Energy
British Columbia electric grid ‘at risk of shortfall’ as province limits natural gas, report warns

From LifeSiteNews
” B.C. could experience power shortfalls beginning in 2026 as the New Democratic Party (NDP) government continues to phase out natural gas. “
A report has found that the Canadian province of British Columbia’s electric grid is becoming increasingly inadequate as the government goes forward with plans to phase out natural gas power generation by 2030.
According to a December report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, British Columbia’s electric grid is “at risk of shortfall” in extreme weather conditions, such as the conditions which shut down its power grid last October.
“That should be a wake up call and should shake us out of our complacency that we have enough electricity to meet all of our potential desires, whether it’s electrification of vehicles, industry or home heating,” said Barry Penner, former B.C. cabinet minister and current employee of Resource Works.
The report warned that B.C. could experience power shortfalls beginning in 2026 as the New Democratic Party (NDP) government continues to phase out natural gas for power production.
Also in December, FortisBC, the province’s natural gas company, proposed to expand the province’s natural gas infrastructure in the ever-expanding Okanagan by building a new pipeline between Chute Lake and Penticton.
The suggestion was rejected by B.C. Utilities Commission, however, which continues to dismiss the warnings that the government’s plan poses a threat to energy reliability. Instead, the BCUC has argued that the demand for natural gas may decrease as the CleanBC climate plan banning natural gas space and water heating in new homes by 2030 is further implemented.
B.C. is at the forefront of the push to outlaw natural resources. According to their climate plan, newly constructed homes will be primarily heated with options like electrical baseboard heat, while a heat pump will be installed to kick in at -20 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the provinces is pushing for all new vehicles sold in 2035 to be fully electric.
B.C.’s climate plans come as last week Canadians across Alberta witnessed first-hand the instability and insufficiency of an electric power grid and renewable energy sources.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, amid a cold snap in Western Canada that saw temperatures in some regions drop to nearly minus 50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend, the power grid in Alberta neared collapse due to inadequate production from renewable sources such as solar and wind.
In response to the situation, the neighboring province of Saskatchewan, which was also facing the same cold snap, announced it would be providing Alberta with electricity to stabilize the grid.
Many, including Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, noted that the incident served as a stark reminder of the potential dangers of a looming federal mandate calling for an eventual end to oil and gas power production in favor of less reliable wind and solar power.
“SaskPower is providing 153 MW of electricity to AB this evening to assist them through this shortage. That power will be coming from natural gas and coal-fired plants, the ones the Trudeau government is telling us to shut down (which we won’t),” wrote Moe on X (formerly Twitter) at the time.
During the outage, Canadians were also asked to delay charging their electric vehicles, which Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Leslyn Lewis argued shows how Trudeau’s green agenda, which looks to ban sales of new gas-powered cars starting in 2035, is “unrealistic.”
The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – which are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
Even the recent energy crisis has not stopped the Trudeau government from pushing their radical agenda, which is apparently unaware or unsympathetic to Canadians suffering from the cold and power outages.
Just last week, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told attendees at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2024 meeting in Davos that it is up to the government to “make” sure the “decarbonization” of Canada’s energy sector “happens.”
However, some western provinces have declared they will not follow the regulations but instead focus on the wellbeing of Canadians.
Both Alberta and Saskatchewan have repeatedly promised to place the interests of their people above the Trudeau government’s “unconstitutional” demands, while consistently reminding the federal government that their infrastructures and economies depend upon oil, gas, and coal.
“We will never allow these regulations to be implemented here, full stop,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently declared. “If they become the law of the land, they would crush Albertans’ finances, and they would also cause dramatic increases in electricity bills for families and businesses across Canada.”
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has likewise promised to fight back against Trudeau’s new regulations, saying recently that “Trudeau’s net-zero electricity regulations are unaffordable, unrealistic and unconstitutional.”
“They will drive electricity rates through the roof and leave Saskatchewan with an unreliable power supply. Our government will not let the federal government do that to the Saskatchewan people,” he charged.
Business
Ontario Premier Doug Ford Apologizes To Americans After Threatening Energy Price Hike For Millions

