This is just an excerpt from The Ezra Levant Show. To see new, ad-free episodes, which air Monday – Friday @ 8 p.m. ET | 6 p.m. MT, become a subscriber to RebelNews+. This episode originally aired on July 12, 2024.
On Friday’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, guest host Sheila Gunn Reid was joined by Michelle Stirling of Friends of Science to explain what’s really going on with Alberta’s electricity grid.
Alberta has been issuing grid alerts, which notify the public when the power system is under stress. It’s bizarre that this seems to be becoming a routine occurrence when the province is so rich in natural energy resources. But Michelle boiled down the issue to two words: “coal phaseout.”
“That’s the fundamental problem. We had a number of excellent, coal-fired power plants… and the NDP wanted to phase out coal early,” said Michelle.
Without the reserve capacity Alberta used to have, the extra power needed in case a plant goes offline for some reason (like extreme weather) is diminished. Relying on imported coal and hydro power doesn’t provide the same level of security. And Alberta still relies on coal-fired electricity from Saskatchewan and Montana when our grid fails.