The Alberta government should reassure the renewable energy sector that the pause it has placed on approvals for wind and solar projects is a short-term measure, the federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister says, citing the need to avoid creating uncertainty and driving away investment.blindsiding the billion-dollar renewable energy industry and grinding it to a halt so it can examine end-of-life rules, where infrastructure can be built and other concerns.
Mr. Wilkinson said he has stressed to Alberta that it should wait to see the first draft of the regulations, which may have “more flexibility than what people are anticipating.” by suggesting it will withhold federal funding from electricity projects that don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some provinces – such as British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador – already have grids that are close to 100-per-cent non-emitting. Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, however, are more reliant on coal and unabated natural gas, while numerous remote and Indigenous communities in the north are reliant on diesel to generate power.