Wildrose energy critic and Sundre-area MLA Joe Anglin has been formulating a plan that he says would see Alberta's oil sector substantially decrease CO2 emissions, make Alberta's electricity cheaper, and clean up the province's electricity production, all in one fell swoop.
Anglin told the Gazette that developing more hydroelectricity infrastructure in northern Alberta could go a long way towards ending the energy woes the province has been facing in recent years.
“There's two very valid reasons for developing hydroelectricity,” said Anglin. “One is that it is the most efficient electricity you can generate. It's 90 per cent efficient, it's extremely cheap, and the lifespan of hydro is minimum 100 years.
“You could probably take it up to 200 years without very much difficulty at all, compared to natural gas or coal.”
Another good reason for developing hydroelectricity in northern Alberta would be to supply the oil industry with power, he said.
“If you make this hydroelectricity available to them, there's an initial payback that is significant. About three-quarters of the cost to develop this - including transmission lines - could easily be paid back through the sale of the bitumen that would be freed up,” he said.
If the hydroelectricity option was expanded, and oil-production centres, in turn, didn't have to burn so much bitumen to meet their electricity requirements, the greenhouse gas emissions from oil production would diminish significantly, he said.
He explained excess power from northern Alberta could then be sent down to Central Alberta to be used by other consumers.
“So what this allows us to do is to bring cheap, efficient and reliable electricity into Alberta and eliminate the use of pulverizing coal. And it would allow us to meet and achieve our greenhouse gas emission targets, while we would be improving our efficiency, and that's the real key,” he said.
This would play into the federal mandate to decommission coal-powered generators, but would also help to improve how other countries view Alberta's oil production, he said.
“And that's what the world really wants to see. Us as an economy, we're getting a black eye worldwide - in some cases unnecessarily and unfairly,” he said.
“This allows us to turn that around and say 'How do you like us now? Look at what we're doing,' and we can actually lead Canada - we can actually lead the world - in greenhouse gas reduction.”
When asked for his views on the validity of the claims that CO2 plays a role in climate change, he declined to comment directly.
“I think man has an impact on the environment and always has. I'll let the scientists argue what impact and how we do it,” he said.
Debating one way or another on the climate change issue is counterproductive, he said.
“We do know this: you never tell your customer he's wrong, and our customers want to see CO2 emissions reduced. So that's alright - to help us sell our products abroad, we can do that.”
Since developing his hydroelectric proposals, Anglin has floated the idea to various oil industry members, as well as to the Oilsands Developers Group - an industry group whose members are developing the oilsands.
“As each group heard this scenario, I got nothing but positive feedback. So this comes down to you need to seriously look at where you would do this, how you would do this, and it's complicated,” he said.
“You're going to have to include First Nations - not just in the discussions, but in the economic activity, however that is constructed - and that is a whole government-to-government kind of issue.”
All of these obstacles can be overcome, provided all involved parties deal with each other rationally and economically, and look at what is in the public's best interest, he said.
“(Oil companies) will make money and we get more royalties as a society, so you can see there's advantages on both sides of the coin,” he said.
Another perk of his plan would be that it would also drive down electricity bills for Albertans, he said.
“Looking at the provinces dominated by hydroelectricity such as Manitoba and British Columbia and Quebec, they all have extremely cheap electricity prices,” he said.
“I truly believe that this is something we have to take seriously and this is something that has a tremendous advantage in a number of different ways, but those are the targets I would go for, for those very reasons.”
Although his plan has not been adopted by the Wildrose Party, Anglin said it is currently being developed and will be brought forward for adoption at the Wildrose Party AGM in October.
“It is one of the issues I will definitely be bringing to that convention and I really hope that it is adopted - I see no reason why it won't be,” he said.
