A balanced path forward to serve the needs of Alberta
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, Alberta's Minister of Utilities and Affordability, Nathan Neudorf, joins me to talk about the challenges facing Alberta's energy sector, and how the government is working to address them. We talk about how Alberta is leading the country in renewable energy development and development, and the challenges the province is facing when it comes to providing reliable and affordable electricity.
Transcript
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Yeah, I'm joined by Alberta Minister of Utilities and Affordability, Nathan Neudorf.
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I really appreciate you coming in to talk to us today here at the Global Energy Show.
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Well, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
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So, I mean, just to kind of start with quickly, though, as I was saying earlier,
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it's an unusual title for a ministry. I mean, it makes sense, affordability and utilities.
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Well, affordability is a top issue for Albertans, and what many people don't always realize
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is utilities, particularly electricity, but natural gas, water, other utilities that we use,
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really impact the cost of living from the way you heat your home or light your grocery store
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or cool the food that you eat. Every commercial entity uses electricity, so it's a primary input cost.
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And if we can continue to stabilize that and lower that price, at least in relative terms,
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we can make a big impact on affordability for Albertans.
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Yeah, and utility is something we can't avoid. We need it, and stability is really important.
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This has been kind of an issue, ironically, as we're an energy-producing province,
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ever since Premier Klein deregulated, in a sense, and it's still kind of been an ongoing battle
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to try and get, I guess, that consistency and such.
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To start with, an issue that made a lot of news last year was with the renewables and generation and such.
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There was a moratorium. The moratorium has come off. How have things come to play now?
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What many, again, what many Albertans maybe not have realized is over the past few years,
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Alberta has led Canada in renewable energy development and growth.
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In 2023, 93% of all renewable projects in Canada were built right here in Alberta.
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So we need to bring that balance and stability back.
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There's attributes of renewable energy that aren't beneficial, some of their volatility and intermittency,
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which is fine. But again, a balanced path forward to serve the needs of Alberta as we grow,
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not just in population, but also in industry, is really important.
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And that's what we're seeking to do is affordability and reliability.
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Yeah, and we're definitely getting to where we have much more demand for electrical power.
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I mean, with AI centers, things like that, or even digital currency mining, it's putting a draw.
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We need to increase our ability. One of the challenges, though, I saw that near your mandate letter,
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is we want to increase it, but we've got Ottawa with a lot of regulations and emissions caps,
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things such as that. How have you been navigating with that?
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Well, it's a continual endeavor to get the federal government, Ottawa Liberal Party in particular,
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to understand why Alberta is different. A lot of people would like to see more hydroelectricity.
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We don't, unfortunately, have the geography or the geology to allow much more than we currently have.
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And the demands, as you said earlier, are ever-increasing for electricity.
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That's why we're exploring geothermal. We're exploring nuclear.
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We're exploring the future so that we get clean electricity, sustainable electricity,
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And we sit on some of the largest natural gas reserves in the world.
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We want to utilize that resource as responsibly and effectively and efficiently as possible.
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I mean, our most immediate means of generating electricity, I would imagine,
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is still expanding our natural gas generation capability.
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Are there projects then in the works that are going to be coming on stream soon?
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There's potential. They would love to build some more.
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The clean electricity regulations the federal government brought in are problematic.
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They potentially, they set impossible thresholds for admittance, and they set timelines that are prohibitive.
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And if you don't comply, in our private market, it means that private CEOs and boards could go to jail.
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That's just not acceptable for our industry to expand and innovate,
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and nobody should be facing jail time for something that isn't technologically feasible at this time.
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So we're asking the government to work with us to provide a better future for all Albertans
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in terms of affordability, lowering emissions, and sustainability and reliability.
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Yeah, so this show, I mean, we've got exhibitors from all over the world.
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Have you been able to tour and see some, you know, meet some people,
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some potential new ideas and things we can embrace out here?
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It's fun to watch and see the innovation around the world to work with global partners.
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I'm proud to have just heard the premier speak on the potential for Alberta to lower global emissions
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by 600 million tons a year if we get our LNG to market.
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Alberta wants to be a world player and help solve the world's problems.
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We believe we can do that in collaboration with some of our trade partners around the world.
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We just need the time and relationships and help from the federal government to make it possible.
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Okay, and we're continuing to move away from coal generation, you know, and fair enough.
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I think most people kind of agree we can find cleaner means, but still for the immediate load
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that we have on our grid, is there any appetite or plans to tap the brakes a bit on that
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until we can get new things on board, or are we just going to keep phasing things up?
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Well, unfortunately, a previous government ended that.
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There is no more coal emitting generation within Alberta for electricity.
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It did come at a significant cost, over $2 billion that is continually being paid.
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That's why we don't want to see the same thing happen to our natural gas providers.
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We need them to have a good long lifespan so those assets that have been invested in
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have their full capabilities reached as we continue to lower our emissions.
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It was a big step from coal to natural gas, and we want to continue to develop that.
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That's why we're looking at carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration.
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Well, I appreciate you coming to give us a few minutes, you know, an optimistic outlook.
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I mean, we have the means, we have the ability.
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If we could just kind of, I guess, get past some of the ideological opposition,
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we could really increase the affordability and their stability.
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We believe that there is truly a path forward of balance
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that balances the needs of Albertans today and our hopes and aspirations for the future.
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And we think, given what we see around here today,
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innovation technology is continually advancing to make that more and more possible all the time.
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Well, I'll let you get back to the show and perhaps find a few more of those