energize alberta jan - feb 2011

Oil & GasFive oilsands visionaries who changed the industrypage 6

PowerEnergy conservation could save Albertans billionspage 18

RenewablesBioenergy sector looksto get back on trackpage 23

January/February 2011

where energy, the economy, and the environment intersect

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Safety firstEnform and the oil and gas sector continue to work to reduce incidents on the job

Jacqueline louieEnergize Alberta

From the ice and the gridiron to the oilpatch majors

The competitive arena of the profes-sional sports world can serve as excel-lent preparation for the business world. In Western Canada,

many former athletes have moved on to successful careers in the oil and gas industry after their pro careers were over. Here are a few of them:

Lanny mcdonaLdWhat former Calgary Flames cap-tain Lanny McDonald learned playing pro sports has served him well in the business world.

“We have quickly found out when you’re hiring people, that if they’ve played team sports, they get it very quickly,” says McDonald, who handles marketing and business development at oilfield service com-pany Baker Hughes.

W ith opera-tions often conducted in rugged

locales, performed in less than optimum weather conditions and requir-ing complex equipment and machinery to execute, Alberta’s oil and gas in-dustry and its employees in the field must deal with inherent risks uncommon to most other sectors.

So it doesn’t come as a surprise that ensur-ing the health and safety of front-line workers and the general public is para-mount within Alberta’s oilpatch. And while the vast majority of oil and natural gas companies operating in the province follow stringent health and safety guidelines, it’s a

not-for-profit entity called Enform that weaves the intricate health and safety protocols of the various industry players into a net of best practices and train-ing programs.

As the training, certi-fication, and health and safety services arm of the upstream petroleum indus-try, Enform takes its role seriously.

“We’re a high-hazard industry. The list of poten-tial hazards is pretty easy to highlight — obviously fires and explosions, mech-anical hazards, falls from rigs. We have more than our share of really hazard-ous activities,” says Wally Baer, president of Enform.

“So that ups the ante for the whole industry to make sure that we have the fundamentals of safety in place. It is things like

Paul WellSEnergize Alberta

Born and raised in Hanna, Alta., McDonald played for the Flames from 1981 to 1989. After retiring from the game, he continued on with the Flames for 10 more years as vice-president of community relations, marketing and business development. Soon after he left the Flames organization, McDonald was approached by a headhunter about going to work in the oilpatch.

McDonald, 57, who is active in the sports community as a Calgary Flames alumnus, thinks that playing sports brings invaluable experience to those who get involved. “Team players are what every company should be looking for,” he says. “If you play team sports as a young-ster, you find out where you fit in and it really sets you up for life. If you have put yourself out there [in sports], you’ve got an inner confi-dence that you’ll find a way to get this done. And then it’s making sure you surround yourself with good people.”

Dan RaShovichFormer Saskatchewan Roughrider Dan Rashovich loves his job in the oilpatch. “It’s kind of like football,” says Rashovich, a business develop-ment representative in Baker Hughes’ explorers group, which markets all Baker Hughes product lines to engi-neering companies and smaller operators. “I like the winning, I like the sense of accomplishment and doing a good job for the customer.”

Rashovich played in the Canadian Football League for 16 years. An all-star linebacker, he played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1987 to 1999, including their 1989 Grey Cup championship team.

Originally from Toronto, Rashovich holds a BA degree in phys-ical geography, and a Bachelor of Education degree, which he earned at the University of Regina while play-ing with the Riders.

Now 50, Rashovich retired from pro sports in 1999 when he was in his

❯❯ continued on page 2


teamplayers

Left to right: Lanny McDonald, Srecko Zizakovic and Dan Rashovich

www.energizealberta.com

hazard identification and control, communication to workers, leadership of management, good super-vision — all of which are the fundamentals of health and safety in any industry. But I’ll say it again — the ante is higher for us just because of the number of serious hazards we face.”

Baer says that Enform acts as the advocate and leading resource for the continuous improvement of industry’s safety per-formance. Established by industry for industry, Enform helps companies achieve their safety goals by promoting shared safety practices and providing effective training, expert audit services and profes-sional advice.

