Letter: If the United Kingdom can get off coal, so can Alberta

By Letter to the Editor on October 9, 2024.

Dear editor,

Again: What the hell is going on here? Re: Provincial Restrictions on Renewable Energy Development vs. Approval of Australian Coal Mine.

Today (Sept. 30), I was thrilled to hear that the United Kingdom has just become the first developed nation to be completely coal free for energy production. This is a country that used to be entirely coal dependent. How ironic that while this happens there; here we are planning to approve a coal mine in the Crowsnest Pass.

This has not been allowed in Alberta since the Lougheed years. When Jason Kenney’s UCP looked at opening it up, there was a huge public outcry and a joint panel of federal and provincial regulators denied approval of this Grassy Mountain project in 2021.

Now through back channels and a phoney referendum, UCP Energy Minister Brian Jean is trying to manipulate the system in order to enable this illegal mine.

If approved, it will affect water throughout the region including Lethbridge, whose Oldman River flows into the South Saskatchewan, which will affect Medicine Hat, too.

Is Lethbridge or Medicine Hat being asked to vote in the referendum? Are the Indigenous peoples of the Piikani Nation being allowed to vote? No! Only the Municipality of Crowsnest, which has about 5,000 people, gets to decide this for the whole region of southern Alberta.

Meanwhile, as a result of new regulations brought in after the Renewable Energy Moratorium (from a government that’s always bitching about regulatory overreach), many companies who were blindsided by this have withdrawn their development applications.

Apparently the UCP is concerned about “protected areas (not on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, though), and pristine viewscapes.

Will the hypocrisy never cease?

Because the so-called energy redesign (but not affecting any coal, oil or gas projects), has created extreme uncertainty; companies like our own TransAlta Utilities withdrew plans for a $70M wind farm from the Cardston area and have shelved three other renewable projects. Yet, Brian Jean is clearing the way for an Australian company to pollute our water.

How did Great Britain get off of coal? Wind power.

Come on, citizens of Alberta, let’s wake up and push back against this corrupt provincial government.