cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12553230
Decision by premier Danielle Smith further pits Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energy
Alberta will block renewable energy projects on “prime” agricultural land and limit the placement of wind turbines to preserve “pristine viewscapes”, a decision that increasingly pits the western Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energy – and the companies investing in it.
The decision, announced by the premier, Danielle Smith, and utilities minister, Nathan Neudorf, on Wednesday, follows a controversial six-month ban on new renewable energy projects that is due to expire on 29 February.
Alberta’s moratorium, announced in August, left energy companies uncertain about billions in future investment, even as the region, with its clear skies and an abundance of wind, led the country in new renewable projects.
Nearly a third of Alberta’s grid is now powered by renewables and the province has shifted away from coal at a far faster rate than expected.
There’s nothing prettier than a swath of land stripped bare with the barren limestone exposed, the pristine reflections of the sun on the undisturbed tailing ponds, the piles of black mud with lines of tire tracks running through it, with the silence broken only by intermittent booms to keep the birds from landing in the toxic sludge.
Or how about the oil derricks in the north, placed delicately in the middle of the boreal forest, within a clearcut square of stripped down below the soil, creating a beautiful bare patch 100m in every direction from the derricks.