Brad Wall: Just how disfunctional Canada has become
And for those hating on the IEA:
Kaase Gbakon: IEA’s Mission Drift: A Review of Barrasso’s Report
Pipeline Online editor Brian Zinchuk will be on CJME and CKOM’s Evan Bray Show at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
Alberta’s last coal plant shuts down, and days later, a grid alert is declared.
Oh, and that new grid-scale battery that SaskPower just went $10 million over the initial announced price on – Alberta has 10 (albeit a different manufacturer). Three haven’t lit a light bulb since March, and they were no shows on Monday.
But that’s okay, the Pembina Institute wrote a piece celebrating the end of coal, which they strongly advocated for over many years. They published it two days before the grid alert.
And it’s going to be hot two more days in Alberta. Anyone want to make a bet there will be more grid alerts?
Again, Alberta has more coal, oil and gas than God, because God gave all of his to Alberta. For that province to ever be running short of energy is a result of sheer incompetence at the top. And Saskatchewan is following that path – shutting down coal, building more wind, solar, and now batteries. SaskPower has had announcements for all three in recent weeks. Will I be writing about Saskatchewan grid alerts, because we failed to heed what is happening west of us?
Are multi-laterals the next big thing in oil? Saskatchewan bets heavy on it with new incentive program. This is the largest change in oil royalties in decades, as the government hopes to incentivize activity and production. It’s a big shift for a government that for its entire 16 years in office said it wasn’t touching a thing when it comes to royalties.
Let me put this into perspective – for the several years Bill Boyd was energy minister, he always gave the same speech, which basically went like this: “The premier has told me to say thank you. Thank you for the jobs, thank you for the taxes, thank you for the royalties and investment. And we’re not touching a thing when it comes to royalties.”
Usually whenever someone mentions royalty changes, it’s with the intention of raising them. This is the opposite, providing a royalty incentive – NOT a holiday – to get more activity and production going.
Brian Crossman writes about hiring young people in the oilpatch. There’s different expectations today. But really, this applies to all sectors, methinks.
A while back he wrote this column about work ethic, which is the best I’ve seen. I frequently quote it to my own kids, one of whom is in the trades and one will be going into the trades.
Feds “focused on targeting the shutdown of a complete industry, regardless of whether they’re going to meet their emissions targets or not,” says Saskatchewan Premier Moe in Dubai
Pipeline Online speaks with Premier Scott Moe at conclusion of Dubai COP28 trip. (Another reporter asked questions, too, like do you believe the planet is warming…?
Federal and Nova Scotia governments kill offshore petroleum project in name of “clean energy”. No more gas development. Don’t even try. But wind? You betcha.
And here’s an analysis of why. It has a lot to do with the fact Nova Scotia can still pay for its hospitals with natural gas money, just natural gas produced in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And it has more to do with Guilbeault announcing a defacto production cap by banning venting and flaring.
And along the topic of the undead, the federal regulator still isn’t done with stretching out the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline. What’s another $200 million per month delay?
As a side note, two years ago I ran into the consultant whose job it was to shut down, abandon and clean up this project. He was the company man looking after the drilling of the first lithium well in Canada, near Torquay, Saskatchewan. I never got around to writing a story about it, dammit. Not enough hours in the day.
And if anyone feels like asking CJME/CKOM why Zinchuk isn’t scheduled to do his regular energy spot the first Wednesday of the month, as he did with Gormley:
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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.
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.
It was a full year ago when the Saskatchewan First Act was introduced and then brought into law. But now the provincial government is going to use it to fight the federal government’s climate change initiatives on Clean Electricity Regulations, Clean Fuel Standard, and an incoming emissions cap for oil and gas.
And here’s why:
Another day of near-flatline wind power production in Alberta on Wednesday. 13 of 38 wind farms produce 1 megawatt, or less (as in zero) for 24 hours. Several of those had capacities in the 100 to 200 megawatt range. And all the got was one, for a few minutes at a time.
And despite renewables clearly failing miserably, as noted above, Canada needs to move faster on renewable energy, Jonathan Wilkinson says.
There were some other energy issues raised in Wednesday’s Throne Speech.
Right side of history: Two protest leaders from 2019 truck convoys react to “No More Pipelines Act” ruling.
But is that going to stop Steven Guilbeault from moving to cap oil and gas emissions? Hell no.
