Dear Editor
I watched Premier Wall's recent speech as he opened the carbon capture and storage facility for a small portion of the Boundary Dam coal-fired electricity plant. He said that this was a great step forward, that this would help reduce global warming and enable coal fired plants to produce clean, inexpensive energy and was only possible because the people of Saskatchewan are "innovative." Unfortunately almost everything he said was incorrect.
The premier acknowledged that this project was not possible without big bucks from the taxpayers. Over a billion dollars to "capture" 90 per cent of the carbon from less than 20 per cent of this one plant. Even the 90 per cent figure is misleading. The carbon produced by building and operating a 66 km CO2 pipeline will not be captured. The carbon produced by mining the dirty brown coal will not be captured. The carbon produced from hundreds of associated plant emissions will not be captured and the carbon produced by 80 per cent of the plant will not be captured.
The premier seems to be unaware that the least expensive electrical power is now wind power at four cents per kWh. Just the carbon capture part of this plant's operation will cost over four cents per 'clean' kWh produced. The next inexpensive electrical energy is utility solar. Either the premier doesn't know this or he doesn't know that the sun shines in Saskatchewan.
In order for CO2 to be a liquid it must be pressurized or cooled. Creating that liquid and keeping it in a liquid state takes energy and producing energy in a brown coal plant produces carbon. The premier even indicated that pumping this liquid into an oil field so that more oil was forced to the surface and then burned would somehow reduce global warming.
It appears that Premier Wall does not really believe that global warming is the massive problem that virtually every peer-reviewed scientist says it is. It appears that he thinks that this so-called carbon capture is setting a good example and that this multi-billion dollar technology will be adopted by poorer countries that can hardly afford dirty coal plants. This is not going to happen and this is not setting a good example.
If Premier Wall was really "innovative" he would realize that the days of dirty coal are over and there are far less damaging and less expensive ways to produce electricity. The way forward is to utilize a free, clean nuclear fusion plant that is safely located 150 million kms away. This plant produces and delivers to us thousands of times the energy we require and it will last for billions of years. It is time for politicians like Premier Wall to do their homework and provide truthful leadership.
Bob Fearn
British Columbia