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By
Ontario Premier Doug Ford apologized to Americans Tuesday after he suspended a 25% electricity surcharge that he initially said he would be “relentless” in pursuing.
Ford implemented a 25% surcharge on electricity to New York, Michigan and Minnesota on Monday, but quickly rescinded the policy and apologized to Americans on WABC’s “Cats & Cosby” radio show the following day. The tariffs were initially a retaliatory measure against President Donald Trump’s flurry of tariffs against Canada since he assumed office.
Canada is highly dependent on U.S. exports, economists told CNN, and the planned electricity surcharge would likely hurt Canada’s energy industry much more than it would the U.S., although an estimated 1.5 million homes and businesses would have been affected.
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“I want to apologize to the American people. I spent 20 years of my life in the US, in New Jersey, in Chicago. I love the American people,” Ford said. “I absolutely love them … Secretary Lutnick and President Trump are brilliant businesspeople. They are hard negotiators. We need to put this behind us and move forward and build the two strongest countries in the world.”
Initially, Ford had a much more aggressive tone when he instituted the tariffs.
“We will not back down. We will be relentless. I apologize to the American people that President Trump decided to have an unprovoked attack on our country, on families, on jobs, and it’s unacceptable,” Ford said on MSNBC in response to Trump’s hiking of steel and aluminum tariffs.
Trump, in turn, threatened to increase the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada to 50%, with the increase going into effect the next day.
Ford then talked with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, with the premier describing the call as “productive.” Once Ford backed down on his plan to implement the export fees, Trump reversed his planned hike to 50% on steel and aluminum tariffs. Ford is expected to meet with Lutnick Thursday in Washington, D.C.
If a deal is not reached by the April 2 deadline, the tariffs will resume.
Ontario sold around 12 terawatt hours of electricity to America in 2023, with the U.S. being Ontario’s largest energy customer outside Canada. The tariff would have likely added “100$ a month” to the bill of Americans in the affected states, Ford claimed according to CNN.
The U.S. and Canada have entered into a contested debate over trade policies, with Canada announcing an additional $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs on American goods in response to Trump’s initial 25% steel and aluminum tariffs.
Trump initially gained concessions from Canada in February, forcing them to aid in curtailing the illegal fentanyl trade in exchange for a pause on a 25% general goods tariff enacted Feb. 1. However, Trump eventually let the pause expire, with the tariff resuming in March.
“Canada is a tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer,” Trump said on Truth Social Mar. 10.
The Ontario Premier’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Daily Caller
Reality Finally Returns To Energy Industry

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By David Blackmon
Speaking at the opening day of the annual CERAWeek global energy industry gathering in Houston, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser declared plans for a government subsidized energy transition a failure, saying, “there is more chance of Elvis speaking next than the current plan working!”
He isn’t wrong, and Elvis was nowhere in sight.
Nasser began his speech by telling the audience made up largely of executives in the oil and gas industry and its contractors that, “We can all feel the winds of history in our industry’s sails again.”
Again, he isn’t wrong.
The winds of change have been blowing for well over a year now in favor of placing national energy security concerns over the rank climate alarmism that dominates the narratives surrounding this mythical transition. In fact, that shift began to become apparent at the 2023 CERAWeek gathering, as speaker after speaker emphasized the need to refocus on enhancing energy security after three years and trillions of dollars in debt-funded spending on renewables.
Now, with last November’s re-election of Donald Trump to a second presidency and the Energy Dominance agenda he brings with him, the momentum at the industry’s back is starkly obvious.
But that doesn’t mean that the world will or should abandon the expansion of other forms of energy, including intermittent sources like solar power and stationary batteries.
In this area, Nasser echoed the “all-of-the-above philosophy touted earlier in the Monday agenda by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, emphasizing a new model that “reflects the reality of growing demand and energy addition,” while bringing an end to the current practice by many activists and politicians of demonizing oil, gas, and coal.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the world was promised many things in the current transition plan,” Nasser said. “It was like promising an energy El Dorado. And this quest was equally doomed to fail.”
Noting that the chosen alternatives to fossil fuels currently being heavily subsidized — wind, solar, green hydrogen, and electric vehicles — are unable to even account for incremental energy demands, much less replace fossil fuels, Nasser advocated for a revised effort in which alternatives play a growing role of complementing reliable, conventional energy sources. “I take no pleasure in this. But it is time to stop reinforcing failure. Indeed, as the fictions of the promised transition finally wash away, there is an historic opportunity to change course.”
Nasser’s remarks were largely echoed by Secretary Wright, who promised, “The Trump administration will end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.” Wright also dismissed the previous administration’s focus on climate alarmism over energy security as myopic.
“The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is — a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world,” Wright said. The energy secretary called Biden’s policies “economically destructive to our businesses and politically polarizing. The cure was far more destructive than the disease.”
Wright also bluntly explained why the Trump administration singled out offshore wind as an especially destructive element of the Biden myopia, while at the same time extolling solar and battery storage as zero-emission ideas that make sense.
Offshore wind’s “incredibly high prices, incredibly huge investment and a large footprint on the local communities, so it’s been very unpopular for people that live near offshore wind turbines,” Wright said. Touting his “all-of-the-above” approach, Wright said the administration supports anything that adds to “affordable, reliable, secure energy,” adding, “Wind has been singled out because it’s had a singularly poor record of driving up prices.”
Emphasizing the inadequacies of the subsidized alternatives to fossil fuels, Wright pointed out that there “is simply no physical way that wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas.” He also pointed out that gas currently supplies 43% of power generated on the U.S. grid, a share that is unlikely to be reduced anytime soon.
It all boils down to the simple reality that globalist plans for this government-forced transition have failed. As Nasser said, the time to “stop reinforcing failure” has arrived.
Elvis has left the building.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
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