As promised, here is the federal Conservative response to the Natural Resources Committee just transition report. They want to expand oil and gas, not make it go away.
The “just transition” report is nothing short of the utter transformation of Canada
Entitled “Creating a Fair and Equitable Energy Transformation,” The 56 page report outlines nothing short of the utter transformation of Canada, its economy and workforce, by way of transitioning away from fossil fuels to a largely electric economy, with the possibility of hydrogen usage as well. In doing so it means to largely do away with the fossil fuel industry which is one of Canada’s largest industries and contributors to GDP, exports and wealth. The report provides recommendations as to what to do with the people involved in that industry, but not so much the companies who employ them, create those jobs or that wealth.
On Thursday, I’ll have the detailed Conservative response from MP Shannon Stubbs.
Movin’ on up!
Believe it or not, there are successful oil companies growing substantially in Saskatchewan.
Also, Quick Dick McDick goes branding. This video has way too much about prairie oysters. Way too much.
How could you possibly drive Alberta into the rhubarb like this?
Only sheer and utter incompetence at the top could result in Alberta again issuing electrical grid alerts. It did so again Wednesday afternoon. In November-December, it issued five alerts in three weeks.
And Saskatchewan is continuing down this path.
Wind collapses across everywhere SaskPower is connected to
Wind power collapses across the central US, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba at the same time Wednesday morning. That’s 1100 miles north south, and 700 miles east west in the Canadian prairies.
Flooding fouls coal power station, shutting it down just as hot temps put pressure on Saskatchewan grid
Flooding shuts down major coal power station at Coronach, leaving SaskPower scrambling to backfill its nearly 600 megawatt output and shed load internally. This was the story promised yesterday.
Reliability of the electrical grid is everything.
Without it, nothing else matters.
I wrote this column nearly two weeks ago, and only shared it this morning. But it turns out this is playing out in real time, as I’m working on a big story about how SaskPower’s Poplar River Power Station is down, thus putting us out nearly 600 megawatts. This happened just as demand is spiking for air conditioning due to +30 temps this week. As a result, SaskPower is scrambling to reduce its internal demand, doing something called “load shedding.” Watch for that story once I’ve got it together.
Passing of a Southeast Saskatchewan oilfield legend
A few years ago the Weyburn Oil Show Board created a new honour called Southeast Saskatchewan Legends. There are a number of people who, over several decades, were key players in building the Saskatchewan oil industry. Many of them started and operated not one, but several oilfield service companies, and coincidentally, almost every single one of them farmed on the side. You could call them “serial entrepreneurs.”
Ron Wanner of Estevan was one of the first to be honored as a “Legend,” back in 2017. He started wheeling and dealing surplus oilfield equipment, and ended up having a trucking company, an oil company, a drilling rig and a service rig company. He passed away a few days ago. He also had a policy of buying long-term employees their own vehicle after a certain number of years. I remember around 2010 he bought a Hemi Challenger SRT/8 for the engineer who successfully built his oil company from nothing. This is his obituary, as published in Pipeline Online. They don’t make many like Ron Wanner anymore.
Newfie oil – delays and conversion
Geez, wonder who the federal government likes best? Federal government gives $86 million to convert Newfoundland oil refinery to biofuel.
And you know it likes Newfoundland because when they wanted to open up a major new oilfield, the federal Liberal government bit their tongue and said, “Sure!”
But now Newfoundland will also got a taste of what Alberta usually chews on – delays on energy projects. The Bay du Nord sailed through federal approvals (sailed – see what I did there?) , only to find out that Norwegian proponent Equinor is going to delay it three years. Didn’t they know the federal government is supposed to delay oil projects three years, not the oil company?
For the fourth time in 16 days, Alberta’s wind power drops to near zero output
One more time, Alberta’s wind power generation collapses. You’d think this was a feature, not a bug?
Cenovus CEO: Without cheap, abundant, affordable energy, life is brutal. Life is short
The new CEO of Cenovus, Canada’s second largest oil producer and Saskatchewan’s largest (after they bought Husky during the COVID pandemic), tells it like it is. There’s a healthy dose of reality in his comments, but Cenovus is also leading the charge for carbon capture in the oilsands. He also likes the idea of nuclear reactors usage in the oilsands.
