Category Archives: Energy

Energy, Health

Climate activist calls on New Westminster council to support assessment of gas industry

By Theresa McManus, Freshet News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A climate activist is urging New Westminster city council to follow the lead of other cities and call for an independent assessment of B.C.’s gas industry.

Aggie Black, a member of the New Westminster Climate Action Hub and the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment, said she is deeply concerned about the climate crisis and its impact on people’s health and the health-care system. 

“I am here to join my voice with hundreds of other health professionals who are calling for an accumulative independent health impact assessment of B.C.’s gas industry,” she told council at its May 11 meeting. “There is a large and growing body of peer-reviewed research that links fracking and LNG production to health harms for humans.”

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Disaster, Energy

Earthquakes shake up areas north of Edmonton

By David Boles, St Albert Gazette, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Residents living just north of the Alberta capital may have felt the ground shake beneath them on more than one occasion in the last few weeks.

Several earthquakes have been felt in central and northern Alberta, including one in Sturgeon County on April 18 that Earthquakes Canada says registered at a magnitude of 4.1.

While relatively rare, earthquakes in Wild Rose Country are not uncommon.

“There are natural earthquakes, that are related to the movement of tectonic plates off the west coast were plates are sliding past one another and colliding,” said John Cassidy, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada.

Another tremor to hit rural Alberta came on Saturday, when a 3.8 magnitude earthquake struck northeast of Fort Saskatchewan.

Earthquakes Canada says the first quake was industry-related, something Cassidy says is an example of an induced earthquake.

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Energy

Lost in Transmission

By Will Noel, Pembina Institute

Alberta has abundant wind and solar energy but these resources are being wasted at record levels and driving costs up for consumers in the process. 

At the heart of the issue is a set of technical and regulatory barriers that mean clean, affordable, electricity is being wasted when Albertans need it most. 

This report provides an overview of the crux of the issue: while there is abundant, affordable, and clean energy available in Alberta, there isn’t enough transmission capacity to bring that energy to homes and businesses across the province.  This issue is leading to:

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Energy

Alberta’s oil and gas cleanup problem is growing

By Janetta McKenzie, Pembina Institute

Alberta taxpayers, municipalities, and rural landowners are facing increasing costs and harms from inactive and orphaned oil and gas wells, Calgarians heard at a town hall Tuesday evening.

Co-hosted by the Pembina Institute, Alberta Environmental Network, For Our Kids and the Polluter Pay Federation, the Clean Up Your Mess town hall included expert presentations and first-hand landowner experiences of the growing oil and gas cleanup problem.

On April 9th, 2026, more than 4,000 wells and hundreds of other pieces of infrastructure were transferred to the Orphan Well Association following the closure of Long Run Exploration. This is the largest transfer to the OWA in Alberta’s history, doubling the association’s inventory overnight. Despite a 100 per cent increase in orphan wells, the levy paid by industry is rising by only seven per cent this year.

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Energy

Ontario’s Distributed Energy Resources (DER) study & other steps towards adopting renewables

As North America navigates the transition from traditional fossil fuel-based energy to renewable alternatives, various regions are exploring solutions like Distributed Energy Resources (DER). In this morning’s interview, Catherine Jefferey from Clean Energy Canada discusses a program designed to reduce costs for Ontario ratepayers by an estimated $1.8 billion to $3.5 billion annually. The discussion also covers progress in utility-scale battery storage, Canada’s adoption of renewables, and the prospects for transitioning away from fossil fuels.

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