FOURNIER: Let coal be king again!

I will never forgive Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party (NDP) for spending $1.36 billion back in 2015 to pay coal power producers to close coal power plants and their mining operations in Alberta.In my opinion, these funds were a bribe to not legally challenge Rachel’s 30% Renewable Energy Mandate (REM,) which made the province’s power purchase agreements (PPA) with coal power operators untenable.Not only did breaking our PPAs with coal power producers give rise to high inflation and increasing grid instability, but it also resulted in the loss of 1,000s of high-paying coal mining jobs in numerous small communities within central Alberta following the closure of 18 coal mines..For example, the loss of 200 high-income coal mining jobs at the Sheerness coal mine, represented 7.5% of Hanna Alberta’s population suddenly being without employment. This would be equivalent to the City of Calgary suddenly losing the employment and taxation income from closing all of Alberta Health Service’s infrastructure in the Foothills Hospital district or the Calgary International Airport.Even though both employment sectors are large emitters, most sane people ignore this fact, given their massive and obvious benefits.One of the reasons Rachel’s NDP favoured closing coal mines versus closing the Calgary International Airport as the thrust of her Climate Leadership plan, is the systemic disdain the AB NDP have for rural Albertans (aka Sewer Rats.) It is well known that rural voters are — on average — conservative, while metropolitan voters all too often vote in favor of socialism.Having left behind big city life and taken up ranching in southern Alberta seven years ago, I have gained a new appreciation for the fact that coal mining, like agriculture, forestry and oil and gas production, are historically bedrock industries for rural Albertans.As well, I have increasingly come to the conclusion that the generational migration of rural populations to metropolitan city centers is not sustainable.Furthermore, I believe that as a society, we must conscientiously renew our support for these bedrock sectors, as well as for the rural populations and smaller communities that drive them.This strategy should be the tip of the spear in arresting rapidly declining economic productivity.I now want to address two important topics that continue to be used in an attempt to persuade Albertans to further abandon its rural communities.The motivation for this article is my desire to raise positive awareness of the scheduled referendum or plebiscite by citizens of Crowsnest Pass on November 25th regarding the re-opening of the 100-year old Grassy Mountain coal mine in their backyard..WS DOCUMENTARY: Coal, culture, conflict.I love referendums, and I think the provincial decision on this project should rest on this outcome.I am in favor of this project, as well as the Tent Mountain legacy coal mine revitalization project, which is also in the Crowsnest Pass region.Both coal mine projects aim to re-open and rehabilitate old mine workings of the abandoned coal mine projects in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountain range. As with so many small communities in Alberta, this region has an extensive history of coal mining operations extending back to the early 20th century.Many Crowsnest Pass locals argue that coal mining renewal is a path to reducing the dependence on seasonal tourism employment.The two commonly-expressed reasons for not green-lighting the Grassy Mountain project are concerns over its water quantity (i.e., consumption rates) and water quality (i.e., potentially adversely affecting select aquatic organisms).As the Grassy Mountain project team has not yet released a formal estimate on its water requirements, The Tyee has used Australian data to suggest that Grassy Mountain may require over 1 billion liters per year.The Tyee simply tells their readers that this value is unacceptably high.What The Tyee doesn't tell their readers is that a single quarter section of irrigated land in the nearby Lethbridge region consumes around 185 million liters per year or that Calgarians consume over 1 billion liters per month just to flush their toilets into the Bow River.I would argue that The Tyee is purposefully creating an irrational sense of fear over these projects by not using relative frames of reference in citing water consumption rate statistics and their environmental impact.I would recommend that we wait to see what Grassy Mountain’s water management plan is before going all irrational.Furthermore, let us not loose sight of the fact that water consumption is a prerequisite for all aspects of modern life.The second objection to revitalizing legacy coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass area is the potential for mining operations to result in higher downstream concentrations of selenium (an essential element required for life) leaching from mine rockpiles into regional tributaries.Folks, as we know from the fundamental premise of toxicology (Paracelsus, 16th century) “the dose makes the poison.”Nay-sayers would have us believe that selenium leaching from Elk Valley coal mining operations, which have been in existence for a century, are equivalent to the Chernobyl nuclear melt-down event.The language being used by nay-sayers ignores the fact that ranchers feed selenium-infused salts to their livestock herds as an essential nutrient or its immense human health benefits, just as they ignore the fact that selenium is a natural geochemical constituent of the Rocky Mountains.What the Elk Valley mines scenario over the past few decades has taught us is that aquatic species (especially fish) have lower toxicity thresholds for dissolved selenium than their terrestrial counterparts, and that modern mine design, mitigation and treatment practices can successfully reduce selenium leachate from overburden stockpiles.In closing, I stress that mine engineers can design and operate legacy coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass region to limit selenium leaching into local tributaries and that regulatory toxicity thresholds are known to be overly conservative, based on empirical data from numerous geographic regions throughout North America.As a southern Albertan rancher and an environmental scientist, I urge Albertans to support Crowsnest Pass citizens in their November 25th referendum.

FOURNIER: Let coal be king again!

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