The Clean Electricity Standard discussion paper, released a little over a year ago, says, “A Canada-wide CES will complement carbon pricing by requiring the phase-out of all conventional fossil fuel electricity generation.”

And “Regulations to limit fossil fuel generation must be decisive and swift enough to prevent locking in new fossil fuel infrastructure that will persist beyond 2035.”

Also “As natural gas currently plays a critical role in the electricity sector by providing fast-response power, exploration of the continued operation of natural gas assets in special circumstances may be needed. This includes providing flexibility to essential uses of natural gas, such as for emergency events, back-up power to complement variable renewables, and potentially supplying power during seasonal peaks of demand.”

But I asked federal Minister of Natural Resources about this twice between Wednesday and Thursday, and got a different response. He appeared to be open to the continued usage of natural gas power generation, as long as it was coupled with carbon capture. This is a huge deal for Saskatchewan and Alberta, but means expensive CCUS schemes. It could also have national unity implications. Steven Guilbeault even threatened Scott Moe with jail time.

He even said coal with CCUS would be allowed.

Did the feds just blink?

And note: the morning of Wednesday, Alberta’s 3618 megawatts of wind power was producing 3, less than one-tenth of one per cent.