Here’s a good one – Alberta, Canada thinks if they pump up their use of renewable energy, maybe that will get the US to say "yes" to the tar sands pipeline.
Energy Minister Ken Hughes says they’re trying to figure out how to best spur development, including policies that favor hydro and wind development.
More action on climate change would allow Alberta to "earn its social license to operate so that we have the full confidence of our customers and have the opportunity to get our products to market," Hughes told Bloomberg.
A third of Canada’s greenhouse emissions come from Alberta’s tar sands, including the coal plants that provide the energy for extraction.
It’s also home to a lot of wind and gets about 6% of electricity from that resource. Only Quebec and Ontario have more wind installed. And there’s about 6 gigawatts of potential from hydro.
Enbridge, one of the big tar sands pipeline developers, just bought the biggest wind farm in western Canada, the "construction-ready" 300-megawatt Blackspring Ridge project. The company says it plans to significantly add to its wind portfolio in Alberta.
TransCanada, developer of the Keystone pipeline, has invested in solar.
Recently, they launched a $35 million competition for companies to make products from all their carbon – "transforming carbon from a liability into an asset."
Since 2007, companies that operate in Alberta that emit more than 100,000 tons of greenhouse gases over a baseline must cut that intensity by 12%. They can do that by improving the efficiency of their operations, buying carbon credits in a government-sponsored offset system or pay $15 into the Fund for every ton that exceeds the limit. The Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation invests those proceeds into the "discovery, development and deployment of clean technology."
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