The Jason Kenney government in Alberta is pitching hydrogen, plastics recycling, and even geothermal energy as elements of an economic diversification strategy that leans heavily on natural gas to create tens of thousands of jobs and reboot the province’s sagging economy.
The 26-page plan is long on aspiration, short on any assessment of the obstacles it could face, but just detailed enough to raise alarm bells about the shaky international markets its proponents hope to tap into, the unproven technologies it relies on, and the near-certainty that some of its main elements will be left behind by more affordable renewable energy options in as little as a decade. It also makes no use of the word “climate”, apart from one reference to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“Canada is among the world’s top five producers of natural gas, with about two-thirds of this production coming from Alberta,” the province states in its online summary of the report. “The industry employs tens of thousands of Albertans and has the potential to generate billions of dollars each year in revenue.”
Fair enough, as far as it goes. But given a choice between treating that concentration as an advantage or a looming vulnerability, the province’s United Conservative Party government is once again casting its lot with yesterday’s technologies, rather than tomorrow’s.
Source: Analysis: Alberta Natural Gas Plan Has Kenney Venturing Boldly Backwards – The Energy Mix