Editorial: Canadian government moves to quash thermal coal miners

In November the Canadian government announced sweeping plans to phase out coal-fired power generation across Canada by 2030. Coal miners and electricity consumers across Canada can only be left wondering whether the same Liberal party deep-thinkers that brought economic havoc and skyrocketing electricity rates to Ontario will do the same thing to the rest of Canada, and particularly to the coal-reliant Western provinces.

The federal government’s coal-power phase-out announcement comes on the heels of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s separate proposed carbon tax that would cost $10 per tonne in 2018 and rise $10 per tonne each year to $50 per tonne by 2022 — a plan that has been bitterly opposed by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

(According to pollster Angus Reid, energy realist Wall has by far the highest approval rating among Canada’s premiers at 58%, while Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who has presided over the implementation of the province’s disastrous Green Energy Act, has an approval rating of only 16% — or 8 points lower than George W. Bush at his nadir.)

About 80% of Canada’s electricity comes from non-coal sources, and the federal government’s new plan would see that number rise to 90% by 2030.

But provincial governments are lining up for exemptions, with Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan already negotiating so-called “equivalency agreements.”

Alberta’s left-leaning New Democratic Party government — led by Premier Rachel Notley, who has slumped to a 31% approval rating — is taking an even pricier approach by agreeing in November to pay three coal-power producers operating in the province more than $1 billion as compensation over the next 14 years for prematurely closing their coal-fired power plants.

According to figures produced by the Edmonton-based Coal Association of Canada, Canada is blessed with 6.6 billion tonnes of recoverable coal (anthracite, bituminous, sub-bituminous, lignite and coal), or more than a century of production at current rates.

More than 90% of the reserves are in Canada’s western provinces, as are most of the 19 current coal mines. British Columbia has five coal mines, Alberta has nine, Saskatchewan has three and Nova Scotia has two, with most being strip mines or open pits.

In 2014, Canadian coal production totalled 69 million tonnes, split between thermal coal and the more valuable metallurgical (coking) coal. Of that amount, 34.5 million tonnes of coal were exported, including 3.5 million tonnes of coking coal. Ninety percent of Canada’s coal exports by value is in the form of coking coal, making Canada the world’s third-largest exporter of coking coal after Australia and the United States.

An extensive network of rail lines by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific connect Western Canada’s coal mines to major ports, with 80% of exports shipped by sea through ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, B.C., with the rest shipped through the port at Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Coal mining is a substantial component of Canada’s gross domestic product, contributing an estimated $5.2 billion in direct and indirect benefits in 2011. Some 42,000 people in Canada are directly or indirectly employed because of coal mining.

Coal-fired electricity generation accounts for 9.5% of the electricity consumed in Canada. In 2012, Canada consumed 40 million tonnes of coal, with most used for power generation in 35 power plants.

Four provinces rely on coal more heavily than others for power generation, with Alberta producing 55% of its electricity from coal; Saskatchewan, 46%; and Nova Scotia, 56%. New Brunswick also produces electricity from coal, with its 467 MW baseload unit at Belledune recently recognized as one of the most economic coal-fired generators in North America, and at the vanguard of “clean coal” technology.

For Alberta and Saskatchewan, locally sourced thermal coal for power generation has been a cost-effective and reliable component of the two provinces’ economic base.

It would be a pity to wreck this pillar of Western Canada’s economy just so a few political groups and other busybodies in Central Canada can virtue signal to other global warming alarmists at their next posh, taxpayer-funded climate change conference abroad.