Local residents weren鈥檛 running around, screaming 鈥淭he sky is falling!鈥� after the federal government announced that they were phasing out traditional coal-fired power generation by 2030, in their latest effort to bring forward their vision for a clean and green Canada.
But you could hardly blame people for having that mentality.
The good news is that there is still a glimmer of hope, thanks to technology that is happening in our own backyard.
Yes, the federal government wants to have coal-fired generation off the power grid by 2030. Frankly, they want to do it today, but that鈥檚 just not a realistic option.
The lack of consultation by the Liberals on this issue was galling. You could hear the frustration in Mayor Roy Ludwig鈥檚 voice on Monday night when he ripped into the Liberals for the way they have handled the issue.
But it seems like Catherine McKenna, the minister of the environment and climate change, is a fan of the cutting-edge carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that has been employed at SaskPower鈥檚 Boundary Dam Power Station since 2014, and has been thriving this year.
And so provinces can keep coal as part of their power generation options, as long as they are using a technology that is being perfected in our own backyard.
We鈥檒l see if the feds will step forward with money to assist with the conversion to CCS technologies. The previous government under Stephen Harper had said they wouldn鈥檛 fund a retrofit of Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam, since they had already come through with $240 million for Unit 3.
If the federal government is so keen to bid farewell to traditional coal electricity, and if they鈥檙e so fond of CCS, then there had better be a significant investment for Saskatchewan.
The timing of the announcement is a little ironic, since the U.S. just elected Donald Trump to be their president 鈥� a man who wants to see a resurgence in coal-fired generation 鈥� and governments around the world are turning back to coal because of its affordability.
A lot of people seem to forget that the former Conservative government 鈥� a bane of the hardcore environmental movement 鈥� decided a few years ago to stop funding conventional coal projects. It meant that conventional coal would eventually fade to the history books, to be replaced by newer options.
That transition would have been significantly slower than what the federal Liberals are proposing.
Saskatchewan people are already fuming at the feds for planning to ramrod a carbon tax on this province 鈥� a carbon tax that would hamstring our vital industries of oil, gas, mining and agriculture. So you knew that people would be ticked off at this announcement over coal.
But McKenna鈥檚 statements seem to indicate coal will remain part of Saskatchewan鈥檚 power grid well beyond 2030, just in a different form.