“Our vision is no work-related incidents or injuries in the Canadian upstream oil and gas industry,” Baer says.

A lofty goal, to be sure. But it’s also one that the industry continues to aim toward. Baer notes that over the past 20 years, injury rates have dropped substantially, even during last decade’s boom years when activity in the sec-tor was at a fever pitch and many workers were inex-perienced green hands.

According to Workers’ Compensation Board statis-tics, lost-time claim rates for drilling rig workers have fallen from 12.5 for every 100 person-years in 1988 to 3.84 in 2003 to 1.09 in 2009. Similarly, rates for service rig workers dropped from 12.1 in 1988 to 2.83 in 2003 to 1.01 in 2009. The services and trucking segments of the oilfield industry also had similar decreases, while rates for geophysical employees declined from a remarkably high 18.8 in 1988 to a more modest 1.9 in 2007.

“The industry has made tremendous strides over the past 20 years or so. The industry, literally by an order of magnitude, has improved its injury rate,” Baer says, add-ing that while this is an impressive achievement, industry shouldn’t rest on its laurels.

“It’s good to recognize this improvement, but it’s also important to recognize that the things that are left

to do to get us to zero are even harder than the fun-damentals we’ve put in place to achieve what we have over the last 20 years. The vision is zero injuries, and the mission for Enform is to continue to provide the tools to the industry to help achieve that,” he says.

“So let’s not take our foot off the gas pedal.”

enform’s mandateBaer says Enform’s man-date is to develop safe work practices through a range of services and resources,

including industry recom-mended practices, safety alerts and updates, and petroleum safety confer-ences. To achieve this, the association’s portfolio of more than 120 industry-leading training programs covers safety, operations, technology and environ-mental management. Each year, more than 150,000 Enform students take advantage of the group’s offerings in an effort to

update their skills and increase their understand-ing of health and safety issues.

Because Enform is owned, directed and par-tially funded by the six main upstream petroleum industry trade associa-tions — the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada, the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, the Canadian Association of Geophysical Contractors,

the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association and the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors — all Enform products and services are developed in consultation with industry.

“One of the key benefits of a safety association is we can help the industry — its major corporations to its smaller contrac-tors — standardize some of their approaches towards health and safety,” Baer says, adding that enhanced health and safety performance also requires the “self-deter-mination” of individual companies.

“We don’t go in and dictate to anybody what to do. But if we can get con-sensus from all the players that are affected by these hazards and are moti-vated to control them, then we can bring some stan-dardization to the private corporate approaches that both producers and con-tractors will pursue on their own anyway.”

While the oil and gas sector continues to improve its safety record, Baer notes that it hasn’t done a great job in telling its story about the prog-ress in health and safety performance.

“I think we in the indus-try need to do a better job about getting the message out about what the indus-try has actually done. Oil and gas is an easy target for many reasons, and I’m not being defensive of that because I think we bring some of that on ourselves,” Baer says.

“But when we do well, when we have good-news stories, it’s almost like we’re reluctant to speak about it because we don’t want to draw more atten-tion to ourselves. But this is a good-news story and I think it’s something for the industry to be proud of.”

President & CEOBill whitelaw

EditorialPublisher & Editorstephen marstersAssociate Editorsdeborah Jaremko

Paul wellsEditorial Assistance

Joseph caouette

CrEativEArt Director Ken Bessie

Production, Pre-Press and Print Managermichael gaffney

Designersandrew Brien

Birdeen selzer

Staff Photographeraaron Parker

SalES and adminiStrationSales Manager – Advertising

maurya sokolonAccount Executiverhonda helmeczi

Salesnick drinkwater

nicole Kiefuikdiana signorileAdministrationsandy flaherty

WEbSitEWeb Managerchris fleming

Energize Alberta is published six times a year by an alliance consisting of JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group, Great West Newspaper Group and Farm Business Communications, all members of Glacier Media Inc., in association with an advisory board consisting of industry professionals. Energize Alberta is circulated to approximately half-a-million Albertans, in rural and urban settings.

Find out more about us online at energizealberta.com, and send your feedback to [email protected].

