It’s not often an oil company CEO sells his company to run for provincial politics, becoming the leader of an upstart party in the process. But that’s exactly what Jon Hromek has done. And as someone coming from industry, his thoughts on energy transition, CO2 and coal differ from a lot of the other politicians in Saskatchewan, or for that matter, Canada.
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?
Read the Government of Canada’s submission, written by Guilbeault
The proposed Clean Electricity Regulations are among the most significant policy moves in recent Canadian history. The fundamental thrust is to all but eliminate fossil fuel combustion from the Canadian electrical grid. On any given day, up to 88 per cent of Saskatchewan’s power comes from natural gas and coal.
If implemented in their current form, they will utterly remake Canada, its economy and society. The Government of Saskatchewan, on June 25, rejected these regulations, based on a report by the Economic Impact Assessment Tribunal, convened under the Saskatchewan First Act. That act, in turn, was brought into law to counter numerous onerous federal climate change initiatives.
Within the tribunals report are all the submissions made by numerous companies and agencies, several of which Pipeline Online is publishing verbatim in the coming days and weeks. But perhaps the most significant was the Feb. 15 submission by Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, who, with Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, is one of the leading figures from the federal government on this front. As such, his submission is the stance of the federal government. Notably, he does not explain how Saskatchewan is to replace all of its fossil fuel-based power in the 10 years, five months and 30 days remaining from today. Here it is, verbatim
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.
I’ve been saying for a while now, this whole “energy transition” is the biggest story of our times. And the biggest part of that is implementation of the Clean Electricity Regulations, which will affect every person, business and industry in this country. On Tuesday, Saskatchewan said it’s not going to follow them, because they’re impossible to follow.
I will have numerous stories on this over the coming days and weeks, deep dives into what this is all about. I just got off the phone with one cabinet minister and will be talking to another in a few minutes. Watch for that in a bit. In the meantime, this is the executive summary of the report prepared for the Saskatchewan government, a report whose purpose is to give backing to our saying “F off” to the feds. That’s basically what Saskatchewan is doing.
Alberta’s rolling blackouts show we’re the frog being boiled.
Also:
Saskatchewan’s Top 10 oil producers in 2023.
A second LNG facility at Kitimat, Cedar LNG, is getting seriously closer to going ahead.
Indeed, companies like Baker Hughes are already crowing about getting contracts.
Saturn Oil & Gas has joined the multi-lateral bandwagon, having drilled two open hole multi-lateral wells that the Government of Saskatchewan announced an incentive for yesterday (shared yesterday)
I’ve been saying for over a year the Government of Saskatchewan needs to do something to increase drilling numbers. I’m wondering if this is it?
Also: Alberta’s shaking up its electrical grid by 2027. And in a related story, new rules for power generators in Alberta
Don’t block our mountains or mess with good farmland: #Alberta releases renewable power rules. And reclamation is going to be paid up front. This story is the full meat, potatoes, gravy and carrots on Wednesday’s wind and solar announcement.
And what’s the pool at for Trudeau resigning today? It’s 40 years to the day since daddy took his “walk in the snow.”
The Friday before a long weekend, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault released his updates to the proposed Clean Electricity Regulations. This is the full update, verbatim.
In Pipeline Online’s continuing mission to ensure Canadians know exactly what Guilbeault is telling them, here’s his verbatim release on the Clean Electricity Regulations.
Remember what I said the previous week about taking out the trash day? Guilbeault did exactly that. Interesting, that.
And for something a little different, yesterday was Family Day. Not everyone gets to go sledding. While I took these photos three weeks ago, they’re pretty representative of what Family Day is to a lot of people in the oil sector – just another day.
At 8:30 a.m., Feb. 7, 44 out of 45 wind farms in Alberta could not perform. You are not alone. But there is a solution.
Two gensets in sea cans could have matched the output of Alberta’s entire wind fleet Wednesday morning
Second day in a row, Alberta’s wind power utterly collapes. Had to relearn how to interpret scientific notation for this one. What does 6.694934166480696e-4 mean? Something like 0.07 per cent of nameplate output? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 42 times, shame on me, as only 3 of Alberta’s 45 wind farms produced power at points of Monday night
A few weeks after Alberta’s grid was on the brink, renewables again bottom out, but no crisis this time. Good thing it was -6 C instead of -35 C, eh? And solar didn’t do much either, because a. it snowed and b. the sun went down. Imagine that.
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! The meteor is on its way, and CBC just posted a critical story on electric vehicles. Pipeline Online had to share this one. And yes, I borrowed from Ghostbusters there.
In the meanwhile, charging those cars with solar power in Alberta would have been tough on Sunday at noon.
On the topic of cars, a Edmonton-area heavy equipment rental shop took the second largest Caterpillar dozer made and crushed a car with it, just because.
On Friday, the Biden Administration took a shotgun and fired a barrel into each foot of one of the biggest success stories in the American energy industry, one which kept Europe from going dark when the Ukraine war started. And here’s the Whitehouse’s backgrounder on it, verbatim, which reads like a description of how the Biden-Harris administration has applied a knee to the neck of the American energy industry.
(I’m not sure when they started doing this, but the Whitehouse press office continually refers to the Biden-Harris administration. Are they expecting someone to perhaps fall off the ticket between now and November? Like maybe Biden’s health won’t hold out and it’ll be a Harris presidential candidacy?)
Brian Zinchuk: Alberta won the energy lottery, yet it had to beg its neighbours if they could spare a megawatt.
Also:
Quick Dick McDick goes cooking with The Dam Smokehouse
Also: Brian Crossman: Magic Eight Ball prediction edition for 2024. “Will the current Prime Minister continue to be a dumpster fire?” “SIGNS POINT TO YES.”
The past weekend proved to be a close-run thing for the Alberta electrical grid, and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is making statements resolving he won’t allow that to happen here.
Specifically, after having nearly completely divested itself of coal-fired power production, Alberta’s dramatic buildout of wind and solar proved impossible to keep the lights on in that province when the chips were down and temperatures hit -35 C, or worse.
Alberta’s close brush with possible rolling blackouts stiffens Moe’s resolve to keep the lights on. On Monday, he announced that SaskPower has relit a shuttered coal unit near Estevan, one the feds had supposedly forced to retire Dec. 31, 2021.
Also note: Saskatchewan has about a million cars registered. So a good bet is Alberta probably has four million. What would have happened if four million EVs were all plugged in last weekend?
If you missed them, these five stories, in order, chronicle what happened in Alberta.
Most of Alberta’s wind fleet slowly shut down Thursday night, but not for lack of wind
Grid Alert 1:
Alberta goes under grid alert for just under 5 hours on Jan. 12
Grid Alert 2:
Grid Alert 3:
Alberta goes into Round 3, with its third electrical grid alert in three days
Grid Alert 4:
Round 4: Alberta declares fourth electrical grid alert in 4 days, second in 17 hours
For the third day in a row, Alberta went into an electrical grid alert on Sunday. At one point it had no contingency reserve left at all, but imports from BC appeared to save the day. While it looked a little hairy there for a bit, there was no emergency alert declared, unlike Saturday.
Did I mention before that Alberta has more coal, oil and natural gas than God? Because guess what? It still does.