In a victory for fossil-fuel-rich Alberta, Ottawa unveiled finalized clean electricity regulations (CER) on Tuesday that extend the target for a net-zero power grid to 2050. The previous target was 2035.Alberta was one of the lead provinces fighting the Liberals on their 2035 date.“After years of watching the federal government gaslight Canadians about the feasibility of achieving a net-zero power grid by 2030, we are gratified to see Ottawa finally admit that the Government of Alberta’s plan to achieve a carbon neutral power grid by 2050 is a more responsible, affordable and realistic target, said a statement issued on behalf of Premier Danielle Smith, Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf, and Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz. “That said, the federal government’s finalized electricity regulations remain entirely unconstitutional as they seek to regulate in an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction. They also require generators to meet unreasonable and unattainable federally mandated interim targets beginning in 2035 that will still make electricity unaffordable for Canadian families."“Alberta will therefore be preparing an immediate court challenge of these electricity regulations that we fully expect to win."“We would propose a quicker and cheaper alternative solution which involves the federal government completely abandoning any attempt to regulate or otherwise interfere with Alberta’s governance over our provincial power grid.”The announcement means many of Alberta's existing gas-fired power facilities are going to run out their economic lives and keep electricity rates reasonable" said Calgary-based energy analyst Dennis McConaghy in a conversation with the Western Standard."So, this was always an implausible expectation on Alberta — to entirely imagine that you were going to replace hydrocarbon generation with a substantial portion of electricity from just wind and solar and batteries — just defied economic rationality."Meeting the 2050 target will be a daunting task, said McConaghy, noting the struggles with net zero ambitions in Germany and the UK — countries that tried to dramatically lower natural gas power generation and paid the price."All these create an affordability crisis that runs at odds with the demands that we're going to decarbonize," said McConaghy."I just make the point that if Canada revisits that as its national climate objective, that puts this entire business of Alberta changing out its basis of how it makes electricity in a very different light."Ottawa dialled back its original target after feedback from provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan and energy industry stakeholders, who said the draft CER regulations would make electricity supply in Canada less reliable and more expensive and risked creating stranded assets, government officials said in a report by BOE Report.Canada already has a mostly clean power grid, reported BOE — 85% of its electricity comes from hydropower, wind and solar. The less pressing regulations mean it will be harder for the Canada to meet its 2035 climate target of cutting C02 emissions 45–50% below 2005 levels by 2035, wrote BOE.“I wouldn’t say we’ve backed off the ambition in terms of decarbonization of the grid, but we have learned through consultation that there was a need for some more flexibility,” Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters in an interview.“It can’t just be about reducing emissions, it has to be done in a manner that results in a reliable grid in all provinces and is affordable for ratepayers.”
