Hanna Mayor Chris Warwick has concerns about the Province’s new climate change strategy, and more importantly how it relates to phasing out coal-powered generation.
Last Sunday, Premier Rachel Notley, introduced her much anticipated Climate Change Strategy. This shift included emission limits for oil sands, a price on carbon for all Albertans to absorb and a schedule to phase out coal fired electricity generation by 2030.
Warwick says he understands the days of coal powered generation are numbered, In fact, one of the units at the Sheerness Generating Plant, co-owned by ATCO and Transalta, is scheduled, through federal regulations, to be turn off in 2034, and the second unit shortly thereafter. The new provincial plan moves those timelines up. He feels this is not the right way to make these changes.
“I appreciate they are addressing the issue but a tax is not the answer,” said Warwick.
He explains this transition could be done without adding a carbon tax. He cites a TransAlta report called Dial Down Coal, Dial Up Renewables, which makes the transition without a price on carbon.
“Who’s going to pay for it? You and me. And why should we?” he asks.
The Sheerness Generation Station employs about 110 fulltime employees, and almost as many at the mine that supplies it. He said if the plant was converted to burn natural gas, the plant could run on about half the staff.
While phasing out coal-fired generation will reduce the carbon footprint, Warwick points out it does not address some of the more pressing environmental concerns.
“The carbon emissions aren’t as harmful themselves as the mercury and the toxins that go along with it. The actual pollution, those are what we should be looking at,” he said.
While he has concerns, he estimated there could have been changes that are more drastic.
“I honestly expected worse, I thought the timeline would be shorter than she said to shut down the coal fire generation stations," he said. “It wasn’t as bad, my biggest problem is taxing people, and it is not the industry, that is being taxed it’s everyone of us.”
“We knew it was coming eventually, we are not naive to think it is here forever, but to fast-track it by another four years, when the feds said the were going to do it, don’t understand that,” he said.
He says best-case scenario for the town would be to see the plant converted and to natural gas and retain about half the employees.
“If you lose those 50-some jobs a the power plant, and the oil and gas sector goes up a bit because of this, then we might gain a few jobs back in operators and alike, so it is not a total loss. But ATCO could say ‘we are going to shut the whole thing down’ and we would lose 20 and some families, that’s pretty stressful.”