C heck out energizealberta.com for addi-tional stories, polls, a link to the Energy IQ quiz and a searchable archive of past editions. You can also comment on our stories and forward them to friends.

In addition, the site houses a directory of key players on the energy literacy stage.

Discover more online at energizealberta.com

aBouT uS

http://twitter.com/energizealberta

Continued from page 1

Safetyfirst

Enform’s Wally Baer

“The vision is zero injuries, and the mission for Enform is to continue to provide the tools to the industry to help achieve that. So let’s not take our foot off the gas pedal.”

— Wally Baer, President, Enform

Injury rates among contracting industries have dropped substantially over the past 20 years – even during the recent boom.

Lost-time claim rates (per 100 person-years) 1988 2003 2009 Drilling 12.50 3.84 1.09

Service Rigs 12.10 2.83 1.01

Oilfield Services — 2.09 1.00

Oilfield Trucking — 5.97 2.12

Geophysical 18.80 4.30 1.90 (2007)

Injury rates among contracting industries have dropped substantially over the past 20 years — even during the recent boom.

2 January/February 2011 • energize alberta


writing contest for students

Energize Alberta invites school-aged kids to write an essay on any topic related to energy production or use in Alberta.

Why is it important to know about where energy comes from and how it’s used? What do you think about Alberta’s oil and gas sector? Should Alberta use more renewable energy?

Essays should be no less than 250 words and not exceed 800 words: 400–600 words would be ideal. Deadline for submission is March 1, 2011. The winning entries will be published online and in the May/June 2011 edition of Energize Alberta.

There are three competition categories: Grades 3–5, Grades 6–8 and Grades 9–12. Winning entries in each category will receive an Apple iPad.

Please mail entries by March 1, 2011, to: Energize Alberta, 2nd Floor, 816 - 55 Avenue NE, Calgary, AB, T2E 6Y4.

You can also email entries to [email protected].

Calling all students!Teachers, take note — this makes

an excellent class project!

Committed to the people and communities where we work and live.

www.conocophillips.ca

Whither energy literacy?

Bill WhiTelaWEnergize Alberta

That will be a key question in 2011 confronting the organizations, companies and individuals who believe heightened levels

of “energy literacy” are critical to the way ordinary Albertans will navigate the complexities of new and exciting — but often confusing and confounding — energy challenges.

Energize Alberta was created in 2010 by JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group to contribute to the growing energy literacy momentum. Our phi-losophy is based on two simple linked premises: a style of “literacy” jour-nalism and storytelling that aims to teach and entertain simultaneously, and a focus on demonstrating how energy impacts and intersects the lives of ordinary people. We tell those stories in the “sweet spot” of where energy, the economy and the environ-ment intersect — not just in an oil and gas context, but for power and utilities, and renewables and alterna-tive energy.

We wanted Energize Alberta to be something of a co-ordinator; that is, we didn’t want to duplicate any of the wonderful energy literacy efforts that already exist. Rather, we wanted to help be part of the process by which these efforts were brought into closer synchronization with each other — and to be another tool for people to

“self-improve” on their own energy literacy efforts.

We also sought to bring together some of the solitudes that define this province, and in this sense, there’s no other publication like Energize Alberta. First, the size of its circulation is sig-nificant: more than 180,000 copies are distributed each issue, reaching nearly 500,000 Albertans. And while in this case, size does matter, the real uniqueness flows from the dis-tribution structure: Energize Alberta links the urban energy and business centres of Calgary and Edmonton with the province’s farm and rural households. Energize Alberta is distrib-uted to more than 40,000 farms and 130,000 rural households, in addi-tion to mailed distribution to the two downtowns. As well, many compan-ies and organizations take thousands of copies and distribute them within their own networks.

