NS Writers Scorch Alberta Govt ‘Snake Oil’ While Analysts Cite Gas as ‘Dying Commodity

A trio of writers in Halifax is accusing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government of misinformation over its “freezing in the dark” propaganda campaign, just as two energy analysts declare one of Smith’s favourite fossil fuels, natural gas, a “dying commodity”.

Smith launched the campaign in late September with truck-borne mobile billboards in Ottawa, carrying the evidence-free warning that Canadians will freeze in the dark if the federal government’s Clean Electricity Regulations go into effect. When the ads reached Nova Scotia, authors Brenna Walsh, Brian Gifford, and Mark Butler swung into action.

The ads “are paid for by a government that doesn’t usually show interest as far east as the Maritimes,” Walsh and Gifford wrote for the Calgary Herald. But Smith poured C$8 million in taxpayers’ dollars into her Tell The Feds campaign when “there is zero evidence to support Alberta’s claims for Nova Scotia, and the declarations being made about Alberta are easily disputable. This puts the campaign in the arena of misinformation and propaganda, clearly aimed at pushing forward the Alberta government’s own goals at the expense of Canadians.”

“The ads claim that our power rates could rise by up to four times and we’ll face blackouts,” Gifford and Butler added for Halifax’s Saltwire Media. “Don’t believe a word of it. There isn’t a shred of evidence to back up these claims for Nova Scotia. Alberta is selling snake oil.”

With the industry “attempting to launch into a weakening market,” and multiple new projects set to flood past global demand, the change in conditions “means that developing LNG in Canada is an economically risky proposition,” the two analysts caution. “And propping up LNG as a ‘cleaner’ energy export than some of Canada’s dirtier fuels is undermined by higher-than-expected methane emissions in LNG supply chains, not to mention the large energy needs of LNG infrastructure itself.”

At which point, they conclude, it’s governments’ responsibility to “protect taxpayers from this risk” by cutting off the flow of subsidies, tax breaks, exemptions, discounts ,and deferrals to the industry—including the cost of building transmission lines to electrify LNG facilities. |Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/2023/11/13/ns-writers-scorch-alberta-govt-snake-oil-while-analysts-cite-gas-as-dying-commodity/| theenergymix.com/2023/11/13/ns…

#abpoli #nspoli #UCP #misinformation #propaganda #SnakeOil #LNG #smith #politics

Are solar farms really a threat to food farms?

Sprawling solar farms have raised concerns that renewable energy will harm food production in Canada — including in Alberta, where the province has paused approval of any large wind or solar projects.

In August, the Government of Alberta announced the moratorium would last until Feb. 29, 2024. At the time, it cited concerns about land use and reclamation, specifically the impact on agricultural, recreational and Crown land.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told CBC’s What on Earth in an interview in September: “We cannot be putting massive amounts of solar panels on prime agriculture land. That’s one of the things that we’ve heard loud and clear.”

She added, “These are taking up acres and acres and acres of prime farmland in some cases. And so we want to make sure they’re on marginal lands.”

But how much “prime farmland” would those projects take? Here’s a closer look.

Is solar really taking up lots of prime farmland in Alberta? Ian Urquhart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alberta, looked into the question in The Tyee last month.

He found most solar projects approved in Alberta between 2019 and 2023 are on farmland rated as “severe or worse” for crop production. (Farmland is rated based on limitations such as low fertility, rockiness or steep slopes.)

One project approved this past July, Creekside Solar Project in Leduc, is expected to occupy 127 acres of high-value “Class 2” agricultural land. However, Urquhart said that’s just “0.03 per cent of the best agricultural land in the country,” according to the developer, and sheep farmers and crop producers are interested in farming between the solar panels, a concept known as agrivoltaics.

The Alberta Electrical System Operator projects that Alberta would need to increase its solar generation capacity from the current 1.3 GW to 5.2 GW through 2041 in order to make the provincial grid net-zero emissions by 2035, as required by the federal government.

In a policy brief published last month, Hastings-Simon calculated that new generation would require 38,000 acres (154 square kilometres). While that sounds like a lot, it’s just 0.08 per cent of agricultural land in the province — “less than a tenth of one per cent,” Hastings-Simon said. |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/solar-farms-1.7025482| cbc.ca/news/science/solar-farm…

#abpoli #solar #grid #Net-ZeroEmissions by 2035 #ucp #smith #CliamteChange #sustainable.