• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy March 28, 2023
Somali Canadians Aid Drought-Stricken Homeland as 43,000 Reported Dead March 26, 2023
B.C.’s New Energy Framework a ‘Smokescreen,’ Critic Warns March 26, 2023
SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20 March 20, 2023
Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action March 20, 2023
Next
Prev

Op-ed: Alberta’s Managed Coal Power Plummet a Climate ‘Success Story’

October 20, 2020
Reading time: 3 minutes

Anyt_Havaub/Pixabay

Anyt_Havaub/Pixabay

1
SHARES
 

Alberta’s turn away from coal has been a “climate action success story” thanks to key policies—many unpopular—set by former premier Rachel Notley, according to a recent essay written by two Alberta economists.

“If Rachel Notley had stood on the podium in 2015 announcing her government’s signature climate change policies and declared that, ‘by 2020, we will use 50% less coal power than we use today,’ she would likely have been heckled off the stage,” write Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist with the University of Alberta, and Blake Shaffer, an assistant professor in economics and public policy at the University of Calgary, in an op-ed for CBC.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“‘It can’t be done!’ they would have said. ‘The lights will go out! Costs will soar! Booooo!’”

But the past five years have roundly proven those imagined hecklers wrong, Leach and Shaffer write, as coal now supplies only about a quarter of Alberta’s electricity.

A significant push in the decline in coal’s fortunes was the annual incremental increase in the carbon price—“eventually hitting $30 per tonne in 2017.” Even more effective was the introduction of the Carbon Competitiveness Incentive Regulation (CCIR), which “changed how the baseline for free emissions credits was set.”

The economists explain that, “rather than facility-specific allocations, which provided more protection to historically dirtier facilities, the new scheme set a common baseline for all electricity generators at the emissions intensity of an efficient combined cycle natural gas plant. Dirtier facilities would pay more, cleaner ones would benefit.”

Which meant that under the new policy, coal plants—already struggling to compete against falling natural gas prices—found their baseline carbon costs rising from around $2 to “nearly $20” per megawatt hour.

In 2016, the Notley government agreed “to compensate coal plant owners for the regulatory shutdown to the tune of roughly $95 million per year over 14 years.” While such compensation might be controversial, Leach and Shaffer write, “it bought durability and created a coalition of the willing,” allowing coal generators to accept their demise and look to the future, “armed with dollars to finance clean power projects.”

The two authors say Notley’s tactics have proven their canniness even over the longer term. “When the [Alberta] government changed, many—likely including Premier Jason Kenney—thought the coal phaseout would be reversed. Instead, there was very little appetite by industry to give up their coal compensation agreements while still facing low natural gas prices, carbon pricing, and federal coal phaseout regulations.”

That means the real-world effects of Notley’s policies on the climate crisis have not been insignificant. “In 2015, GHG emissions from Alberta’s electricity sector were 47 MT. By 2018, the most recent year of official statistics, that number had already fallen to 33 MT,” the economists write. “With the accelerating decline in coal generation, we estimate that Alberta’s electricity system emissions will be roughly 25 MT for 2020—down nearly 50% since 2015.”

So far, there’s no sign of significant increases in power prices, and none are anticipated.

While the success story gives Alberta something to celebrate,  Leach and Shaffer warn readers and policy-makers not to forget the communities whose ties to coal run deep. “There will be jobs lost and businesses shuttered,” they write. “The rapid decline in coal generation risks outrunning any government plans for a just transition.”

Still, the story stands as proof that “the market can move quickly” when policies are clear and make room for new opportunities.

“Alberta’s shift away from coal power should be the most talked-about climate policy story in Canada today,” they write. “That it’s happened without the large increases in prices or concerns regarding reliability that were so loudly predicted five years ago is all the more remarkable.”



in Canada, Carbon Levels & Measurement, Climate & Society, Coal, Ending Emissions, Energy / Carbon Pricing & Economics, Fossil Fuels, Jobs & Training, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory, Nuclear

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

kelly8843496 / Pixabay
Finance & Investment

BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy

March 29, 2023
736
TruckPR/flickr
Hydrogen

Opinion: Hydrogen Hype Sabotages Potential to Decarbonize

March 28, 2023
394
icondigital/pixabay
Supply Chains & Consumption

New Federal Procurement Rule Requires Biggest Bidders to Report Net-Zero Plans

March 28, 2023
198

Comments 2

  1. ricardo2000 says:
    2 years ago

    All this required is another massive fossil fuel subsidy of $95 million multiplied by 14 years or $1.33 billion dollars. So lets hear a cheer for Alberta’s Stupidity Gospel: Gainers, Bovar, Lloydminster refinery, MagCan, AIMCO investment loss of $1 billion, Tar Sands, and 1930’s levels of royalties (5% to 1%) and taxation, and subsidies amounting to $2.33 trillion since 1949.
    Notley’s NDP are just another gang of oil company rent boys and girls.

    Reply
  2. Albertan says:
    2 years ago

    Is a big part of it the extremely low cost of natural gas. Also, the 95 million a year lets you convert coal plants to gas or dual firing.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

kelly8843496 / Pixabay

BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy

March 29, 2023
736
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
780
Faye Cornish/Unsplash

Abundance, Not Austerity: Reframe the Climate Narrative, Solnit Urges

March 26, 2023
178
icondigital/pixabay

New Federal Procurement Rule Requires Biggest Bidders to Report Net-Zero Plans

March 28, 2023
198
TruckPR/flickr

Opinion: Hydrogen Hype Sabotages Potential to Decarbonize

March 28, 2023
394
Bruce Reeve/Flickr

Ontario Faces Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuits Over Cancelled Carbon Pricing Program

May 14, 2022
210

Recent Posts

UNICEF Ethiopia/flickr

Somali Canadians Aid Drought-Stricken Homeland as 43,000 Reported Dead

March 29, 2023
45
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

B.C.’s New Energy Framework a ‘Smokescreen,’ Critic Warns

March 28, 2023
69
Prime Minister's Office/flickr

Biden’s Ottawa Visit Highlights EVs, Clean Grid, Critical Minerals

March 28, 2023
91
EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
65
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
345
IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter

Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 21, 2023
1k
Next Post
Nevit/Wikimedia Commons

Inventor Combines Physics with Ancient Knowledge to Create Fuel-Free Cooling System

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}