With five issues under our belts, it’s clear we’re on the right track. Reader response has been terrific and demand for copies is growing beyond our existing distribution. We’re sens-ing a real appetite for people-driven energy content that takes readers beyond the gas pump and light switch to a better understanding of energy and the role it plays in our lives.

some thanKs are in orderFirst, to the very diverse and tal-ented group of advisors who give their time to guide the focus and direction

of Energize Alberta. They’re the real experts, and in many ways, the news-paper’s lifeblood. You can see their names on page 8. Second, thanks must go to the companies and orga-nizations that support this energy literacy effort financially. They under-stand the importance of telling energy stories in an informative and engag-ing fashion that brings communities together, instead of dividing them.

neW foR 2011 We are continuing to improve Energize Alberta’s digital offering (www.energizealberta.com), which makes the publication available to a global audience. As always, we’re interested in your thoughts and comments. As well, in 2011 we will publish two special theme issues: education (April) and water (October). These editions will allow us to focus specifically on important issues across a broad range of energy-related dimensions.

on a deLightfuL side noteEnergize Alberta was guided in its first year by the capable hand of JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group editorial director Stephen Marsters. With its March/April issue, Energize Alberta will be steered by editor Paul Wells, who is stepping out of the group’s reporting pool to take on this new assignment. Stephen is moving on to head the group’s prestigious Daily Oil Bulletin.

3 energize alberta • January/February 2011


late 30s, and moved into the business world after a friend told him about an opportunity to open a tem-porary staffing agency in Regina. He was transferred to Calgary because he wanted to be close to his sons.

In Calgary, Rashovich taught high school and junior high for a year and a half before he returned to working in sales. Then someone he knew through coaching football sug-gested that he go to work in the oilpatch. That was five years ago, and Rashovich hasn’t looked back since.

“I’m pretty happy,” he says, listing all of the things he likes about his job. “Our customers expect to have a job well done, and we want to do the best job we can as a service com-pany. If we are both doing a good job, we all win.” He likes the dynamics at work — “it’s always chang-ing” — and the fact that work sometimes takes him back to Saskatchewan. Because he played for the Roughriders, Rashovich really enjoys going back into the community, doing football camps and get-ting involved whenever he can. His wife, Laura Herasymuik, is originally from Saskatchewan, and they have strong ties with family and friends in the province.

SRecko ZiZakovicAs a coach, “I always tell kids everyone is going to get knocked on their butts and face adversity. That’s a fact of life,” says Srecko Zizakovic, a former Calgary Stampeder. “It’s not so much, ‘Are you going to get knocked down?’ it’s, ‘What are you going to do when you get knocked down?’ You jump back up with more vinegar in you, and work hard to achieve more after that.”

Zizakovic, 44, is used to winning. He was part of championship teams in high school, college and at the pro level, as a mem-ber of the Stampeders’ 1992 Grey Cup champi-onship team. The lessons he learned in sports have served him well through-out his life. “It’s that constant pushing of your-self and demanding of yourself to find what the

next level is,” he explains. “It’s being a self-starter and goal-oriented. In the world of pro sports, if you’re not a self-starter you’re not going to be in anybody’s program for very long. At the pro level, coaches aren’t there to motivate you, they’re there to teach you the finer points. So if you don’t get yourself ready mentally and physically, then you’re going to be out of a job in a very short period of time.”

Zizakovic grew up in Toronto, where he played high school sports and earned a football schol-arship to Ohio State University. He was drafted to Calgary in 1990, where he played defensive line-man in a six-year career with the Stampeders.

After retiring from the Stamps in 1996 at the age of 29, Zizakovic began work-ing in corporate sales, then went to work at furni-ture manufacturer Smed International as a global

account manager. “I learned a lot. It was tremendous in terms of learning and really understanding sales, mar-keting, managing clients’ expectations and servicing clients. I loved the com-pany and I loved the people I worked with, but the in-dustry just didn’t pay well enough,” he says. When his second child was born, he quickly realized he needed to find a job in a better- paying industry, and turned to the oilpatch. He is now an executive key account manager at Baker Hughes, where he has worked for nearly seven years, initially starting out as a technical account representative with Baker Oil Tools.

“It’s been great. All of the things I did that

helped me be successful in the sports world, I did in the business world as well, to help take me to the next level.”

Over the years, Zizakovic has maintained his connection to sports by coaching football, and in the last couple of years he has been coaching five- and six-year-olds in novice hockey. “My little guy has gotten into Timbits hockey,” he says. “I was

assistant coach last year for my son’s team, and I’m head coach this year. It’s a lot of fun. I find it a very high position of responsi-bility, when you can have such an impact on little kids’ minds. At this point, if I can get them to switch on a couple of things then I’ve done my job to turn these little kids into posi-tive teenagers and positive youth moving forward.”

