Tag: climate change

Carbon tax, round ??? Fight!

Conservatives blast pro-carbon price economists as ‘so-called experts’ It doesn’t cause inflation, didn’t you know? Then why were my groceries yesterday 40% more than 2020?

Meanwhile, the carbon tax fight is heating up as the price is about to go up, again, on April. 1, fittingly April Fool’s. Conservative premiers are lying about carbon pricing: Trudeau, while Moe addresses Commons committee.

 

Sorry I didn’t have time to dig into this one myself. Not enough hours in the day. After all, I had to spend half an hour at Sobey’s on Wednesday pointing out to my 17-year-old son how prices of soup, meat, green onions and the like have gone up 40% in the last four years. In the end, a cart which wasn’t even full cost $300, whereas in 2020 it would have cost closer to $210 or so. I kept asking, “And who do we blame for this?”

What do you think the right answer was?

Also, for your reading pleasure:

 

Carbon tax, carbon tax, carbon tax

Leader of the Opposition Carla Beck during Question Period on March 4. Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

Guilbeault calls Saskatchewan premier ‘immoral’ for breaking carbon-price law.

Estevan MLA Lori Carr tries to show a difference between Sask Party and NDP on carbon tax in statement.

Premier Scott Moe during Question Period on March 4. Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

That statement was referenced in the exchange between Scott Moe and Carla Beck in Question Period on the federal carbon tax. The NDP thinks Saskatchewan should have negotiated a carve-out deal.

About that walk in the snow… SaskEnergy minister takes a walk in the rain

Justin Trudeau may not have taken a “walk in the snow,” like his father did 40 years ago on this day, but Dustin Duncan took a walk in rain in front of Parliament, and decides we’re not remitting carbon tax to the feds. 

This is the guy who, by a recently passed law, gets to be sacrificed on the cross for our carbon tax sins.

(The decision was clearly made before, but it makes good political theatre.)

No forecast for snow in Ottawa today, unfortunately. Maybe the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change changed the climate?

 

Alberta’s going all-in on its sovereign wealth fund

Danielle Smith

Danielle Smith goes all-in on revitalized sovereign wealth fund for Alberta. Saskatchewan had one, once, but that was 32 years ago. Details in story.

Quick Dick McDick: Climate Cult Megaspecial You gotta be $#!++!\ me

He even references “climate cult,” my favourite SDA category!

CJME/CKOM radio host Evan Bray visits the Estevan coal mine, and much learning ensues

I’m trying. I really am. But they make it so hard sometimes…

Brian Crossman

Brian Crossman in Pipeline Online: “I am. I’m really, really trying. I had a bit of a rough year health-wise, which of course leads to over-thinking your place in the world. So, I thought I would try to be a better person. You know, be nice to strangers, try harder at all the important things, do better at being charitable. But the biggest change I wanted to make was to quit complaining about, berating and outright insulting our political leaders.”

The nuclear renaissance coming to Saskatchewan

Weekend Watch: Juice: Power, Politics & the Grid

 

This video series is a spectacular take on many of the energy issues of the day. It starts with the February, 2021, Texas blackouts, and goes on to tackle renewable power in the form of wind and solar. It doesn’t speak too fondly of coal, but goes broadly into the adoption of nuclear power. Canada and its experience with nuclear figures heavily into this series, including the influence of Dr. Chris Keefer, a Toronto ER physician who had lead the crusade to bring nuclear power back to the fore. And the series gets into why nuclear all of a sudden is in a renaissance after decades of being in the dumps.

This applies directly to Saskatchewan, where just last week, SaskPower inked a deal with GE Hitachi Canada to continue the development path of small modular reactors. And in that press conference, SaskPower president and CEO Rupen Pandya, when asked by Pipeline Online how many reactors we’re going to build, said Saskatchewan’s grid is expected to grow from 5,400 megawatts currently to 13,000 to 15,000 megawatts by 2050. That’s about 2.5x what it is now. And nuclear appears like it’s going to play a huge part in that. So the issues presented in this series are very topical for this province.

