Opinion
EDDIE EDITOR’S EDDIE HEADLINE FOR JUNE 7
From the Fraser Institute
After accounting for backup, energy storage and associated indirect costs—estimated solar power costs skyrocket from US$36 per megawatt hour (MWh) to as high as US$1,548, and wind generation costs increase from US$40 to up to US$504 per MWh.
At a recent energy conference in Houston, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration will end the Biden administration’s “irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.” He added that “Natural gas is responsible for 43 per cent of U.S. electricity production,” and beyond the obvious scale and cost problems, there’s “simply no physical way that wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas.”
In other words, as a federal election looms, once again the United States is diverging from Canada when it comes to energy policy.
Indeed, wind power is particularly unattractive to Wright because of its “incredibly high prices,” “incredibly huge investment” and “large footprint on the local communities,” which make it unattractive to people living nearby. Globally, Wright observes, “Natural gas currently supplies 25 per cent of raw energy globally, before it is converted into electricity or some other use. Wind and solar only supply about 3 per cent.”
And he’s right. Renewables are likely unable, physically or economically, to replace natural gas power production to meet current or future needs for affordable, abundant and reliable energy.
In a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, for example, we observed that meeting Canada’s predicted electricity demand through 2050 using only wind power (with natural gas discouraged under current Canadian climate policies) would require the construction of approximately 575 wind-power installations, each the size of Quebec’s Seigneurie de Beaupré wind farm, over 25 years. However, with a construction timeline of two years per project, this would equate to 1,150 construction years. This would also require more than one million hectares of land—an area nearly 14.5 times the size of Calgary.
Solar power did not fare much better. According to the study, to meet Canada’s predicted electricity demand through 2050 with solar-power generation would require the construction of 840 solar-power generation stations the size of Alberta’s Travers Solar Project. At a two-year construction time per facility, this adds up to 1,680 construction years to accomplish.
And at what cost? While proponents often claim that wind and solar sources are cheaper than fossil fuels, they ignore the costs of maintaining backup power to counter the unreliability of wind and solar power generation. A recent study published in Energy, a peer-reviewed energy and engineering journal, found that—after accounting for backup, energy storage and associated indirect costs—estimated solar power costs skyrocket from US$36 per megawatt hour (MWh) to as high as US$1,548, and wind generation costs increase from US$40 to up to US$504 per MWh.
The outlook for Canada’s switch to renewables is also dire. TD Bank estimated that replacing existing gas generators with renewables (such as solar and wind) in Ontario could increase average electricity costs by 20 per cent by 2035 (compared to 2021 costs). In Alberta, electricity prices would increase by up to 66 per cent by 2035 compared to a scenario without changes.
Under Canada’s current greenhouse gas (GHG) regulatory regime, natural gas is heavily disfavoured as a potential fuel for electricity production. The Trudeau government’s Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) would begin curtailing the use of natural gas beginning in 2035, leading largely to a cessation of natural gas power generation by 2050. Under CER and Ottawa’s “net-zero 2050” GHG emission framework, Canada will be wedded to a quixotic mission to displace affordable reliable natural gas power-generation with expensive unreliable renewables that are likely unable to meet expected future electricity demand.
With a federal election looming, Canada’s policymakers should pay attention to new U.S. energy policy on natural gas, and pull back from our headlong rush into renewable power. To avoid calamity, the next federal government should scrap the Trudeau-era CER and reconsider the entire “net-zero 2050” agenda.
Kenneth P. Green
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
From The Center Square
By
U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-WV, filed a bill on Friday to ban Chinese nationals from receiving student visas.
“Every year we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security. Just last year, the FBI charged five Chinese nationals here on student visas after they were caught photographing joint US-Taiwan live fire military exercises. This cannot continue,” he said.
Moore’s Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act (Stop CCP VISAs Act) has several cosponsors. The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the admission of Chinese nationals as nonimmigrant students, according to the bill language.
He points to the FBI last year charging five Chinese nationals who were in the U.S. on student visas at the University of Michigan after they were caught photographing joint US-Taiwan live fire military exercises at Camp Grayling in August 2023 claiming they were members of the media.
He also points to a Chinese student attending the University of Minnesota who was sentenced to six months in prison last October for taking drone photographs of naval shipbuilding operations at Newport News Shipbuilding in Norfolk, Virginia. Moore also points to a former Illinois Institute of Technology graduate who was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023 for spying for the Chinese government, acting as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security and making a material false statement to the U.S. Army when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve.
“Congress needs to end China’s exploitation of our student visa program. It’s time we turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas going to Chinese nationals,” he said.
These are but a handful of examples. More than 60 Chinese Communist Party-related cases of espionage and acts of transnational repression were reported in 20 states under the Biden administration, according to a U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security report, The Center Square reported. That’s in addition to 224 reported incidents of Chinese espionage directed at the U.S. between 2000 and 2023, according to the report. Examples include transmission of sensitive military information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), theft of U.S. trade secrets to benefit the PRC, transnational repression schemes to target PRC dissidents and obstruction of justice.
Other examples include a Department of Justice case from last December involving a Chinese national and lawful permanent resident of California who was arrested for flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base and taking photographs. He was arrested for violating national defense airspace prior to boarding a flight to China.
Another DOJ case related to a Chinese national illegally living in the U.S. who was arrested for allegedly shipping weapons and ammunition to North Korea, The Center Square reported.
Another involved a PRC spy arrested in California who worked for a state lawmaker and Chinese operatives arrested in Guam near a U.S. military installation on the same day as a live ballistic missile interception test, The Center Square reported.
Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s parting warning to Americans was that China remains one of the greatest threats to U.S. national security, a warning he consistently issued.
“The greatest long-term threat facing our country, in my view, is represented by the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government, which I consider to be the defining threat of our generation,” he said, The Center Square reported.
The DOJ says it opens new cases to counter PRC intelligence operations roughly every 12 hours. Of the espionage cases it’s prosecuted since 2018, it says 80% allege the PRC would benefit; 60% of trade secret theft cases are linked to China.
It also lists examples of indictments of Chinese nationals conspiring to and committing economic espionage and theft of trade secrets going back to 2018 under the Trump administration.
PRC threats increased as the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entered the U.S. in recorded history under the Biden administration – more than 176,000 nationwide, The Center Square first reported.
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