Kenney talks green future for Alberta
Comments mark dramatic shift in premier’s tone
Suddenly, Premier Jason Kenney is talking publicly about the “energy transition.”
This is new. And it’s significant.
“Over the next decades as we go through the energy transition, we all know that there will be a continued demand for crude,” he told a panel at Washington’s Wilson Center last Friday.
Kenney added: “It is preferable that the last barrel in that transition period comes from a stable, reliable liberal democracy with among the highest environmental, human-rights and labour standards on earth.”
Energy transition. Last barrel. Transition period. Six not- so- little words we’ve never heard clearly from Kenney before.
“I have a firm grasp of the obvious,” Kenney said in a later interview. “There is no reasonable person that can deny that in the decades to come we will see a gradual shift from hydrocarbon- based energy to other forms of energy.”
This will seem obvious to millions of Canadians; but Kenney’s words are an important and crucial change of tone for the UCP government.
There’s a widespread view that the premier, and Albertans in general, don’t acknowledge a seismic change in energy markets.
We are widely seen as waving a flag of denial on the oilsands ramparts, with no plan but producing more oil and gas.
Abacus Data-Clean Energy Canada polling shows 68 per cent of Canadians — and exactly the same percentage of Albertans — believe Kenney personally opposes transition from oil and gas to greener sources of energy.
And yet, fully 60 per cent of Alberta respondents want him to find ways to shift Alberta’s economy to green over time.
That figure is higher in Canada at large, at 72 per cent. But the clear majority of Albertans have come to terms with the changing world. And they obviously want the premier to be on board.
Kenney’s change of tone may also have a lot to do with looming federal decisions on the big Teck Resources oilsands project. His comments seem to be aimed as much at undecided cabinet ministers as the public at large.
It is almost impossible to imagine those minority Liberal ministers approving Teck without some assurance that, over time, UCP Alberta is comfortable with transition, even in Kenney’s long-term scenario.
Increasingly, the big investors and energy companies also want their money in places with a strong green agenda.
“We get it,” Kenney said in the interview. “There’s a transition going on.
“But in that world, according to the International Energy Agency, even their most bearish projection for hydrocarbon energy, in the year 2040, they see 68- million barrels of crude oil per day being consumed and they see a near doubling of natural gas production.”
Asked for his longer-term view, he said, “50 years from now I suspect there’s going to be a lot of hydrocarbons still being consumed, and I hope Alberta is the last barrel.
“But, yeah, I think that the modern developed economy will be using energy sources we haven’t even considered yet.
“In the transition period, I want Alberta to be considered the global leader on greening non- renewable energy, while also seeing a growth in renewable forms of energy …
“Alberta should be a player in that, and our companies are committed to do that in a way that’s net-zero with respect to carbon.”
He said that while in Washington, he had a meeting with U. S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette “about potential Alberta- U. S. co- operation on green tech to reduce environmental impact of our non- renewable energy.”
He also touted “billions” in renewable projects now going on in Alberta, including the new Travers Solar Energy Project in Vulcan County, which has attracted $ 500 million of investment from a Danish group.
Kenney isn’t about to stop his attacks on environmental groups that want to shut down the oilsands.
“There’s two streams on this, one the utopian notion that you can turn off the modern industrial economy tomorrow, shut down our current energy consumption and run the world on rainbows and unicorn farts.
“Then there’s the other stream, which is reality, where we continue to have massive consumption of hydrocarbon energy for at least 20 or 30 years, but will be at the same time increasing technology that allows for other forms of energy.”
As for the looming Teck Resources decision, he said, “I don’t know what to expect.
“I can tell you what I hope — that the government of Canada will respect the law and the regulatory process, rather than substituting politics for regulation.”
Kenney’s critics will say he’s just catching up with what the NDP was trying to do for four years.
That’s a fair point. But it’s Alberta’s future that matters most, and Kenney now publicly projects a view that makes sense.