As someone in the patch, the "pause" seems a little suspect. Zero doubt it is politically motivated. Ya having too much solar/wind intermittent can make things a lot trickier but that's not why they said the pause is there.
The reclamation/decommissioning lack of regs are a black eye and have been known for 40 years and ignored (mostly due to industry CNRL/Cenovus lobbying). This should not be a partisan issue. It would make my life so much easier if we were forced at some point to reclaim leases, but currently I have to "manage them" which is a giant pain in the ass comopared to just cleaning spending the money.
Make it a regulation if the windmill is down for X years it needs to be repaired or dismantled. Its all above ground, not various plumes of contaminants from 70 years ago floating below the surface randomly with rain.
Not just the UCP, the NDP government gave TAQA $10MM for Acid Gas injection whose entire economics were based on the deferring the cleanup of a $75MM sulfalene plume under the Crossfield gas plant.
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