There’s a perception among the Laurentian elites that Premier Danielle Smith is opposed to reducing Alberta’s emissions to net-zero..That’s not true; what she’s adamantly opposed to is imposing an arbitrary deadline of 2035 to do it. In fact, she’s fully supportive of doing it by 2050 in line with Canada’s international commitments under the Paris Accord..And hydrogen is going to be a big part of her government’s Emission Reduction and Energy Development Plan, she said in a wide-ranging discussion of energy issues with The Western Standard’s Nigel Hannaford..Not only does the most abundant element in the universe apply to home heating, but also transportation — where Smith says she favours a multi-pronged approach that includes EVs as well as dual-fuel cars and trucks, especially heavy-duty ones..“One thing that you'll see is that we intend to build out hydrogen as a transportation fuel. I think there will always be a need to have a dual approach,” she said..“In some markets, it may make sense to have a plug-in vehicle, probably in the big centres because if you can plug in at home at night when power is at a lower price, because there’s not as much demand on it.".“But when you're traveling long distances between cities, long haul trucks, it’s not going to be a very good option. What is a good option is hydrogen so we’re very supportive of what the Alberta Motor Transportation Association is doing with their dual-fuel vehicles, bio-diesel and hydrogen.”.Earlier this summer, the government announced research awards for innovative uses for hydrogen, including locomotives; Smith is an unabashed fan of trains. And according to Delloite, hydrogen is expected to be a US$1.4 trillion market by 2050 — not 2035..But it’s not just transportation. Hydrogen also has a role in home heating, she said. That’s because it’s already a main component of methane — CH4 — and can be added to the existing gas to make it even cleaner, combustible and presumably even more efficient..“I like what Atco is doing in experimenting with how you add hydrogen to the natural gas stream. There is even a community that's proposing entirely fuelled off hydrogen in the Strathmore County area, so maybe that's the future. But I think we've got to look at all options,” she said..In addition to technical innovation, it’s also going to take a revamp of the regulatory process — for small modular nuclear reactors and carbon capture — if Alberta is to get to net-zero by 2050, never mind 2035..“If we are to be developing carbon capture and storage, this technology is in its infancy, I hope it works perfectly in 12 years. But I think being realistic, it may not and so those are the kinds of things we have to do some streamlining around, do some pilot projects and I’m prepared to work with the federal government. I hope they’re prepared to work with us,” she said..On that front, despite an ongoing war of words with federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, Smith said she’s still optimistic both sides can come to an agreement that meets the country’s climate goals while maintaining Alberta’s economic prosperity. .By 2050, not 2035..“I think it’s quite frankly it’s unachievable to have all industrial power, all heating, all transportation all on a net-zero power grid by 2035 unachievable, I don’t even want to pretend that it’s possible to do, because in the end our job is to make sure life is affordable for people,” she said..“All of what we're doing has to be involved making sure we were supporting people in what can be an inhospitable climate for a large number of months of the year and so we're going to have a three-pronged approach of emissions neutrality by 2050, reliability and affordability and I think we can do all three.”
