COP28: Saskatchewan, and over 50 companies and organizations, will be in the room where it happens
No carbon tax on electrical home heat from SaskPower, says Moe
Wind drops to 0.9% output in Alberta on Thursday. Again.
Shipper costs to rise as regulator approves preliminary interim Trans Mountain tolls
I’ve been on the road, so there’s a whole lot to get caught up on:
Clean Electricity Regulations:
Saskatchewan and Alberta are tag-teaming the fight with Ottawa on the Clean Electricity Regulations. First, Alberta says on Monday it will use its Sovereignty Act (and Guilbeault has something to say about that). Then Saskatchewan names its tribunal panelists to look into the Clean Electricity Regulations and the harm they will do to the province. One of the panelists is Ken From, former CEO of SaskEnergy and occasional columnist for Pipeline Online. Another is former NDP finance minister and deficit-slayer Janice MacKinnon.
Wilkinson says Ottawa has always been flexible on clean energy rules. Yeah, right. A Canadian Press story.
CO2
Oilsands producers confident in their massive carbon capture project.
Pipelines:
Enbridge is finally, really, totally, completely done on Line 3 replacement. Really.
Coastal GasLink pipeline, the one to feed LNG Canada and finally allow LNG exports, has now been hydrotested and is now mechanically complete.
Nuclear, small and large:
Saskatchewan funds the Saskatchewan Research Council getting its first micro reactor. Notably, it’s a Westinghouse eVinci. Who closed its 49% purchase of Westinghouse a few weeks ago? Cameco.
SNC-Lavalin under a new name launches its first 1000 megawatt CANDU reactors.
The biggest opponent to nuclear development in Saskatchewan for decades was NDP MLA and cabinet minister Peter Prebble. Guess who is now complaining about Saskatchewan’s greenhouse gas emissions? – a Zinchuk column
Misc.
A huge change occurred in Saskatchewan media, with the retirement of John Gormley, the king of talk radio in the Land of Living Skies for the last 25 years. His replacement is former Regina Police Service chief Evan Bray.
Lithium in SK, Part 22: Arizona Lithium is running its pilot plant for Torquay project, elaborates on commercialization plans for 2025.
Whatever you have to say about electric vehicles, the phone or laptop you’re reading this on has a lithium battery. And all the services being used to develop this in Saskatchewan are oilfield services companies.
Alberta now has 44 wind farms, and Wednesday night they collectively produced next to no power (posted yesterday, but leads into the next two for context)
On Thursday, Alberta wind power had a hangover and the sun didn’t come out to play
What the Globe and Mail left out in its story on grid-scale batteries in Alberta
Key points:
The last day saw not only wind utterly collapse in Alberta, but solar AT THE SAME TIME, even at noon. And the narrative that we’ll simply build a lot of batteries for when that happens is disproven, as Alberta’s seven batteries only produced a 62 minutes of a wee bit of power all day on Thursday. And over the last 30 days, those seven batteries only produced 265 minutes out of over 300,000 minutes available to them. Yes, you read that right. And SaskPower is spending $26 million to buy one of these batteries. Seriously. It should be online any day.
So why, again, are we throwing away what we know works, natural gas and coal, for wind, solar and batteries? And it’s not even all that cold yet!
Bonus reading:
Alberta now has 44 wind farms, and Wednesday night they collectively produced next to no power. Oh yeah, and the sun wasn’t shining, either. Imagine that.
And in case you missed it, Ottawa can take its journalism subsidies and shove them. Maybe that’s why I’m the only reporter I know of who’s not singing the praises of wind and solar? Will reporters whose salaries are 35% subsidized by the federal government do the same, and question the narrative?
There’s only eight rigs drilling for oil in southeast Saskatchewan right now. A few years ago, that was 30, and before that, 50 or 60. Everyone I ask tells me that no one wants to invest in Canada with the current federal government. This seems to be proof of that.
Here are the second reading speeches on the Saskatchewan bill which basically tells the federal government to F off on the carbon tax for home heating, for natural gas via SaskEnergy. There’s a speech from the government, and NDP opposition.
