Alberta to ban renewables on ‘prime’ land and preserve ‘pristine viewscapes’
Alberta to ban renewables on ‘prime’ land and preserve ‘pristine viewscapes’
Decision by premier Danielle Smith further pits Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energy
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12553230
Decision by premier Danielle Smith further pits Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energy
Alberta will block renewable energy projects on “prime” agricultural land and limit the placement of wind turbines to preserve “pristine viewscapes”, a decision that increasingly pits the western Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energy – and the companies investing in it.
The decision, announced by the premier, Danielle Smith, and utilities minister, Nathan Neudorf, on Wednesday, follows a controversial six-month ban on new renewable energy projects that is due to expire on 29 February.
Alberta’s moratorium, announced in August, left energy companies uncertain about billions in future investment, even as the region, with its clear skies and an abundance of wind, led the country in new renewable projects.
Nearly a third of Alberta’s grid is now powered by renewables and the province has shifted away from coal at a far faster rate than expected.
She is such a fucking plague on this country. If Canada was a dictatorship like all of here followers believe, she would have been rounded up and thrown in a camp last year.
She is a plague on us all, CO2 doesn't care about provincial boundaries. My children will suffer from her decisions.
It's amazing that none of them seem to know dictatorships do more than get vocal critics downvoted or maybe fired, which is what they seem the think the
JewsGlobalists are doing to them, and which proves they're in a dictatorship.
I assume the same "pristine viewscapes" bullshit will apply to oil & gas and coal mines etc. (of course it won't)
The oil pipelines and open mines add character to the "prestige viewscapes".
The oil sands are known as a vacation spot for a reason.
There's nothing prettier than a swath of land stripped bare with the barren limestone exposed, the pristine reflections of the sun on the undisturbed tailing ponds, the piles of black mud with lines of tire tracks running through it, with the silence broken only by intermittent booms to keep the birds from landing in the toxic sludge.
Or how about the oil derricks in the north, placed delicately in the middle of the boreal forest, within a clearcut square of stripped down below the soil, creating a beautiful bare patch 100m in every direction from the derricks.
and the province has shifted away from coal at a far faster rate than expected.
Because solar and wind are dirt cheap compared to traditional energy generation methods. Using renewable energy is, put bluntly, just good business sense. If you have plentiful sun and/or wind and you're not making use of solar or wind generation then you are pissing away good money opportunities.
But if there is one thing the conservatives love more than resisting change, it's sitting around doing nothing while they beg the federal government for more money so they can subsidize their failure of a fossil fuel sector. That entire province just evokes the mental image of repeatedly slamming your foot on a rake and complaining how much it hurts each time.
That's such a great depiction of Alberta's politics it's both funny and tragic at the same time. Alberta (and SK for that matter) could be leading the nation in non-hydro renewables if they let the market decide, but for some reason the O&G industry needs to continue to be propped up. If only they could see the opportunity staring them in the face.
Don’t forget, all while blaming everyone else for putting the rake there
Solar and wind are dirty cheap until it's night time and they is no... wind. It's not a predictable source of energy and it's often associated with gas to compensate that.
For those who are curious about Energy and Alberta, I strongly suggest to listen to this podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/3VBL33s0ch5BQCbg4AZJz2?si=GlWvXmM3Q1mxPwK6EMDFTw
until it’s night time and they is no… wind
Spot the person who's never been to Alberta. It's ALWAYS FUCKING WINDY HERE.
Man, even just reducing gas usage by having solar / wind even if it's half the time, is STILL HALF THE USAGE.
The year is 6000BCE. Time traveling Danielle Smith rallies against planting farms to preserve natural beauty. Insists hunting is a much more practical food source and will continue to serve humanity's needs indefinitely.
In my opinion, renewables, especially wind mills, look incredibly aesthetically pleasing on a landscape. They are extra pretty because you know they are replacing coal/oil and how can clean energy not be amazingly beautiful in that regard?
I always feel like I'm driving in the future going through wind farms
I drove thru wind farms 30 years ago in California
But it will be perfectly acceptable to put an oil well there which will be abandoned and left to rot after a few years I bet.
QUIT ELECTING MORONS, you morons.
Literally nobody in the public voted for her in the first term at least.
Edit: WTF, Lemmy. I'm factually correct. Look at her Wikipedia page if you don't believe me.
She was appointed when Jason Kenney resigned. She won in the second term, not the first term. In the first term, the public was not given a chance to vote for her or not.
How many farmers will this piss off? Like seriously. I'm south of the border and any farmer that likes making money LOVES renting out a tiny portion of their land to turbine companies for all that sweet passive income.
Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!
Because when the oil industry does it to more than 140 thousand square kilometers that's fine.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The decision, announced by the premier, Danielle Smith, and utilities minister, Nathan Neudorf, on Wednesday, follows a controversial six-month ban on new renewable energy projects that is due to expire on 29 February.
Alberta’s moratorium, announced in August, left energy companies uncertain about billions in future investment, even as the region, with its clear skies and an abundance of wind, led the country in new renewable projects.
Smith said that the new rules reflect what she called “errors” in the way liability for oil and gas companies was structured in the past – and has since led to mounting crisis in the province as officials contend with roughly 170,000 “orphaned” oilwell sites.
In order to preserve its vast open prairie landscapes and sight lines of the Rocky Mountains, the province will put in buffer zones at least 35 kilometres (22 miles) separating what the government believes is a “pristine viewscape” and wind turbines.
Neudorf admitted there was no “universal definition” of the term, but cited other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, with rules surrounding buffer zones.
Neudorf also said the policy would apply to the “vertical footprint” of all wind turbines – but that other industries that physically alter the landscape, such as coal projects or clearcut logging, would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
The original article contains 617 words, the summary contains 215 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Wow, so not only is this a direct attack on renewables, but non renewables that fall under the same situation are too be reviewed case by case?
Wild