Saskatchewan making bank when Alberta’s wind output bottoms out, again. Alberta’s practice of buy high, give away low, happens again. Next to no wind all day and pathetic solar output team up to cause sky-high prices in Wild Rose Country.
Also: Whitecap plans 141 wells in Saskatchewan in 2027
And if you didn’t see this one coming: Liberals vote to keep B.C. tanker ban in place
Coal injunction dismissed by Court of Appeal, another defeat for the climate crusading counselor. A five-time failed political candidate, this lawyer repeatedly has tried to use youth and an “eclectic crew,” as one judge called it, to achieve with the courts what he has failed to at the ballot box.
Also
Exploratory licenses take off in October Crown land sale
Jim Warren: China’s solar energy myth: Environmentalists and journalists aren’t telling the whole story
First of all, I’m not endorsing this video. There’s a fair bit of hyperbole. But it is also a very interesting perspective on the current trade war between the United States and Canada.
Weekend Watch: The US-Canada War has begun
Additional weekend reading:
Jim Warren: It’s kinda hard to worry about the climate when Trump’s trade war might put you out of work
Officials break ground on massive carbon capture project in central Alberta
Not sure if I posted this earlier in the week:
Pipeline Online Podcast Ep. 42: Chris Beaudry, Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and Resources. Topics include ongoing trade war, pipelines, Venezuela, and growing Saskatchewan oil production. Beaudry will be speaking at the upcoming Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show in mid-September.
NDP release Pembina Institute paper on costs of coal refurbishment, but the paper leaves out a lot of context. The report puts a lot of faith in wind and solar, but real world examples over the last two weeks bring that faith into doubt. Using the scenarios the Pembina Institute outlines in the report quoted by the NDP, on Aug. 12, Saskatchewan would have run out of batteries six times in 24 hours.
And just after I finished writing this at 2 a.m., I got an email alert that Alberta wind generation fell to less than 1 per cent output, again. But they have no use for baseload power. Good grief.
Mark Carney’s video: Forward Guidance: Canada’s Energy Future
If you listen to the end, you’ll hear Carney essentially say Trudeau’s policies don’t work today.
The World Turned Upside Down: Coal workers go to Legislature to take issue with NDP’s stance on coal
In the musical Hamilton, there’s part of a song that goes, “The World Turned Upside Down.” And one could be forgiven for thinking that, when it comes to politics, unions, and power generation in Saskatchewan.
In subsequent press scrums, 26 union members from two unions stood behind the SaskPower minister, but none stood behind NDP SaskPower critic.
NDP calls for apples-to-apples comparison, but when that’s done, their coal costs mirror the government’s
Usually when the public galleries of the legislature are filled with union members, it’s almost always because they’re not happy with the government. But on May 11, 26 union members and two mayors were there not to take issue with the government, but with the opposition.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers respond to NDP coal position: “A deliberate misrepresentation of costs”
It turns out if the NDP wants your job to disappear, they don’t get your support. Imagine that? As in, if they want your house to lose half or more of its value, you to lose your job, and would rather spend money on gas from Alberta or wind and solar, what would you think?
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Wait, isn’t this how it was done before?
Feds want pipeline projects reviewed by energy regulator instead of impact agency
Also
Pipeline company Enbridge unfazed by rival oil shipping projects
IBEW 2067 reaction to NDP power plan: Come down to Estevan and Coronach and tell us about it
The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party has been taking its “Grid and Growth Plan 2026” on the road, promoting their new electrical grid strategy in Prince Albert and Yorkton. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2067 would like to see them do the same in Estevan and Coronach, and see what reaction they get.
I’m sure a few hundred coal workers who would lose their jobs and possibly their homes would be happy to have that discussion.
I spent 11 hours working on this story, which I broke into four parts. These are the first two, the next two will come out early next week.
The NDP again want to see coal-fired power go away, “as practical.” The want to convert coal plants to natural gas, even though Saskatchewan has lots of coal but not much in the way of natural gas anymore. We drilled ten gas wells over the last decade, and Alberta did that many by noon today.
There is of course the obligatory massive buildout of wind and solar, and storage. And just coincidentally, three hours after the press conference, wind output in Alberta fell to next to nothing, again.
