What Matters to You – Energy Transition: One size does not fit all

I am writing this week’s column as I sit at a desk in my hotel room at 12:33 AM in the city of Essen, Germany. I was brought here three days ago as a guest of the German Government through the Trans-Atlantic Climate Bridge, a member of the Energy Sub Committee for the Confederation of State Governments. Two fellow MLAs are also in attendance: one from my own caucus and one from Ontario. A few Senators and representatives from the USA are also a part of the Legislative Study Tour, and it has been a very enlightening excursion thus far.

The eneregy crunch in Germany

Germany is going through a transformative change in their use of energy, what is acceptable to them, and what will be used by other European Union Members. Germany, which is half the size of Alberta, has 85 million people and is not energy-independent. Through their political process, they have committed to no longer using the nuclear energy that they produce themselves, and they will no longer be using their “brown coal” (Lignite) thermal power plants past 2030. They want to transition to using green electricity and being a hydrogen-powered nation. They want only to import energy that meets those tight standards. This is one heck of a tall order, but they are all in.

They won’t be able to do this alone, though. Germany will need the EU members, Canada, and the USA to achieve these goals. At the federal level, the three governments have signed an agreement to meet these objectives and to transition their energy.

Our Albertan Crunch Made In Ottawa

Here is the wrinkle: Canada, specifically Alberta, is not in an energy crunch. Heck, we account for 99 percent of the USA’s imported natural gas and 53 percent of their total imported oil. We are sitting on roughly 80 percent of Canada’s coal, and it’s not the low thermal “brown coal” (of which Germany has about 200 years left of electrical generation). We have very low-sulfur thermal coal and metallurgical coal. We are sitting on 223 trillion cubic feet of gas and the fourth-largest known oil reserve on the planet. We are not in a position of an ocean, nor a ton of rivers, that we can dam off to create hydropower like some of our other provincial friends down east, out west, or far up north. We are not interconnected like they are in the EU, so simply balancing a load between countries isn’t as easy for us.  We are also sitting on a large potential for hydrogen production and lithium extraction.

Electricity here is at $0.40 per kWh, and we do not need to get into a position of “saving the planet”. We need to make sure that we reduce pollution, conserve where needed, and do things smarter, but we cannot pretend that what works in Europe is what will work for us. I believe we can work collaboratively to solve several collective challenges and wean ourselves of dependency on other countries that are at odds with our values as a nation, but we simply can’t hold hands and jump off the same cliff.

“Tell the feds!”

Alberta started a campaign across Canada called “Tell the Feds”. A campaign to voice the concerns of all Canadians that we don’t want to be left cold in the dark. To raise awareness that we are not just stamping our feet for no reason; we are advising them of what the real impacts are going to be if we allow them to step on our constitutional rights. They are taking an approach to make it illegal for us to generate electricity from anything they deem to be “non-green”. I’ve now seen firsthand over here what that definition is, and for us, it does not look pretty. The feds won’t relent; they have drunk the Kool-Aid and are out of touch with our North American reality.

Please take the time to tell the feds that this is not right. We need to allow our provinces to do what is right for them, not for Europe or for the out-of-touch-CN-Tower-climbing environment minsters’ delusional ideas.

Tell the feds and tell it how it is and let’s stop together our advancement towards expensive darkness!

Sincerely,

Shane Getson