DON’T DEMONIZE COAL POWER
Affordable energy source benefits Albertans, writes Michelle Stirling.
Albertans have recently been told by the premier that Alberta is on track to having “bad air” and that restrictions will be imposed upon us if we don’t get our environmental house in order. Fear is a great tool for controlling people. But fears are not facts.
Let’s look at the facts about coal-fired power plants, air quality and climate change in Alberta.
The fact is, Canada was judged as having the thirdbest air quality by the World Health Organization in 2011 — with Calgary and Edmonton in the top 10 for best air. Environment ministers recently decided to cut emissions standards by half. So statements about Alberta air are due to a change in policy, not air quality.
Since the proliferation of coal-fired power generation in Alberta in the 1950s, our life expectancy has gone up from about 50 years to more than 80. The general health of Albertans also improved. Exceptional medical care like transplants and joint replacements are now possible, thanks to affordable, reliable power.
I debated the coal matter with Dr. Joe Vipond, a member of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, on Aug. 23 in Calgary at Speakers’ Corner. One thing I said is that since the 1970s, air quality in Canada has improved dramatically. See for yourself on YourEnvironment.ca
Health fears about coal-fired power stem from a report based on computer simulations issued by Pembina Institute in 2013 called A Costly Diagnosis. We asked economist Dr. Ross McKitrick to evaluate Pembina Institute’s claims and calculations.
“Before using such model predictions you need to ask if the numbers make sense…. (Extrapolated) the Pembina model attributes over half the annual deaths in the province to airborne fine particulates. I find this implausible, to say the least,” said McKitrick.
The Friends of Science Society’s report Burning Questions evaluates the evidence versus the ideology of the phase-out coal campaign. Instead of models, we reviewed about 100 peer-reviewed papers, many of them based on patient records in Alberta.
There were double the emergency department visits for asthma outside of the major urban centres of Edmonton and Calgary — far from coal-fired power plants, meaning dust, residential fire places, agricultural fertilizer aerosols and natural spores, moulds and pollens are more likely sources of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) and relat- ed respiratory conditions. Coal-fired power plants emitted only 0.4 per cent of PM2.5 in 2011. Residential fireplaces emitted double that, and wildfires emitted 1,000 times the PM2.5 of coal-fired power plants in 2011.
Diesel Emissions Particulates (DEP) do affect air quality and tend to hang suspended near the ground, meaning that Edmonton suffers from a combination of DEP emissions from truck fleets, two intercontinental rail lines, and thousands of cars. These emissions are compounded by weather conditions like dirty ridges and inversions.
Our international airports contribute emissions — Edmonton being fifth busiest in Canada.
But back to coal and climate change.
Evan Bahry, executive director of the Independent Power Producers’ Society of Alberta (which represents all forms of power generation, renewables and conventional), says it would cost more than $11 billion to phase out coal.
Pembina Institute advocates for wind and solar — both of which have tripled the cost of power in other jurisdictions. What would tripled power prices do to Alberta health costs — now 45 per cent of the Alberta government budget? What of industry which uses 75 per cent of the power in Alberta? It would cause more job loss, fewer exports.
Coal is the most affordable energy choice, we have lots of it, with well-managed operations and it is a benefit to society.
As for having solutions “imposed” on us? Our environmental standards rank in the top of the world. Let’s stand up for ourselves. Let’s reject the scare and demand the world meet our air standards.