Having written my column this week on one of the more glaring areas of increasingly alarming neglect from the Saskatchewan Party under Scott Moe, I’ll take a moment to point out the other single policy change that I find most striking. D.C. Fraser has reported on a reduction in funding
Continue readingTag: saskpower
Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Boundary Dam carbon capture and storage project – cited incessantly by Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party as a substitute for a climate change action plan – has in fact proven a costly failure both as a power source and a means of reducing greenhouse gas
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Nathan Akehurst writes that the Carillion collapse was just the tip of the iceberg in the corporatization and destruction of the UK’s public services. And Neil Macdonald points out that the Trudeau Libs are pitching privatized infrastructure as easy money for investors
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wind Will Be Cheaper Than Natural Gas
Will be? Naw, it has been for years. Still, SaskPower is building another 350MW of natural gas to go online in 2019, while building far less than 300MW of wind power by then. They’ve a target of 50% renewable generation by 2030, and still wind is far less than 5%
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower Is Going To Miss Target
March 16, 2017 Dear Editor, People should be asking how SaskPower intends to meet the 50% renewable electricity by 2030 target set by the Premier over a year ago. Since that announcement, a 350 MegaWatt (MW) natural gas burning plant has been planned for opening in 2019. A 170 MW
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Substandard
There’s plenty of ugly news coming out about the continued problems with Brad Wall’s pet carbon capture and storage project – including thoroughly unimpressive output numbers, and payouts to Cenovus to make up for a failure to deliver the carbon dioxide it’s supposed to be capturing. But perhaps even more
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Sask Party Not Getting the Best Rate For You
“Our principle here … is that we do no further harm to an economy that already has its hands full.” – Brad Wall “We’ve always been in competition,” said Boyd about Saskatchewan and Alberta competing for oil and gas investment. “Certainly we’ve had productive conversations here in Calgary.” Why would we want to compete with […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower Correcting the Record Feels Like Lying
Semantics! Q remains: USGov says coal+CCS twice price of wind & gas; why did @SaskPower select most expensive first? https://t.co/4pGTaVhOmx — SaskWind (@SaskWind) June 24, 2016 Letter: carbon capture project doesn't double cost of electricity Mike Marsh, president and CEO of Sask-Power, writes: …The technology at Boundary Dam is the first of its kind and, […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Gas Production, not Power Byproduct
This clip makes it seem as if CCS is more about producing gas to enhance oil recovery, and not so much about trapping a dangerous byproduct of dirty electricity production. As a result of the renegotiation though, Cenovus is not required to take 100 per cent of the C02 output, meaning less revenue coming into […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower’s Power To Grow A Nose
SaskPower’s latest consultant on renewable energy might be Pinocchio. 8. In "researching how to incorporate more" #solar power, I wonder how publishing deceptive info-graphics was found to help #PowerToGrow? — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) June 7, 2016 Their misinformation about renewable energy intentionally leaves out the point that our power mix is not entirely coal, hydro, […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Stranded Assets, Saskatchewan Style
A report by a little known government entity says what I have been saying about pipelines stranding assets: Its overall conclusion, however, urges caution when it comes to long-term investments in pipelines and other oil and gas infrastructure. Such investments “could be at high risk of becoming economically unviable as prices in renewable electricity further […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wall’s Government Denies Climate Change
Wall had the Lieutenant Governor read to the Legislature that opposition to climate change is a “misguided dogma” in his throne speech. https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/tell-saskatchewan-s-premier-to-stop-denying-climate-change-and-act The Premier and the Sask Party are making it government policy that a contributing factor in the wildfires that caused thousands of refugees to flee their homes last year in Saskatchewan, is […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Boundary Dam 3 CCS Could have Cost Less and Been Solar
POW! This huge new #solar farm near LasVegas provides power day & night https://t.co/Aip0F3Fg2m #climate #GLOBE2016 pic.twitter.com/Iff4rvjQtn — Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) March 3, 2016 SaskPower writes about its comparably sized “clean coal” project: This project transformed the aging [sic] Unit #3 at Boundary Dam Power Station near Estevan, Saskatchewan into a reliable, long-term producer of […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Canada Falling Behind in Renewable Energy Because It’s Never The Time For Wall
Wall said. “Our principle here … is that we do no further harm to an economy that already has its hands full.” Canada is dropping behind its major trading partners in renewable energy investment, according to a study from a clean energy advocacy group. Merran Smith of Clean Energy Canada suggests government-set targets and goals […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wall Can’t Cut Pollution? Cut the Crap.
WEYBURN, Sask. – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says a federal government cannot tax a provincial government and that might play a role in any potential national carbon tax. Wall says he might be able to make the case that Ottawa can’t impose a carbon tax on SaskPower because it’s a Crown corporation. OK, let’s play […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Where’s Wall’s Western Strategy Now?
It wasn’t very long ago that Brad Wall was a part of shaping western Canada. He wanted BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and maybe even Manitoba to agree on LCD wage and labour codes, so we could more easily trade workers around. Now that he’s surrounded by NDP provinces, he’s not involved? Alberta & Manitoba have agreed […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Brad Wall is looking like more and more of a climate change laggard compared to every other leader in Western Canada.For further reading…- CTV broke down the state of provincial climate commitments here. But as John Klein noted, the Sask…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower’s Plan Isn’t Ambitious
SaskPower’s new target, announced by the Premier last week, is out. .@PremierBradWall @SKGov This doesn't seem overly ambitious, given #ABclimate's goals. Can't Sask do more than Alberta? #skpoli #PowerToGrow — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) November 23, 2015 We’re procuring 100 MW of wind generation in 2016 and will develop up to 1600 MW between 2019-2030. #powertogrow pic.twitter.com/CwMjPsvEeF […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On suckers’ bets
We’ve sure learned some important lessons from the failure of the first billion-dollar Boundary Dam CCS project: SaskPower’s president, Mike Marsh, says the company had hoped to make a decision on whether to retrofit another two units at Boundary Dam power plant by next year. But on Monday, Marsh told
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Roderick Benns interviews Michael Clague about his work on a basic income dating back nearly fifty years. And Glen Pearson’s series of posts about a basic income is well worth a read. – Meanwhile, Julia Belluz interviews Sir Michael Marmot about the connection
Continue reading