In his letter responding to a Star Phoenix editorial
criticizing carbon capture and storage (CCS) plans at the Boundary Dam plant, SaskPower
Minister Rob Norris cited the Pembina Institute's "support" as evidence the
project should go ahead.
To clarify, the Pembina Institute has not endorsed the use of
CCS at the Boundary Dam site — but nor are we opposed to the project overall. We
see CCS as one of a number of technologies that can contribute to reducing
greenhouse gas emissions on the scale required to avoid dangerous climate
change. We also see an urgent need to commercialize the use of CCS to reduce
emissions at existing coal facilities. But we believe that it's critical to
consider CCS as just one part of a portfolio of solutions.
Saskatchewan has begun several initiatives to make
sustainable use of its world-class wind resources and tremendous biomass
potential, and the province's long-term energy planning should maximize these
opportunities. Sinking billions of dollars into CCS represents a huge
investment in a single end-of-pipe solution, which risks diverting scarce
resources from the portfolio of measures needed to clean up Saskatchewan's
energy supply by developing low-impact renewable energy and investing in energy
efficiency.
At this point, we have not been provided with the necessary
details regarding the technical processes involved in implementing CCS safely
and with environmental integrity at the Boundary Dam site to offer an opinion
on its risks or merits. We remain skeptical about using
captured emissions to enable enhanced oil recovery, partly because doing so
produces fuel to be burned in the engines of cars and trucks — leading to
additional emissions — and partly because we believe the most reliable and
secure locations for disposing of carbon emissions are very deep saline
aquifers that have never been drilled for oil or gas.
The potential impact of the promised federal regulation of
emissions from coal facilities is another big unknown related to the Boundary
Dam project. With Peter Kent resuming his duties as federal environment
minister, a top priority for him in the months ahead should be to fulfill his
commitment to put clear and strong regulations in effect to reduce the substantial
emissions from coal-fired power generation in Canada. Until the federal
government publishes those regulations and implements them within a
comprehensive national approach to cutting emissions from all major sources, Saskatchewan's Boundary Dam CCS project
and other promising efforts to support cleaner energy will be little more than
a sideshow to the dramatic growth forecast for Canada's greenhouse gas
emissions.
We encourage SaskPower to pursue and strengthen its
innovative approach to the Boundary Dam CCS project, which — if successful and
done with integrity — could become a template for improving the performance of
many inefficient and polluting coal plants worldwide. This could be a win for
Saskatchewan and for our climate. But it should be accomplished through a
process that maximizes environmental benefits, includes stakeholders and
leading scientists, respects local communities and is one part of a wider
portfolio of measures to clean up Saskatchewan's power sector.