Juice really highlights a lot of the issues Pipeline Online has been focusing on for the last two years. In particular, reliability trumps all, and wind and solar can only be relied upon to be utterly unreliable.

I strongly suggest anyone in the decision chain of Saskatchewan going nuclear – all MLAs, including cabinet and opposition, all executives, board and management of SaskPower, and union leadership and membership, take the time to watch this at some point in the near future. This is the reality Saskatchewan is rapidly heading towards.

This series was put together by Robert Bryce and Tyson Culver. Bryce one of the most astute energy analysts out there. You can follow his Substack at https://robertbryce.substack.com/

This was originally a feature, but broken up into manageable chunks and posted for free on YouTube. Each episode is around 22 minutes long. It’s definitely worth watching all five. All five videos are in the story link above.

What ‘doubling the electrical grid’ really means

This is what the Boundary Dam to Regina transmission line looks like currently. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
And this is what the Boundary Dam to Regina transmission line would look like if the grid were doubled. It’s a lot easier to Photoshop than to build. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

 

Brian Zinchuk: Imagine twinning every highway, grid road, street and alleyway across the country in 25 years. Because that’s what doubling the #grid is going to be equivalent of.

Notley takes credit for getting rid of coal power, days after the lights almost went out

After a weekend of power shortages, Notley takes credit for getting rid of coal-fired power and building wind and solar. Because of course she did. Not sure when it was filmed, but there wasn’t a hint of shame that she was largely the cause of what happened over the weekend.

 
Also: Brian Crossman: Magic Eight Ball prediction edition for 2024. “Will the current Prime Minister continue to be a dumpster fire?” “SIGNS POINT TO YES.”

Pour on a little more coal, boys!

Boundary Dam Power Station last night

The past weekend proved to be a close-run thing for the Alberta electrical grid, and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is making statements resolving he won’t allow that to happen here.

Specifically, after having nearly completely divested itself of coal-fired power production, Alberta’s dramatic buildout of wind and solar proved impossible to keep the lights on in that province when the chips were down and temperatures hit -35 C, or worse.

Alberta’s close brush with possible rolling blackouts stiffens Moe’s resolve to keep the lights on. On Monday, he announced that SaskPower has relit a shuttered coal unit near Estevan, one the feds had supposedly forced to retire Dec. 31, 2021.

Also note: Saskatchewan has about a million cars registered. So a good bet is Alberta probably has four million. What would have happened if four million EVs were all plugged in last weekend?

If you missed them, these five stories, in order, chronicle what happened in Alberta.

Most of Alberta’s wind fleet slowly shut down Thursday night, but not for lack of wind

Grid Alert 1:

Alberta goes under grid alert for just under 5 hours on Jan. 12

Grid Alert 2:

Alberta’s electrical grid stood at the brink of blackouts Jan. 13, before pulling back in the nick of time

Grid Alert 3:

Alberta goes into Round 3, with its third electrical grid alert in three days

Grid Alert 4:

Round 4: Alberta declares fourth electrical grid alert in 4 days, second in 17 hours

Friday night was a rough one for Alberta’s power grid

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.

Methane fees in US.

Round 2 – Fight!

Hans Gruber or Steven Guilbeault? Can you see the difference?

 

Did you read that in the voice of “Mortal Kombat?”

Wayne Rooney Mortal Kombat GIF - Wayne Rooney Mortal Kombat Finish Him GIFs

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.

Alberta’s wind power sputtered to next to nothing Sunday night, again

Wind turbines near Pincher Creek, Alberta. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

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. 

Oil windfall in New Mexico, carbon tax farmer revolt in Germany

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 zeros out on Jan. 2 in Saskatchewan. As in nothing. Zip. Nada.

Final assembly of a wind turbine near Assiniboia, Sask., on Jan. 7, 2021. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

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).

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