CANADA IS THE 4th LARGEST OIL PRODUCER IN THE WORLD AND THE LARGEST SUPPLIER OF OIL TO THE USA. HOW DID WE GET HERE?

ADDENDUM: COMMENTS ON ALBERTA’S EARLY SPRING FOREST FIRES.

ADDENDUM:
COMMENTS ON ALBERTA’S EARLY SPRING FOREST FIRES.

Much of Alberta was submerged in dense smoke from numerous forest fires today, 16May2023 - thanks to our idiot NDP “feel-good” former government.

SUMMARY:
Rachel Notley’s woke idiot NDP wasted billions to convert Alberta coal–fired electric generation plants to natural gas, allegedly to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases -  but there was NO measurable improvement in air quality and no significant reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. All these fools did was needlessly drive up the cost of our electricity.

If Rachel and her motley crew was even slightly less foolish, they would have saved these billions and spent a small fraction on proper forest management, and Alberta air quality would be vastly improved.

However, that is a BIG IF, even a FUTILE IF, because woke leftist imbeciles are historically incapable of rational decisions – they do things that “feel good” to other incompetents, but rarely “do good” for society.

I wrote the following piece a few weeks ago, and excerpted the timely paragraph below.

Regards, Allan MacRae, Calgary

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CANADA IS THE 4th LARGEST OIL PRODUCER IN THE WORLD AND THE LARGEST SUPPLIER OF OIL TO THE USA. HOW DID WE GET HERE?

[excerpt]

UNJUSTIFIED INCREASES IN COST AND REDUCTIONS IN RELIABILITY OF ELECTRICITY IN ALBERTA

Led by the woke-left NDP, our politicians subsidized billions to convert our coal plants to natural gas, even as natural gas prices quadrupled. Coal power is more reliable, because the coal is mined right at the power plant site, whereas natural gas supply can be interrupted by a severed pipeline. They allegedly made the change from coal to natural gas to improve air quality – but that was also wrong. Air quality in Alberta is usually excellent, because our coal-fired power plants burn low–sulphur local coal and have anti-pollution equipment that cleans particulates. Of course, CO2 is a red herring – more on that below. Forest fires from Alberta and BC typically cause 1000 times the real air pollution of our coal plants. Changing our power plants from coal to natural gas made NO MEASURABLE DIFFERENCE in air quality – it just wasted billions of dollars and greatly increased electricity costs. A much smaller investment in Alberta and BC forest management would have made a greater improvement in air quality.

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