Connect with us

Business

Trudeau’s biggest taxpayer boondoggle?

Published

less than 1 minute read

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for borrowing billions more for high-speed rail between Toronto and Quebec City. The government is running huge deficits and spending hundreds of millions of dollars bailing out its current train company, the last thing taxpayers need is to pay higher debt interest charges for Trudeau’s new train boondoggle.

CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano on the News Forum hammering Trudeau’s latest taxpayer boondoggle.

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

Business

Carney should rethink ā€˜carbon capture’ climate cure

Published on

From the Fraser Institute

By Kenneth P. Green

In case you missed it amid the din of Trump’s trade war, Prime Minister Carney is a bigĀ believerĀ in ā€œcarbon capture and storage.ā€ And his energy minister, Tim Hodgson, whoĀ saidĀ it’s ā€œcritical to build carbon capture systems for the oilsands,ā€ wants the Smith government and oilsands companies to get behind a proposedĀ projectĀ (which hasn’t been unable to raise sufficient private investment) in Cold Lake, Alberta.

The term ā€œcarbon capture and storageā€ (or CCS) essentially refers to technology that separates carbon dioxide (CO2) from emissions and either stores it or uses it for other products. Proponents claim that CCS could replace other more ham-handed climate regulations such as carbon taxes, emission caps, etc. The problem is, like many (or most) proposed climate panaceas, CCS is oversold. While it’s a real technology currently in use around the world (primarily to produce more oil and gas from depleting reservoirs), jurisdictions will likely be unable to affordably scale up CCS enough to capture and store enough greenhouse gas to meaningfully reduce the risks of predicted climate change.

Why? Because while you get energy out of converting methane (natural gas) to CO2 by burning it in a power plant to generate electricity, you have to put quite a lot of energy into the process if you want to capture, compress, transport and store the attendant CO2 emissions. Again, carbon capture can be profitable (on net) for use in producing more oil and gas from depleting reservoirs, and it has a long and respected role in oil and gas production, but it’s unclear that the technology has utility outside of private for-profit use.

And in fact, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), most CCS happening in Canada is less about storing carbon to avert climate change and more about stimulating oil production from existing operations. While there are ā€œseven CCS projects currently operating in Canada, mostly in the oil and gas sector, capturing about 0.5% of national emissions,ā€ CCS in oil and gas production does not address emissions from ā€œdownstream uses of those fuelsā€ and will, perversely, lead to more CO2 emissions on net. The IISD also notes that CCS is expensive, costing up to C$200 per tonne for current projects. (ForĀ reference, today’s government-set minimum carbon market price to emit a tonne of CO2 emissions is C$95.) IISD concludes CCS is ā€œenergy intensive, slow to implement, and unproven at scale, making it a poor strategy for decarbonizing oil and gas production.ā€

Another article inĀ Scientific AmericanĀ observes that industrial carbon capture projects are ā€œtoo small to matterā€ and that ā€œtoday’s largest carbon capture projects only remove a few seconds’ worth of our yearly greenhouse gas emissionsā€ and that this is ā€œcosting thousands of dollars for every ton of CO2 removed.ā€ And as a way to capture massive volumes of CO2 (from industrial emission streams of out the air) and sequestering it to forestall atmospheric warming (climate change), the prospects are not good. Perhaps this is why the article’s author characterizes CCS as a ā€œfigleafā€ for the fossil fuel industry (and now, apparently, the Carney government) to pretend they are reducing GHG emissions.

Prime Minister Carney should sharpen his thinking on CCS. While real and profitable when used in oil and gas production, it’s unlikely to be useful in combatting climate change. Best to avoid yet another costly climate change ā€œsolutionā€ that is overpromised, overpriced and has historically underperformed.

