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
Solar produces zero power 20 nights in a row. This was indeed confirmed by SaskPower.
Also:
TC Energy eyes data centre growth as potential opportunity
CNRL curtailing production from new natural gas wells as low prices persist
Drill, baby, drill: Trump promises energy dominance, but lower energy prices
The last time, that didn’t work out so well for Saskatchewan oil and gas. The depths of the seven year oil downturn which devastated the Saskatchewan oil and gas industry included all four of the Trump years the last time around. While oil low prices benefited consumers and large portions of the economy, they also had a significant impact on Saskatchewan oil companies and particularly oilfield service companies. Activity levels, vendor rates, employment and employee remuneration were all deeply affected by the low energy price policies.
This is NOT an endorsement of Biden by any means, but simply a reflection on what did happen during the last Trump presidency.
Crowdsourcing a curriculum for the new Oil & Gas 20 and 30 high school classes
The columnists with the Leader-Post and StarPhoenix were aghast that the oil and gas sector would have input into crafting a course. To hell with them. This is an opportunity.
Will you help?
Three stories in the ongoing Clean Electricity Regulations saga, more to come.
Guilbeault counters Saskatchewan’s defiance of Clean Electricity Regulations, Eyre fires back
Sask NDP response to Clean Electricity Regulations tribunal report
Clean Electricity Regulations: Longhorn Oil & Gas submission
For a long time, Premier Scott Moe has been saying it’s impossible to comply with federal regulations regarding getting rid of our fossil-fueled power generation, in the timeline the federal Liberal government wants.
It’s coming to a head.
This is the first action of this type thus far under the Saskatchewan First Act. This is what it was meant for.
If implemented in their current form, the Clean Electricity Regulations mean to all but eliminate the burning of fossil fuels for power generation in 10 years, six months and three days from now. Saskatchewan relies on natural gas and coal to produce the vast majority of its power, up to 88 per cent on some days. And if implemented, these regulations will fundamentally alter Canada and its economy, and affect all of its people in one form or another. It’s one of the most important policy pieces in generations, seeking to remake Canada.
Saskatchewan won’t follow Clean Electricity Regulation, citing Economic Assessment Tribunal report.
Executive summary of the report
The government released all the submissions to the tribunal. I will be reprinting many of them over the coming days, maybe weeks. There’s a lot. And there’s a lot to be said.
If carbon capture is supposed to be the future, why does it keep striking out? Last week, Capital Power in Alberta cancelled the $2.4 billion carbon capture project for the Genesee Power Station, which is currently being converted from coal to natural gas. It’s the last thermal coal power plant in Canada west of Coronach, Sask.
Also last week, TransAlta canceled a wind project not far from Waterton Lakes National Park.
And Saskatchewan and Alberta are deepening nuclear ties.
TC Energy’s making bank on natural gas deliveries.
The proposed federal Clean Electricity Regulations say in 10 years, seven months and 15 days we won’t be able to use natural gas-fired power generation without carbon capture except for very short periods of time over a whole year.
Or in Saskatchewan, we just say to hell with that and turn sod on our newest big natural gas-fired power station.
Also, Biden hates oil so much, he wants more of their money.
This is a REALLY good discussion about CO2, its role in the world, and anthropogenic climate change. The call it “fake catastrophes.” Lots of talk about glaciation, which I love, because no one ever talks about that. I do.
It is worth your time to listen to this some time this weekend. I feel a lot smarter now, and I’m only 2/3 through it.
Saskatchewan fights back on federal oil and gas emissions cap, Methane 75. Saying “to hell with it” is “definitely on the table,” says minister when asked.
Province invokes Saskatchewan First Act, again, building its case against the federal government’s never-ending smothering greenhouse gas emissions rules, regulations and legislation.
I was up in Saskatoon Monday to cover this important announcement. Saskatchewan’s not going to take it, anymore. Kinda like Twisted Sister. For some reason, I keep referencing that song.