Digging deep on the NDP’s “Grid & Growth” plan for Saskatchewan’ electrical grid, Part 1
NDP want to increase net-metering rate
Also:
Jim Warren: A History of Oil Production and Price Crises 1973-1991
Three in-depth pieces on coal-fired power today:
NDP say coal refurbishment will double electricity rates by 2050, prefer natural gas and renewables instead
NDP analysis of coal refurbishment and its impact on rates, in depth
SaskPower Minister responds to NDP study on refurbishing coal and its impact on rates
In cased you missed this major related story on Monday:
BREAKING: Data centre hinges on dispatchable baseload power, including coal refurbishment
I would like to point out that the Leader Post, CTV and CBC failed to mention, or perhaps even realize, that it will be coal powering that new data centre in Regina. Where did they think that power is going to come from? I know! Solar, at night!
Weekend Watch: Is Canada Wasting Its Energy Advantage? | Doomberg on Oil, LNG, and the Pipeline Future
There’s some pretty good discussion about Saskatchewan at the 30 minute mark.
Also, from Canadian Press: Carney says Qatar will make ‘significant’ investments in Canada’s major projects.
At least Carney isn’t dressing up in local dress like Trudeau did in India. Take that for what you will.
Michael Zwaagstra: Your home should be your castle
Oh, and it turns out Climate Change you-know-who has a book about her time in government. And it turns out the implementation of the carbon tax, and the home heating oil exemption, was not all it was cracked up to be. Who woulda thunk it?
The Coal Injunction, Part 4: Affidavits of a Manitoba activist farmer and a Saskatoon environmental podcaster
Okay, I can see the very much adult Saskatoon podcaster having some standing. She is at least and adult and in Saskathcewan, so likely uses power SaskPower produces. But if she lives in certain parts of the city, she could actually be a Saskatoon Light and Power customer.
The National Farmers Union activist farmer, on the other hand, is neither a Saskatchewan resident nor a SaskPower customer, unless he has a very long extension cord from east of Winnipeg to Moosomin.
The Coal Injunction, Part 2: Arguments against continued coal use made in injunction filings
A 12-year-old child, a podcaster and a Manitoban as well as Saskatchewan Environmental Society and Citizens for Public Justice have filed for an injunction to stop Saskatchewan’s recently announced plants to rebuild its coal fleet in its tracks. In Part 1, the stage is set. In Part 2, Pipeline Online digs into the legal filing, known as the “orginating application,” itself, laying out their arguments to end coal-fired power generation for good.
Pipeline Online does one of its deepest dives yet into the injunction application meant to shut down Saskatchewan’s coal-fired generation fleet, just as this province begins its rebirth. At stake are 1100 jobs, billions of dollars, and keeping 44% of Saskatchewan’s lights on. And just who gets to govern around here, anyhow?
I spent five days working on this five part series which starts Monday. The Saskatchewan Environmental Society and Citizens for Public Justice have put forward a 12-year-old non-binary child from Regina who has been in national headlines now three times in two years (attention seeking, perhaps?) as the Saskatchewan version of Greta Mark II as part of this. And be forewarned, the lawyer who did that said that if anyone said nasty things online about the child he put forward, there could be legal consequences. Is he using the child as bait? I dig into this in Part 3.
The other inviduals are a Saskatoon environmental podcaster who is taking a poli sci degree in her 50s. And the third is a Manitoba farmer who neither lives in Saskatchewan nor is a SaskPower customer.
And it was only at the end of this process I realized the lawyer filing the case has run unsuccessfully for office five times. Is he trying to accomplish through the courts what he failed at the ballot box?
This is lawfare, pure and simple.
I’ll have a piece each day. Watch for it and share if you’re willing.
Quick Dick McDick says the canola tariffs just cost his farm $100,000 overnight. Want to know what he thinks about that? That’s just ONE FARM, by the way. Just one.
I am working on a major five-part series to run next week on the efforts by some activists to use a court injunction to block Saskatchewan’s coal revival efforts before it even gets going. Among them is a Greta Mark II, a 12-year-old non-binary child who has been in the headlines at age 10 for the pronoun issue, then at age 11 for skipping school because of climate anxiety. Another doesn’t even live in Saskatchewan. You can’t make this up. As a prelude to that series, read Bronwyn Eyre’s column on judicial activism and lawfare. It ties directly into this coal injunction nonsense and is a good primer for what’s to come.
Pipeline Online Podcast: Aleana Young Ep. 15: Would the Sask NDP reverse the coal decision? And what about nuclear?
It was a pretty lively and interesting podcast.
And here’s the minister’s response to this text story: Coal Revival: Would the NDP reverse the coal decision? And why are they now big on nuclear power?
Minister’s comments:
Coal Revival: Harrison says NDP will shut down coal plants immediately if they were to form government.