Kenneth P. Green

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
Continue Reading

Alberta

World’s first direct air capture test centre to open doors in Innisfail

Published on

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Grady Semmens

Deep Sky Alpha facility will trial technologies that suck CO2 from the sky

Innisfail, Alta. is set to host the world’s first test centre for technology that removes carbon dioxide directly from the air to fight climate change.

This June, Montreal-based Deep Sky completed construction of a $110-million carbon removal innovation and commercialization centre in the town about 120 kilometres north of Calgary.

It is a key piece of the company’s vision to build 100 large-scale facilities across Canada and become a pioneer in the emerging market for direct air capture (DAC) technology.

ā€œAs of this summer, we will begin not only carbon removal, which is actually sucking it out of the air through these very powerful fans, but also liquefying it and then putting it underground for storage,ā€ Deep Sky CEO Alex PetreĀ told CTV News.

Work began in August 2024 on the project known as Deep Sky Alpha, which aims to begin testing up to 10 different DAC technologies in real-world conditions. It is expected to be up and running this August.

The Government of Alberta isĀ investing $5 millionĀ in the facility through Emissions Reduction Alberta.

The Deep Sky Alpha direct air capture test facility in Innisfail, Alta. Photo courtesy Deep Sky

Deep Sky’s facility will capture up to 3,000 tons of CO2Ā per year over the next 10 years, with room for future expansion.

Captured CO2Ā will be transported by tanker trucks about 200 kilometres north to Sturgeon County where it will be injected more than two kilometres below the surface into the Meadowbrook Carbon Storage Hub.

Operated by Bison Low Carbon Ventures, the project is theĀ first approvedĀ under Alberta’s open-access carbon sequestration hub initiative and is expected to begin operations before year-end.

ā€œWe’re going to line up these eight units side by side and run them to see how they operate in the summer and in the cold of winter,ā€ said Damien Steel, former Deep Sky CEO who continues to serve as a company advisor.

ā€œWe’ll be tracking everything to see how all these best-in-class technologies compare – what are their strengths and weaknesses – so that ultimately we can choose the best solutions to scale up for the major commercialization of carbon removal projects that are needed.ā€

Unlike typical carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects that scrub CO2 from the exhaust of heavy industrial facilities such as power plants, refineries, cement plants or steel mills, DAC utilizes different technology to remove much lower concentrations of CO2 directly from the atmosphere.

According toĀ the International Energy Agency (IEA), there are 27 DAC plants operating worldwide, capturing almost 10,000 tonnes of CO2Ā per year. In order to reach net zero emissions by 2050, the IEA estimates DAC capacity must expand to more than 60 million tonnes per year by 2030.

Deep Sky selected Alberta for its test facility because of the province’s experience with CCS, including its advanced regulatory system for CO2 sequestration.

ā€œTo be successful at carbon removal you need three things: you need access to geologic storage, you need talent, and you need a reliable supply of renewable power to operate DAC facilities. Canada is blessed with these things, and Alberta especially has all of these attributes in spades,ā€ Steel said.

Deep Sky Alpha is one of several clean tech projects underway in a five-acre industrial park in Innisfail as part of anĀ economic diversification planĀ that was launched in 2022 to make the town a centre for energy innovation.

A municipal solar farm and a power plant that burns garbage and will be equipped with CCS to eliminate emissions are also under development.

Deep Sky says that more than 110 jobs were created during the construction phase of its Innisfail project and it will employ 15 people for annual operations.

Subsequent commercial plants it hopes to build across Canada will employ approximately 1,000 workers for construction and 150 for annual operations.

Steel said he expects the DAC test facility will become a destination for those looking to advance CCS projects around the world, showcasing Canadian expertise in the process.

ā€œMy hope is that not only will we learn and improve carbon removal technology, but we will also put Canada on the map in terms of being a place where innovation can thrive and this industry can work,ā€ he said.

ā€œIt will be a place where corporate leaders, government officials and customers from around the world can come and see what direct air capture really is, how it works, and how Canada is the place to do it.ā€

Continue Reading

Trending

X