Alberta the new coal-burning canary

Alberta is planning to phase out all its coal-fired electricity plants by 2030.

Now, the federal government has confirmed it wants other provinces to do the same thing. This is a big turnaround, for sure. Alberta was never considered a leader when it came to carbon-reduction strategies before Premier Rachel Notley and her NDP government were elected just more than a year ago.

But now Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are using Alberta’s climate change action plan as a model for other provinces that still burn coal to produce electricity — namely Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick — and intend to keep doing so until the 2040s.

Trudeau needs those provinces to drastically reduce their use of coal for firing up electricity generators much sooner than that if the federal government is to reach its stated goal of reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent under 2005 levels by 2030.

He is obviously counting on the notion that if Alberta, formerly known as a “laggard” when it came to climate change policies, is taking steps to eliminate all coal-fired electricity in just under 15 years so can the other provinces.

That’s because Alberta is Canada’s most coal-intense province: it produces more coal pollution than all other Canadian provinces combined. Fifty-five per cent of Alberta’s electricity comes from 18 coal-fired generators. Twelve of those generating plants are slated to be decommissioned by 2020 because federal regulations require that coal plants not go beyond a 50-year life span. Six plants are being decommissioned earlier than their owner/operators had anticipated.

Needless to say, those companies are not happy about the Alberta government’s coal phase-out. Unlike other provinces, Alberta never established a crown corporation to provide electricity to Albertans. Instead, the job was turned over to the private sector.

Saskatchewan is in the No. 2 spot after Alberta when it comes to coal: 50 per cent of its electricity is generated by coal, which in turn accounts for 70 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions.

Nova Scotia depends on coal for 56 per cent of its electricity but aims to eliminate it all by 2040; New Brunswick 20 per cent.

Ontario is, of course, the darling of those who want to get rid of the carbon and pollution emitted by coal plants. It did away with all its plants in 2014.

Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has already made it known that Trudeau’s schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions do not sit well with him. He has even threatened a court challenge if the federal government imposes any carbon-reduction strategies on his province.

Wall’s steadfast opposition could scupper any hopes that Trudeau has of reaching a national consensus on a plan to reach emission-reduction targets and satisfy the terms of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

This will no doubt be made even clearer when Trudeau meets with provincial counterparts in October to try and hammer out an agreement that he can then take to the United Nations Climate Summit in Morocco in November.

Perhaps he already realizes that he is not going to get an agreement.

Especially when it comes to an accelerated timeline for eliminating coal-fired electricity.

So he is holding up the Alberta model in hopes it will shame other provinces into action.

But while there is no question that burning coal dumps huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and causes pollution that can be a health hazard, coal is cheap and plentiful.

Albertans are already facing the prospect of higher electricity prices because the government has simply pledged to do away with coal-fired generation. No coal plants have actually been shut down yet but neither are there firm plans to replace coal with reasonably priced renewables.

Trudeau is going to have to come up with an answer, or maybe some money, if he expects people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick to quit their coal habit with no reassurance that they won’t be paying more to keep the lights on.

Alberta is Canada’s most coal-intense province: it produces more coal pollution than all other Canadian provinces combined