Albertans need to push back against a corrupt government
By Lethbridge Herald on October 12, 2024.
Editor:
I was thrilled to hear that the United Kingdom has just become the first developed nation to be completely coal-free for energy production.
This is a country that used to be entirely coal dependent.
How ironic that while this happens there, here we are planning to approve a coal mine in the Crowsnest Pass. This has not been allowed in Alberta since the Lougheed years.
When Jason Kenney’s UCP looked at opening it up, there was a huge public outcry and a joint panel of federal and provincial regulators denied approval of this Grassy Mountain project in 2021.
Now the UCP’s energy minister Brian Jean is trying to manipulate the system in order to enable this illegal mine. If approved, it will affect water throughout the region including Lethbridge, whose Oldman River flows into the South Saskatchewan which will affect Medicine Hat, too.
Is Lethbridge or Medicine Hat being asked to vote in the referendum? Are the Indigenous peoples of the Piikani Nation being allowed to vote? No!
Only the Municipality of Crowsnest which has about 5,000 people gets to decide this for the whole region of Southern Alberta.
Meanwhile, as a result of new regulations brought in after the renewable energy moratorium (from a government that’s always complaining about regulatory overreach), many companies who were blindsided by this, have withdrawn their development applications.
Apparently the UCP is concerned about “protected areas” (not on the eastern slopes of the Rockies though), and “pristine viewscapes.”
Will the hypocrisy never cease? Because the so-called energy redesign (but not affecting any coal, oil or gas projects), has created extreme uncertainty, companies like our own TransAlta withdrew plans for a $70 million wind farm from the Cardston area and have shelved three other renewable projects.
Yet Brian Jean is clearing the way for an Australian company to pollute our water. How did Great Britain get off of coal? Wind power
Come on citizens of Alberta, let’s wake up and push back against this corrupt provincial government.
Gail Lawrence
Medicine Hat
16-15
Quite correct!
Respect existence or expect resistance!
Quite right, Gail. This is political theatre, another wedge issue the UCP can bang on with no consideration of the science evaluated by the Joint Panel, or the rights of downstream users to maintain the quality of drinking water.
What amazes me is that the multi-billion dollar irrigation and feedlot industries are not weighing in. Are they too beholden to goverment handouts to voice their concerns about water quality? It’s a big price to pay for the (empty?) promise of some jobs.
Wouldn’t you like to know what these Reformers have been offered under the table to destroy Lougheed’s protection on our water supply? They are hellbent on wanting it to proceed and in true Reform Party Fashion don’t care that it was a conservative government that knew we needed to be protected. Coal Tech was fined $60 million for polluting the waters in B.C. and Montana but these Reformers don’t care.
Great comments Gail. My father was a Power Plant Engineer for 38 years and was constantly promoting solar power and getting rid of coal fired plants. He knew that the long hours of sun shine in Southern Alberta was wonderful for putting solar panels on the roofs, and he could produce far more electricity from natural gas than from air polluting coal. He got laughed at of course.
Yet those of us who have travelled the world see how much further ahead of Canada they are while these Reformers try to destroy further development of it.
Not only did Danielle Smith destroy the 24,000 jobs we could have had, she lost Albertans a $33 billion investment that’s how stupid she is.
thank you for sharing an intelligent voice on a pressing matter.
Sorry, natural resourses (coal mining) is strictly regulated and environmental considerations are first and foremost.
Mrs. Lawrence, coming from “the gas city” must (should) fully realize this. (????)
Environmental, economic, labour force, cultural, industrial and foremost, saftey issues, are, today the gammit for progression, more so than ever before. Great Britain and “wind power” ??? Obviously Mrs. Lawrence has not visited Pincher Creek/Crowsnest Pass for several years to see the plethora of windmill farms AND solar panel sites.
Thoughts suggested by Mrs. Lawrence, are so remote, her train of thought will never see positive and necessary research and development in the energy sector.