… the entire province of Alberta was powered for 16 hours on Sunday.
You see, when wind does okay, never mind great, NO ONE GETS PAID. And the problem with no one making money is no one is making money. That doesn’t last very long.
Also, on the topic of reliable power:
Energy Minister visits Steel Reef Viewfield, sees implementation of gas-fired power generation
LNG Canada ships first cargo, making Canada a global player.
I provide some analysis on how this will impact Saskatchewan in the first part of the story.
Also:
Poilievre posts “Meet Hardisty” video about and its importance to Canada
Donald Trump’s disdain for wind energy could create windfall for Nova Scotia: experts
Energy Realities Podcast: Geopolitical issues and oil. Some interesting discussion about Carney killing the digital services tax to placate Trump, forgoing this thing called “rule of law.”
Saskatchewan is rebuildings its coal fleet. Here’s a chance to hear from Crown Investments Corp and SaskPower Minister Jeremy Harrison explain how this came about. It’s the biggest energy decision in 10 years. If you work in the coal industry in take time this weekend to watch/listen.
SaskPower asked customers to reduce demand Wednesday as low wind, gas and coal issues reduce power supply
Brian Crossman: So, we had an election. Now what?
TotalEnergies signs supply deal with proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project on B.C. coast
Inflation slows sharply to 1.7% in April as consumer carbon price ends
BC Hydro’s challenge: Powering province through surging demand, drought and trade war
Bronwyn Eyre: Canadian Oil Companies’ Flip Flop on CCUS…and Everything Else.
Eyre pulls no punches in this column, wondering where the oil & gas CEOs have been all these years?
Op-Ed: Aleana Young: Prairie Powerbroker: Energy Sovereignty and Economic Security for Saskatchewan.
Note: count how many times coal is mentioned.
Brian Zinchuk: Saskatchewan’s Oil and Gas 20 high school class is everything I hoped for.
“All-in-all, the new Oil and Gas 20 and 30 classes are among the best things I’ve seen the Saskatchewan government do for the oilpatch. Thank you to the premier, ministers who have implemented it (Jeremy Cockrill and Everett Hindley), Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre. and all in the ministry and oil companies who made it happen. And thank you for having the courage to do so, in spite of the braying criticism.
“For parents in the oil patch whose kids might have an inkling to follow in their footsteps, I strongly urge you to sign them up for next year’s class. This year the numbers were limited. Hopefully that will be expanded. Don’t miss out.
“Our industry needed this affirmation. We matter. And our kids need a chance to learn about it.
“Bravo.”
And for those who might not have seen the initial criticism of the very idea of oil companies getting involved with a class about their industry, from last summer here’s Murray Mandryk and Phil Tank.
Suncor Energy earns $818 million in fourth quarter, upstream production rises
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.
Here’s the story on Guilbeault’s updated Clean Electricity Regulations, and it includes an at-length discussion with SaskPower Minister Jeremy Harrison explaining why Saskatchewan is rejecting it.
Here’s the key thing: Other media are acting like this is a win – that the deadline has simply been punted to 2050. Well, I actually read through the regulations and realized it’s a bait and switch. In fact, the regulations include an impossible to meet emissions standard for anything that burns anything by 2035. Even if you put carbon capture on every single natural gas and coal power plant in Saskatchewan and Alberta, if the CCS behaves anything like Boundary Dam 3, you won’t get anywhere close to the new standard of 65 tonnes CO2 per gigawatt-hour. So the federal government slyly let people think they’ve punted, when really they haven’t punted at all. Like Lucy, they’re pulling the football away in 10 years and 12 days. (That’s the amount of time we have to build carbon capture on everything. And even if we do, it won’t be good enough. Good luck with that.)
Enbridge’s Weyburn wind project open house, Part 2: Enbridge’s opening statements
It’s as if I should change the name of the website to SaskPowerOnline.ca. Jeepers – this week is almost all power related.
“They pushed us to the limit,” Danielle Smith says in fighting oil and gas emissions cap. Saskatchewan has already started on this path.
Expect similar action from Saskatchewan in the next 10 days. If you remember back in September, Saskatchewan issued its Economic Impact Assessment Tribunal take on this emissions cap, calling it a production cap.
Sask NDP gas tax motion runs out of gas
Bronwyn Eyre: Saskatchewan election post-mortem: Why the Sask Party lost the cities
A former Energy and Resources Minister for four years, Eyre is joining Pipeline Online as a regular contributor, both as a columnist and co-host in an upcoming regular podcast that is rapidly coming together. Watch for Eyre’s continuing contributions on Pipeline Online in the weeks and months ahead.