DaviD SaPunJiSDavid Sapunjis, president of Continental Alloys and Services, finished his foot-ball career when he was 29 years old. “I believe I could have played many more years,” says the for-mer wide receiver for the Calgary Stampeders, who

played with the team from 1990 to 1996. “However, I saw a lot of people my age enjoying success in the oil and gas industry. I felt that if I kept playing football and entered into the industry in my mid- to late 30s, that I would be too far behind.”

After Sapunjis left the Stampeders, he worked as a salesperson at a small private company for sev-eral years, selling steel to the oil and gas market.

In 2004, he went over to Continental Alloys and Services as managing part-ner for Canada. He now heads the international company, which is focused on the steel sector of the oil and gas business, providing casing, tubing and other steel pipe for oil and gas companies and major ser-vice companies.

“I believe that in sports and in business, you have to understand how to get along with your teammates or employees,” Sapunjis says. “You have to sup-port them, and if you are a leader you also have to guide them along.”

Sapunjis was named the Grey Cup’s Most Valuable Canadian three times.

STu laiRDFormer Calgary Stampeder Stu Laird says there are many skills that trans-fer over from the sports world to business, includ-ing hard work, dealing with rejection, re-evaluating and committing to do bet-ter. “You’ve got to put the time in, particularly with anything related to sales,” says Laird, 50, who played on the defensive line with the Stamps from 1984 to 1996. “There are going to be lots of failures. Not every-body is going to return your call or buy from you.

You’re not always success-ful, you’re not always going to get your goal. That’s quite common in sports — at the end of the season, only one team can win a championship.”

A western division all-star in 1994, Laird won the Tom Pate Memorial Award for community ser-vice, and was a three-time President’s Ring winner with the Stamps, presented annually to the player who

demonstrates excellence on the football field with leadership, inspiration and motivational skills.

After leaving the pro-fessional sports world, he worked in downhole pro-duction tool sales for four years, then at a direc-tional drilling firm for six years. Two years ago, he moved over to Compass Directional Services. Laird chose the oilpatch because “that’s where most of the opportunities are,” and he had friends who had played football who were doing well in the industry.

One of his initial chal-lenges was his lack of field experience, which he worked hard to make up for in other areas, such as customer service and communication.

Now Laird handles business development at Compass Directional Services in Calgary, which provides directional and horizontal well perform-ance drilling services to the oil and gas industry.

Laird has been presi-dent of the CFL Players’ Association for nearly 10 years.

Bayne noRRieIn sports and in business, “there is a different game every day, but you want to win as many of those

games as you can,” says former Edmonton Eskimo Bayne Norrie.

Chief executive offi-cer and co-owner of Edmonton-based Invicta Machining & Valve Manufacturing, which manufactures parts for drilling rigs, Norrie, 66, also thinks the ability to handle stress is important in both sports and busi-ness. “In my last two years of university and in the CFL, I played predomi-nantly on the defensive side as a defensive back. As a defensive back, you end up being in situa-tions where if you mess up, there could be a touch-down,” he says. “So you have to learn how to han-dle stress. If you make a mistake, you have to be able to put it behind you and move on in the proper direction.” Learning to work productively in a team environment is another essential skill that he gained while playing sports.

Norrie’s resume, in both sports and business, is extensive. He played junior A hockey in North Bay, Ont., and university hockey for two years at Queen’s University. He earned a BA degree in math from Queen’s, a physical educa-tion degree and an MBA. He was captain and MVP while on the Queen’s Golden Gaels football team. He played with the Edmonton Eskimos from 1968 to 1976, and was selected to the CFL all-star team in 1972.

While still with the Eskimos, Norrie articled as a chartered accountant and joined a real estate firm as vice-president of finance, later becoming the company’s executive vice-president after retir-ing from the Eskimos at the age of 31. His business career also encompassed consulting, serving as vice-president of a trust company and starting a holiday charter airline.