Mainstream media is dying. Pipeline Online currently has almost 10x as many display ads as the Leader Post Tuesday edition. So the federal Liberals are going to conveniently increase their journalism subsidy substantially, just as an election could happen at any time. Imagine that.
As my own boss, I can tell you, Pipeline Online does not accept any federal subsidies, not will it apply for any.
Which of the other media will say the same?
In August, Steven Guilbeault released the draft Clean Electricity Regulations which mean to remake our entire country in just 11 years.
On Nov. 2, Saskatchewan told them where to go. Today, they said publicly how to get there.
Three stories:
‘It just isn’t possible’ – SaskPower Minister in-depth response to Clean Electricity Regulations.
SaskPower response to the Clean Electricity Regulations: ‘Not possible from technological, financial and logistical perspectives‘
Saskatchewan response to the Clean Electricity Regulations: Unaffordable, unconstitutional and unobtainable.
SaskPower signed a “master services agreement” with Ontario Power Generation and its subsidiary, Laurentis Energy Partners, on Monday, to develop small modular reactors in Saskatchewan. The most likely site is about six miles from my house in Estevan.
Later this morning, there will be a press conference where Saskatchewan lays out its case against the Clean Electricity Regulations. Watch for extensive coverage from Pipeline Online.
The Nisga’a signed one of the first modern treaties in 1999, and is well on its way to making a final decision next year on the development of a multi-billion dollar LNG facility, with the backing of numerous natural gas producers, including Crescent Point Energy. But its neighbouring First Nation, the Lax Kw’alaams, are standing in the way. In the meantime, the world isn’t waiting and another opportunity for Canadian LNG is going down the tubes (posted last week).
Also: Senator Pamela Wallin was doing video interviews decades before Zoom existing. Last week she spoke to Pipeline Online editor and owner Brian Zinchuk regarding electrification, EVs, fuel economy, nuclear power, heat pumps, carbon tax and whole lot more.
Speaking of which, the Epoch Times picked up Zinchuk’s recent column on five year plans for the “Just Transition.” Since that publication’s driving purpose is to fight against the Chinese Communist Party, they might know a thing or two about how five year plans went there.
Before, it was talk. Now, the Saskatchewan government takes action on home heating carbon tax.
Trudeau continues on his billions for batteries announcement track. This time, Maple Ridge, B.C. Maybe he ran out of places in Ontario and Quebec?
And Greta pleads not guilty to protest-related charges. Because of course, she did. Everything she does is for the good of the planet, after all.
Unions? What unions? The “Just Transition” legislation talks about unions in the oilpatch.
The problem is, except for refining, oil sands and big inch pipeline construction, unions are all but non-existent in the oilpatch. But hey, the legislation also includes five year plans, with the exact implications of what that means. Total transformation of the economy.
If only we had completed some LNG terminals by now.
Also, why are hardly any drilling rigs working in Saskatchewan?
Federated Co-op Ltd. and AGT Foods hold open house on hydrogenated renewable diesel refinery and canola crush plant to be located on the north end of Regina, adjacent to the oil refinery.
Conservative Natural Resources Critic Shannon Stubbs, Part 2: Is the Impacts Assessment Act Bill C-69 really dead?
Pipeline Online did In depth interview with the woman at the centre of the carbon tax storm, Conservative Natural Resources Critic Shannon Stubbs. This is part 1.
Also, hope for rising oil prices to lead to an increase in activity were dashed, so one of Saskatchewan’s serial entrepreneurs relocated one of his operations, based in Regina, to North Dakota, instead. Anyone care to guess why Canada’s oilpatch didn’t see an uptick in activity, and does it rhyme with “Doh?”
If you weren’t paying attention, they’re going through the floor in recent days.
Cameco closed its purchase of 49% of nuclear reactor company Westinghouse. So if Saskatchewan chooses to build Westinghouse reactors, is that “buying local? even though those reactors were never designed here, nor were any of those parts made here, either?