Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Former Alberta premier Rachel Notley posted a farewell video after announcing her departure as NDP leader on Jan. 16. X screenshot
The day after Alberta had four days in a row “grid alerts” for its electrical system due to the utter collapse of wind and solar power, and the lack of dispatchable baseload power, Rachel Notley took credit for expanding renewables and getting rid of coal. On the second of those grid alerts, the province was within half an hour of going into rotating blackouts, with temperatures -30 C and colder throughout Alberta.
That was part of her video departing message posted to X later on Tuesday, Jan. 16, several hours after the former premier announced her departure as leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party.
She said she didn’t want to into a long, deep policy rabbit hole but she wanted to “highlight just a few of the things that make me most proud.”
Among them, Notley said, “We secured Alberta’s first pipeline to tidewater in over 50 years, ensuring that the return to Albertans for the sale of the resources we all home is permanently increased.
“We eliminated coal-fired electricity and Alberta thereby increasing the health of countless innocents, and at the same time, kickstarting our renewable energy industry to be the fastest growing on the continent, all while significantly reducing our emissions in one fell swoop.
“And finally, in the midst of a recession caused by the International collapse in the price of oil, seriously votes. I didn’t cause that. We cut child poverty in half. But as I said, we didn’t get it all right. And Alberta told us so in April 2019,” she said, referring to her electoral defeat.
As it takes a number of years to get a wind or solar farm from initial idea to operation, a substantial number of the 43 solar and 45 wind farms in Alberta were initiated under her watch as premier from 2015-2019. Those combined 88 solar and wind farms, with a theoretical capacity of 6,131 megawatts, produced zero megawatts on Sunday morning, and next to no power each evening the province went under grid alert.
And the last coal-fired power plant, Genesee Generating Station Units 1 and 2, is expected to be converted to natural gas this spring.
Here’s the full video:
Thank you, Alberta.
Short of having and raising my family, the opportunity to serve this party and this province has been the honour of my life.
The people of Alberta are bold, friendly, open, caring and adventurous. I’ve learned so much from them.
Thank you to all the… pic.twitter.com/dJl3Gl8ue4
— Rachel Notley (@RachelNotley) January 17, 2024
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