Norrie was approached to carry forward a valve design into patent regis-tration and production, and in 1989 became found-ing director of Invicta. He helped start the Edmonton Eskimo Alumni Association in 1986, and is the association’s founding president. He is secretary to the board of trustees at the CFL Players’ Pension Plan, and was awarded the 2010 CFL Alumni Man of the Year of Award.


“Team players are what every company should be looking for. If you play team sports as a youngster, you find out where you fit in and it really sets you up for life. If you have put yourself out there [in sports], you’ve got an inner confidence that you’ll find a way to get this done. And then it’s making sure you surround yourself with good people.” — Lanny McDonald, Former Calgary Flame

Former Eskimo Bayne Norrie, right, receives the 2010 CFL Alumni Man of the Year of Award from his former teammate Hector Pothier.

Team players



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Maintaining the faith

Five visionaries who changed the path of the oilsands industry, and the wall over which the sixth must lead the climb

1928: Dr. Karl ClarkKarl Clark unlocked the mystery of how the hot-water bitumen extraction process works…. His six statements that defined the process have stood the test of time.

By the 1920s, it was clear that the commonly held theory that the oilsands were underlain by a huge pool of light source oil was not correct. Oilsands deposits were just what they appeared to be: huge amounts of sand satu-rated with thick, gunky bitumen. Encouraged by government, some entrepreneurs tried paving roads with the stuff. This proved to not be a viable large-scale commercial enterprise.

Enter Bowman’s first vision-ary, a research chemist with his eyes on the oilsands. Between 1923 and 1930, with tremendous determina-tion and limited support from his employer, the newly created Alberta Research Council, he developed and demonstrated the hot-water bitumen extraction process that, with some tweaks, is still used today at Alberta’s oilsands mines. His work made it clear that oil can indeed be extracted from the sands. His name was Karl Clark.

Oilsands development continually hits a wall of some kind,

presenting seemingly insurmountable obstacles — five times in

the past, a visionary has led the charge over the wall, feathering

the nest for the next stage of development. This is the idea behind

a presentation titled, “Visionaries: Climbing Over the Wall,” given by

Clement Bowman, founding chairman of the Alberta Oil Sands Technology

and Research Authority (AOSTRA).

Bowman is also former vice-president of Esso Petroleum Canada,

president of the Alberta Research Council and research manager with

Syncrude. Bowman is currently chairman of ProGrid Ventures, a consultancy

and software provider for more effective business decision-making strategies.

He argues that the oilsands industry has hit another wall today, and is in

need of another step-changing visionary.

PeTeR MckenZie-BRoWnEnergize Alberta

PEOPLE INNOVATION TECHNOLOGYwww.savannaenergy.com

SAVANNA ENERGY SERVICES CORP.

Karl Clark



1974: Alberta Premier Peter Lougheedpeter Lougheed went where no politician had gone before, challenging the traditional role of government. He established aOSTRa, which commercialized SagD, the dominating in situ technique of today.

In the 1970s, multinational companies had few active development plans for in situ leases. While these deeper deposits represent more than 80 per cent of the resource, there were no viable technologies in commercial existence to develop them. The major exception was Imperial Oil, which was making limited progress at its Cold Lake site.

Once again a provincial politician took the lead. In 1974, he created AOSTRA — the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority — to provide government sup-port for private research. During its 16-year life, AOSTRA provided $670 million of funding for oilsands research. Dr. Roger Butler’s steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process — now the dominating technique for in situ pro-duction — was the single most important advancement from this program. The politician? Premier Peter Lougheed.

2011: Who will answer the call?Visionary number six has the opportunity to change Canada over this decade, leading the shift to production of cleaner, higher-value products from the oilsands.

Fast-forward to the present. There are more major obstacles, they are here and now, and they are environmental. As Bowman says, water and air are no longer free; there is a powerful green consciousness demanding that they be pro-tected along with the vast boreal forest and its inhabitants. Some consumers say they do not want to use products manufactured from Alberta’s “dirty oil.” Financial markets are concerned about the burden of environmental risk.

