When the federal government releases the final version of its proposed Clean Electricity Regulations toward the end of the year, it will be no surprise if Alberta is first in line to challenge the new rules.
On Friday, as reported by The Globe and Mail’s Adam Radwanski, Electricity Canada, the association representing Canada’s power utilities, will make its most vocal stand against rules that could hurt parts of the country that will have a tougher time transitioning fully off fossil fuels, such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Ontario.
The association will launch a digital ad campaign that Radwanski says “reflects a sharp shift in tone by the industry group, previously much more measured in its criticism.”
Electricity Canada president Francis Bradley attributes this to frustration over talks with Ottawa about potential amendments that could add flexibility to the draft regulations released last year.
While Oliver Anderson, communications director for Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, says consultations have been “unprecedented,” Bradley says unless changes are made, the standards proposed by Ottawa will “result in blackouts and brownouts.”
The proposed regulations have been a constant sore spot for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her government, and a significant stumbling block in always-contentious federal-provincial relations.
However, the province hasn’t done itself any favours when faced with what could be onerous new regulations after the Alberta government’s recent pause on renewable development, as well as the uncertainty surrounding new rules governing where projects can be built.
The Globe’s Emma Graney reported on an analysis by the Business Renewables Centre-Canada that found solar and wind operations are set to bring in more than $54-million in tax revenues for Alberta municipalities in 2024, a 93-per-cent bump from just two years ago.
Jorden Dye, the director of BRC-Canada, says that growth comes with a warning.
“From what I hear from developers, it’s either projects were early enough that there’s not a big hit to cancel and they can look at other locations for now,” Dye said. “In other cases, it might be concern about where the rules are going.”
The Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank, found in its own analysis that 53 projects representing 8.6 gigawatts of capacity have withdrawn applications from Alberta’s electricity generation development process since the moratorium was announced last August.
Alberta Utilities and Affordability Minister Nathan Neudorf disputes those figures, saying both Pembina and BRC-Canada used “flawed and inaccurate assumptions” while making “unfounded claims about cancellations to inflate their numbers” and push a false narrative.
“Even if BRC-Canada’s imagined potential tax revenues were accurate, those dollars would be negated by the fact that ratepayers would pay 10 times that amount in added transmission costs,” Neudorf wrote in an e-mail.
“The cost of additional transmission infrastructure to connect 8,000 megawatts to the grid, paid by ratepayers, grossly outweighs any additional tax revenue.”
Wherever the truth lies, the fight over rules and regulations around electricity generation, both at the provincial and federal level, is likely just ramping up in world that is growing ever-more energy hungry.
This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.