CHARBONNEAU – Alberta is booming again and renewables will suffer

AS LONG AS THE FUTURE for green energy looked bright, Alberta was leading Canada in renewable energy growth. The multibillion-dollar investment over the past few years has been driven by an abundance of Alberta sun and wind, and the rapid and dramatic drop in the cost of solar technology.

Two things changed that: the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the election of Danielle Smith as Alberta’s premier.

Global turmoil and Alberta alienation have been good for Big Oil.

On Oct. 6, 1973, Egyptian tanks crossed into Israeli-occupied territory. Israel repelled the attack and oil prices soared. Kuwait cut oil production by 25 per cent; with plans for further cuts of 5 per cent a month until a Middle Eastern settlement could be reached.

The price of oil shot up; climbing to US$15/barrel overnight. By the end of the decade, the price was almost $40 a barrel.

The oil boom created more multi-millionaires in Alberta than any time before in Canadian history. At the height of the boom, Calgary issued more than $1 billion worth of construction permits annually, more than Chicago or New York. Apartment vacancy rates approached zero as Ontarians and Maritimers arrived daily in search of high-paying jobs.

Then the recession of the 1980s hit and the price of oil plummeted. The province led the nation in housing foreclosures, bankruptcies and suicides. Calgary had 2.3 million square metres of vacant office space.

In response to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s plans to control energy prices and search for alternate energy, Calgary mayor Ralph Klein famously said: “Let those Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.” The slogan became a popular bumper sticker and the sentiment propelled Klein to premiership.

Fast forward to Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

This time, Alberta’s economy was in the dumps from the COVID pandemic of 2021/22. Calgary’s office vacancy rate reached 24 per cent 2020 – a record-high vacancy for the city. There were 16 empty buildings.

Now Alberta’s oil production is booming. “We’re producing about $12 billion a month of oil,” said Alberta Central’s chief economist Charles St-Arnaud. “To give a comparison, in 2014, the maximum we reached was $7.7 billion so it’s a big increase.”

Tar sands oil is as bad as it sounds. Oil from tar sands is one of the most destructive, carbon-intensive and toxic fuels on the planet. Production releases three times as much greenhouse gas pollution as conventional crude oil does.

No matter, the swagger is back in Alberta politics. To appease her rural conservative base and rebuke PM Justin Trudeau’s green energy initiative, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has suspended wind and solar projects.

Rural Alberta doesn’t like Trudeau and his woke plans for green energy; not with an abundance of oil in their backyards.

Despite the fact that some rural municipalities also have an abundance of wind in their backyards and they receive large revenues from wind farms, that won’t stop Premier Smith from stoking the flames of Western Alienation.

She needs a new bumper sticker: “Freedom Alberta trumps woke Ottawa.”

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.