Also:
Alberta wind power generation falls to less than one per cent capacity, once again (Last Friday, it fell to zero. You read that right. Zero.)
TC Energy CEO sees opportunity in Trump win as company refocuses on natural gas
And, what’s this Bluesky Social all about? In the interest of staking territory, Pipeline Online is now on this new social media at @pipelineonline.bsky.social. If you’re on there, be the first to follow, I guess?
No gas for you, Quebec tells builders. This despite the fact Quebec, itself, has piles of gas under its feet it refuses to allow development of.
Will Danielle Smith be in Washington to perhaps witness the signing of another pipeline permit? Stranger things have happened, eight years ago…
Sunshine Oilsands ordered to shut down by Alberta Energy Regulator.
I was on the road all Monday, so I wasn’t able to dig into this as much as I’d like. Hopefully I’ll be able to do more in the coming days.
Guilbeault’s oil and gas emissions cap press release, verbatim
Reaction to Guilbeault’s emissions cap on oil and gas industry, Part 1
Reaction to Guilbeault’s emissions cap on oil and gas industry, Part 2
Canadian Press
Oil, gas companies told to cut emissions by one-third under planned cap
Oh, and here’s a bonus: the federal government wants to now subsidize radio news as well. Why do I hear the Emperor from the Return of the Jedi cackling in my head?
Federal government’s control of media to grow, now seeking to subsidize radio news
Jim Warren: Could maximizing Canadian oil production and exports over the medium-term help reduce CO2 emissions for the long-term?
“There is a chasm of disagreement separating climate-concerned policy makers in Ottawa and supporters of the oil and gas sector on the prairies. Each side behaves like they’re playing a zero sum game.”
Also: Investing in oil and gas still important, IEA deputy head tells Calgary crowd
So yesterday I put over 800 km on my truck to attend a press conference in Saskatoon regarding the report of Saskatchewan’s Economic Impact Assessment Tribunal on the planned greenhouse gas emissions cap on oil and gas production, as well as “Methane 75.” That proposes cutting methane emissions by 75% by 2030.
This is the opening story in what will literally be dozens of pieces on this, as I will be publishing most of the submissions to the tribunal.
The key thing is the Saskatchewan government says an emissions cap is a de facto production cap, and this report bears that out. And for the record, oil and gas, principally oil, is the largest portion of Saskatchewan’s GDP, exceeding even agriculture and potash.
Also, I looked down at my tripod while at the press conference and noticed it’s covered with grey specs of drilling mud from visiting various rigs over the summer. And then I looked around at the other media’s tripods – CTV, Global, CBC, CBC French, some I don’t know. No mud. I wonder why? Go figure.
The hollowing out of Canada’s industrial base continues. A few people said there’s been some new rigs built, but I’ve been told by the industry association those were retrofits.
Are more drilling rigs going to be decommissioned? And have we forgotten how to build new ones?
Jet turbines used to make pipelines work in UK (here, too, but the video is about the UK)
Weekend Watch: Jet engines that power a nation
Canada really has two significant competitors when it comes to providing heavy oil to the US Gulf Coast refinery complex – Venezuela and Mexico. Venezuela’s been driving its self off a cliff in its socialist paradise. And it looks like Mexico’s exports are likely going to collapse, too, according to Peter Zeihan. Gee, if only Keystone XL had been built to supply our heavy oil to their refineries built for that product…
Peter Zeihan: The self-inflicted downfall of Mexican energy
And, well, I guess I’ll include this, too. Vi Day is very important. The other guy wasn’t sure why he was included, but was honoured to be.
Vi Day, Brian Zinchuk among King Charles III Coronation Medal recipients
Irish company planning to produce jet fuel in Goldboro, N.S., at former LNG site
Note: Goldboro was one the leading candidates for a Canadian East Coast liquefied natural gas export facility, the type German Chancellor Olaf Scholz basically begged Canada for. However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “no business case,” for Canadian LNG in this context.
But apparently cutting trees to make “sustainable aviation fuel” is quite alright.
Also:
Weekend Watch: Why all eyes are on Arkansas Lithium. There are numerous parallels to what’s happening in Saskatchewan lithium
Op-Ed: MLT Aikins: Changes to the Competition Act – Greenwashing & Mergers
Meanwhile, companies keep growing in the oilpatch. I ran into Mike Rose a year ago. He did some work in the Weyburn area a long time ago. Now he’s running Canada’s largest gas producer, which just got bigger.
Tourmaline signs deal to buy Crew Energy, raises quarterly base dividend