In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has been working to stimulate the economy while also tying these efforts to its climate ambitions. One province that can particularly benefit from such investments is Alberta. There is a significant economic opportunity to be unlocked by enabling renewables at a faster pace than business-as-usual in Alberta, by way of investment, jobs and affordable electricity. 

Alberta, alongside Saskatchewan, boasts the best solar and wind resources in Canada. A recent forecast by Rystad Energy anticipates Alberta’s utility scale solar and wind capacity could be the highest in Canada by 2025. 

The Business Renewable Centre Canada — which facilitates corporate procurement of renewable energy between buyers and sellers in Alberta — aims to achieve 2 gigawatts of renewable energy deals by 2025, which would attract $4 billion of investment to the province. Several major commercial buyers, including Starbucks, Labatt, Marriott Hotel, and Telus, have shown interest.

These renewable energy projects not only catch investors’ attention, they also help support community economic development. They can provide a reliable source of revenue to local governments and landowners, create local employment, and advance community development goals, including contributions to local economic diversification. Assorted compensation and ownership models exist that can be designed to enhance shared benefits from renewable energy development. 

Source: Unlocking renewables will unlock jobs in Alberta | Blog Posts | Pembina Institute

Fossil Fuels Are Not Alberta’s Salvation

A group of big, institutional investors with a combined US$41 trillion under management is turning up the heat on 161 fossils, mining companies, and other major emitters, demanding that they adopt a set of strategies to reach net-zero emissions and pledging to hold them to account for their actions.

“The targeted companies are responsible for up to 80% of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions,” The Guardian reports, citing an announcement Monday by the Climate Action 100+ initiative. “They include mining giant BHP, which last week promised to reduce emissions from its operations by 30% over the next decade on a path to net zero by 2050 after sustained pressure from activist shareholder groups.”

The list also includes colossal fossils ExxonMobil, PetroChina, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell, mining and metals companies Rio Tinto and BlueScope Steel, and major Australian fossil and electricity companies AGL, Santos, Woodside, and Origin.

Are Albertans Victimized or Angry?

Tristin Hopper wrote in the National Post that if Canada doesn’t like Alberta complaining, they can always send back our money. He says we are getting fleeced by Ottawa. This article was written on April 11th. Perhaps he wrote that before he had a chance to see how much Trudeau was doing for the province. Maybe he assumed he was doing as little as Premier Jason Kenney. Either way, there isn’t any way to establish this tiresome rhetoric as belonging to anything other than a Postmedia newspaper.

Mr. Kenny’s notion that Alberta is paying Quebec’s bills simply isn’t true. Mr. Hopper crunches the numbers for us in the article expecting us to believe it. Still, there are three kinds of lies which are just as prevalent today as the first time I heard them. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

Do you think the provincial government is trying to keep us off-balance?

We’re witnessing the slow, painful death of fossil fuels. Milestones reached by other countries leave Canada as one of the last Western democracies with no coherent plan to cut ties with the industries that brought us a mounting global climate emergency.

There has been a stampede in Alberta. No, not cow — oil companies getting out while they still can. All of them weren’t so lucky though. Some didn’t have the money or resources. They died right where they lived.