With brownouts a possibility, Texas issues another electrical grid alert on Tuesday, its second in three days. Alberta issued one yesterday. These are the most energy-rich places on earth. What is going on?
UPDATE: 3:08 p.m. Aug. 29.
At 2:25 p.m, the Alberta Electric System Operator has not yet issued a grid alert on this date, but put out a tweet alluding to one, imploring Alberta citizens to reduce power consumption.
It’s still hot out there! Do your part to conserve electricity during peak demand, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., to reduce strain on the grid. Find out more. https://t.co/H3xXXvV4Ou pic.twitter.com/8HcRtNelCb
— AESO (@theAESO) August 29, 2023
Don’t use that dishwasher! Alberta under another “grid alert” as #wind bottoms out, again, on Monday. This happens just a day after Texas issued an almost identical alert, and for the same reasons. Hot weather, no wind, power reserves dwindling…
Are the federal Clean Electricity Standards, brought in by Steven Guilbeault and Jonathan Wilkinson, impossible to meet? Pipeline Online asked SaskPower.
“The CER would require SaskPower to effectively rebuild our entire power system, through retiring the majority of our existing generating units and replacing them with new, ultra-low emitting units or non-emitting energy sources, while also growing the system to support expanding electricity needs that are expected to support growing demand for clean electricity for industrial needs, transportation, increased customer participation and other needs.”
First Germany comes to Canada, looking for LNG (liquefied natural gas). Then Japan. And we have nothing to give them. Why?
Justin Trudeau. That’s why. And his merry band of anti-energy protestors and ministers.
While the US has moved fast and hard to get LNG export facilities in place over the last decade, Canada has dragged its feet and stubbed its toe. We let protestors (Coastal GasLink), provincial governments (Quebec) and the federal government (Energie Saguenay) get in the way. Now, while the world is crying for LNG from Canada, we have nothing – NOTHING – to give them.
What else would you expect from a government who killed the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines? That scared off Teck from its $20 billion Frontier oil sands project? That hardly whimpered when Biden killed Keystone XL?
The only way this will change is if we have a change in government in Ottawa, and a change in attitude in this nation. We can’t be Can’tada any longer. The world needs us.
Alberta’s electrical grid, with 3,618 megawatts of installed wind generation, was getting just 19 megawatts from wind at 7:26 a.m. on Wednesday. This is after several grid alerts in late November and throughout December.
Rob Morgan, president and CEO of Strathcona Resources, grew up in Saskatoon and went to chemical engineering at the U of S. He cut his teeth in the Lloydminster oilpatch, and is now running one of the largest oil produces in Saskatchewan. Strathcona bought Serafina Energy this past year, and has substantial activity north of North Battleford. The Patchwork Podcast on Pipeline Online goes deep with Morgan, who sees a long future for oil and gas.
Last week’s Crown Land Sale revealed a sixth entrant in Saskatchewan’s lithium race.
Prairie Lithium is the acknowledged leader in that race. Here’s how it started.
Again and again and again, Alberta’s wind power totally collapses to effectively zero. It got really low at supper on Tuesday, dropping to around 15 megawatts, which is pretty much nothing since their nameplate capacity has grown, again, now to 3,076 megawatts.
But by 12:30 a.m., it dropped to just 3 megawatts. That’s out of hundreds of turbines costing many billions of dollars.
Oh, and you have to look at how much the $100 million or so worth of batteries have contributed in the last month. Take a guess.
But hey, Microsoft just signed on to buy a whole schwack of wind power. Does your Azure server rely on Alberta wind?
Here’s a deep dive interview with the minister behind the Saskatchewan First Act.
“So let’s take let’s take the power thing first of all,” Eyre said, noting the proposed Clean Electricity Standard, if adopted in its current form, would mean no fossil fueled power generation in this province by 2035.
According to SaskPower’s Where Your Power Comes From website, on any given day, coal and natural gas combined provide 65 to 84 per cent of the power in Saskatchewan. On Nov. 6, it was 77 per cent.
Eyre said, “That’s a federal policy which we hope will never see the light of day, but which is moving along. We will freeze in the dark. And we know that. Saskatoon (is) powered by the Queen Elizabeth, a natural gas-powered power station. The entire City of Saskatoon (would be) in huge trouble.”
They’re going to double wind and solar capacity. But on Oct. 3, all our wind produced just 7% of its capacity.