as posted on X the evening of Jan. 11, in all 10 parts.
And on a different note, people in the Saskatchewan oilpatch might recognize some names here: Del Mondor, Brad Wall and Myron Stadnyk to be honored at Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in June.
Most of Alberta’s wind fleet slowly shut down Thursday night, but not for lack of wind.
And by 7:28 a.m., as -31 C covered most of the wind generating areas, wind power generation fell to less than 1 per cent, again.
How exactly did Alberta end up with $0 power on Dec. 26? Alberta Electric System Operator explains
Danielle Smith asks ‘Is Canada Broken?’ in a video targeted at Steven Guilbeault’s environmental policies.
Shell is betting heavily on Canadian LNG. Not only is it the lead partner in LNG Canada, it just agreed to buy 1/6 of the offtake from its competitor up the coast.
Shell signs offtake agreement to buy LNG from second BC project
And for a REAL deep dive into carbon tax analysis, a Prince Albert, SK, based economist allowed Pipeline Online to reprint this in-depth report on how the carbon tax affects his SaskPower and SaskEnergy power and natural gas bills. It was originally posted on LinkedIn.
UPDATED: For seven days in a row, SaskPower saw wind generation hit zero for part of the day
The story originally said five days. SaskPower got back to me and noted the streak continued Jan. 7 and 8 as well. So that’s a whole week with wind flatlining. Total, complete flatline for part of the day, each day. How do you power the hospital my wife is an ER nurse at with zero power? Inquiring minds would like to know?
Also:
Weaker oil prices should bring some relief to consumers in 2024: Analysts
and
Quick Dick McDick: Saskatchewan Winterfront Regulation
Bonus points for Quick Dick’s instruction on how to use the box from a Pilsner 2-4 for a winterfront. Nothing says Saskatchewan like a Pil box on your pickup
It’s starting to get cold out. The sun was down and Alberta’s wind power generation fell to next to nothing last night – less than half a per cent capacity.
Meanwhile in Saskatchewan, we’ve had several days of minimal wind power generation.
In other news, they’ve started to bring in floating accommodations for the staff to build the Woodfibre LNG facility.
And Precision Drilling meets debt reduction goal, on track to repay $500 million by 2025.
Has London, England gone stark raving mad? You might ask yourself that from just the first 10 minutes of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s interview with Laurence Fox. Fox had to be careful in what he said, because his bail conditions for tweets, no less, limits what he can say.
Surveillance state, taxing fossil-fuel vehicles out of existence to the benefit of electric vehicles, vehicles for the rich that the poor can’t afford, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, EVs as a form of control – and that’s just the first 10 minutes! If you watch nothing else this weekend, watch this.
Are we going to let this happen here? Ask yourself.
It wasn’t that long ago North Dakota was the second-largest oil producing state. New Mexico has since eclipsed them, and the money is rolling in. What to do, what to do? (Gee, what could we do with more oil production?
Meanwhile, German farmers aren’t taking too kindly to carbon taxes on diesel. But how are they supposed to save the planet and feed the people, too?
Wind power flatlined in Saskatchewan on Jan. 2, after days of strong winds. Flatlined, as in zero power, at night, so no solar, either.
Zero reliability, this wind thing. And I had to start wearing my parka this week, too.
Put our trust in wind, and we’ll all freeze. In the dark.
Also, switching to third person:
Pipeline Online editor and owner Brian Zinchuk is back on the air with CJME/CKOM’s Evan Bray Show. He was on the air for a full hour on Wednesday, Jan. 3. Here’s the podcast of that appearance, including responses to several calls. One was on whether or not the Trans Mountain Expansion will ever be finished. (With the ads and news breaks removed, it’s only 35 minutes).
Why aren’t lithium prices soaring? Pipeline Online columnist and U of R professor Jim Warren wonders.
(On this note, there were several recent developments in the lithium and helium space in Saskatchewan in recent weeks. Watch for upcoming stories.)
And drilling is just starting to get going in the new year, with Just eight rigs drilling in Saskatchewan on Jan. 2
Op-Ed: Ruthless, reckless, damaging: the Hon. Steven Guilbeault is MLI’s Policy-maker of the year. Pipeline Online would agree.
Saskatchewan’s Year in Energy: Premier Scott Moe, 2023: Full Interview
If you didn’t have a chance to see this interview posted in four pieces before, here is the full year-end interview between Premier Scott Moe and Pipeline Online editor and owner Brian Zinchuk
Also, Premier Scott Moe’s social media folks posted the Pipeline Online story about the carbon tax on Saturday:
Saskatchewan families can say so long to paying the carbon tax on home heating beginning on Monday!https://t.co/y2ZC7fLaSN
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) December 30, 2023
That bill there is directly from my father’s Jan. 2023 bill, when the carbon tax was still $50 per tonne. In April, it’ll be $80 a tonne. Without getting into too much detail, the shop that was connect to his natural gas is no longer. Thank God.
It was rather entertaining to read some of the comments, like suggesting my 80-year-old father should pay for upgrading the heating on his home (with only his meager CPP and OAS). Because every 80 year old will see a return in 10 years on such an investment. Certainly.
Another suggested he must be in a high income bracket – nothing could be further from the truth. Or that Trudeau’s climate action cheques must be enough to compensate.
True believers, those.
Anyhow, happy new year, everyone! And if you live in Saskatchewan and have SaskEnergy or SaskPower for home heating, happy no more carbon tax, on that, at least, year!
So long, carbon tax on home heating in Saskatchewan!
And that’s what my dad, an 80-year-old retired farmer pensioner, paid in carbon tax last January, when it was still $50/tonne. And April 1, it will be $80 per tonne. How the hell is he supposed to make those payments on the carbon tax? Just not eat? Thankfully, we removed the shop heating, so that will make a huge difference. Now the neighbour gets to deal with that.
The problem with no one making money is that no one is making money.
Judge rules Ezra Levant’s “Libranos” book was illegal, orders him to pay $13,000
Levant, of course, is appealing. And makes financial appeal, as usual.
I just might have to buy that book. If you’re told it’s illegal, you should probably read it. $7.50 for Kindle version on Amazon.ca