Quick Dick McDick tells Steven Guilbeault to get bent
Saskatchewan’s own Quick Dick McDick offers his take on federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault. He talks about the implicit threat of criminal sanctions for keeping the power on, and how Guilbeault should know a thing or two about wearing handcuffs. Quick Dick picks up on a lot of the stuff I’ve been writing about recently.
Keep the Lights On session comes to an end
The Saskatchewan Legislature ended its 2022-23 session on Thursday. The very first bill was about keeping the lights on, and the very last debate was also about keeping the lights on. This was the keeping the lights on session.
Moe comes to Estevan to explain its power generation future
This past week the Saskatchewan government spent a lot of time on power generation and this “Net Zero by 2035” idea the federal government is trying to force upon the provinces.
This is the “energy transition” decision making in real time, folks. The impacts are enormous for this province, which is why I’ve been hammering these stories so hard.
The week summed up with Premier Scott Moe coming to Estevan to explain to local officials what the provincial government’s plans are for power production. For generations, Estevan has been home of the highest concentration of power generation in this province. However, the addition of multiple gas plants and wind facilities has largely diluted the percentage of power from Estevan. But as the province is clearly indicating a move towards nuclear, Moe all but said that Estevan will be home to some of the first small modular reactors. Pay attention to how he corrects himself from saying “nuclear” to “small modular reactors.” In this video, Moe addresses many of the concerns I’ve been raising over the last 17 months. As for adoption of nuclear – if future Saskatchewan governments follow Moe’s lead, this won’t be a small thing. Twenty years from now, as all our coal is retired and as older natural gas plants also reach retirement age, it looks like Saskatchewan will be moving to a largely nuclear grid for baseload power. And when Moe says baseload, he repeatedly refers to 80 per cent of the grid. That’s a lot more than four reactors down the road. That’s a sea change.
There’s also response from Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig on what this all means.
We’re going nuclear, but will handcuffs be involved if we keep burning coal?
Regarding this impending Clean Electricity Standard, which would force a massive energy transition in Saskatchewan in just 12 years:
Without committing to nuclear, Saskatchewan is pretty much committing to nuclear
Asking Scott Moe: What if the feds order power plants be shut down, and the Supreme Court backs them?
It turns out Steven Guilbeault has an answer for that: He said burning coal would be a violation of Canada’s Criminal Code. So will the feds be arresting the premier, SaskPower minister, SaskPower CEO, coal miners or power plant operators? All the above? And will they be arrested the same way Guilbeault was, when as a Greenpeace protestor, he scaled the CN Tower?
Saskatchewan will not attempt the impossible regarding Net Zero by 2035
Saskatchewan will not meet Net Zero by 2035, but will aim for 2050. Here’s a lot more depth than you’ll find from any of the other Saskatchewan media. And there’s more to come regarding what this means for federalism. Follow up story is about how we’re going nuclear.
SaskPower’s billion dollar bet on carbon capture pays off, for the US, at least
Nine years after SaskPower pioneered carbon capture on coal, the US intends on adopting it wholesale. Now, if only the Canadian federal government would get behind it, especially when it comes to enhanced oil recovery.
You get carbon capture, and you get carbon capture …
When the SaskPower Boundary Dam 3 carbon capture project opened in 2014, nobody followed. The tech looked doomed as recently as a few months ago. On May 11, the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed that all coal and most natural gas power plants have carbon capture applied by 2038, or shut down.
Interestingly enough, last year, when I asked Crown Investments (and SaskPower) Minister Don Morgan if we would be doing any more carbon capture on coal, he said it was “not an option.” So, in Canada, it’s not an option, but in the US, it looks like it may soon be mandatory.
Why did SaskPower so quietly go ahead with a new power plant?
Is national unity at stake?
SaskPower will be building a new $850 million natural gas power station near Lanigan, starting in under a year. More than half of its power will go to the BHP Jansen potash mine, the crown jewel of Saskatchewan’s economy. But Steven Guilbeault and Justin Trudeau want to shut down all natural gas power stations by 2035.
Irresistible force is about to meet immovable object, and national unity is on the line.
Oh, and for good measure, Bill C-69 is involved.
Wind fails Alberta, again, on Tuesday morning
Just when you thought wind might be just fine to power our economy, on Tuesday, wind power generation in Alberta failed, again. Eight hours saw less than 100 megawatts, and it bottomed out at 13 megawatts. That’s out of 3,618 megawatts of wind turbines installed.