Who will help the industry overcome these obstacles? According to Bowman, the next visionary will be able to articulate energy as an integrated system with the oil-sands, hydro, natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energy all performing key roles. As importantly, that per-son will have the skills to forge the national will to make Canada a sustainable energy superpower.

Bowman does not conjecture on who this person might be, but his or her name will be marked in history.

INTRODUCTIONS ADAPTED FROM CLEMENT BOWMAN.

1948: Alberta Premier Ernest Manningernest Manning commissioned both the Bitumount demonstration plant and an independent evaluation report that said the oilsands were both commercially viable and competitive on the global market.

Over the next two decades a few small mining projects began pro-ducing. They were not commercially successful, however, and didn’t use Clark’s extraction process. Each was eventually destroyed by fire. After the Second World War, there was no commercial interest in this intracta-ble resource — especially after the 1947 Leduc discovery, which made it clear that large reservoirs of light oil were available in the province of Alberta.

Despite the legacy of failed commercial efforts, a Canadian politician became Bowman’s next visionary. In 1948, he arranged for the province to commission the Bitumount demonstration plant using Clark’s hot water process, and had the entire legislature visit the plant in 1949. He also commissioned an independent evaluation by Sidney Blair, an oilsands expert who began his oilsands career as Karl Clark’s research assistant. Blair concluded that the oilsands were “a commercially viable source of crude oil that could compete on the world market.” The visionary’s name was Ernest Manning, Alberta’s longest-serving premier.

The industry acquired additional oilsands properties and undertook experiments in minable oilsands de-velopment in the 1950s and 1960s. For his part, Manning maintained a life-long belief in the importance of the sands to Canada.

1967: Sun Oil chairman J. Howard PewJ. Howard pew did not waver in his belief in the potential of, and need for, the great Canadian Oil Sands plant, the world’s first commercial oilsands installation. That belief and the ensuing project was the cradle of the Suncor oilsands empire.

In the 1960s, Alberta announced that it would only approve small oilsands projects. Light oil production was

still growing, and the prov-ince didn’t want too much competition between oil-sands and conventional oil. The province’s insistence on small-scale projects led to thin private sec-tor support of the bitumen production industry.

Bowman’s next vision-ary would not waver in his belief in his firm’s proposed project. On his

insistence, Sun Oil filed an application for a 31,500-barrel-per-day project (later amended to 45,000 barrels per day).

A letter from this visionary was read at the Energy Resources Conservation Board hearing for the project, which reportedly changed the dynamics of the meeting. It read, “I believe in the future of this project and I will put up my own money with no reservations if the permit is granted.”

It was, and the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant was built in 1967. Today the installation is known as Suncor. The name of this vision-ary is J. Howard Pew, then-chairman of Sun Oil.

1972: Founding Syncrude president Frank SpraginsFrank Spragins maintained the faith and kept anxious project participants interested. It was he who chose the name Syncrude.

In 1972, a second proposed commercial oilsands plant was losing private sector support because of the alarming esca-lation of costs besetting major North American projects. The Syncrude budget had more than doubled to $2.3 billion, and a major corporate partner pulled out. One man more than any other saved the day. He kept the remaining part-ners onside while marshalling equity participation in the project from the Alberta, Ontario and federal governments. He set up the first lab dedicated to oilsands research, and developed a long-term plan for upgrading bitumen. He was Syncrude’s first president, Frank Spragins.

Ernest Manning

Frank Spragins

J. Howard Pew

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alice murrayStakeholder/Community

Affairs Coordinator Stakeholder/Shell

Bruce edgelowVP, Energy Group

alberta treasury branch

carol howesMedia Relations,

Corporate CommunicationsEncana

caroline groverExecutive Director

Economic development alliance of

Southeast alberta

david huggillWestern Canada Policy Manager

Canadian Wind Energy association (CanWEa)

evelyn ferchukManager, Oil Sands

CommunicationsCanadian association of

Petroleum Producers (CaPP)

gail PoonSenior Manager,

Corporate CommunicationsEpcor

gary redmondExecutive DirectorSynergy alberta

greg gilbertsonOperations LeaderEnergy resources

Conservation board (ErCb)

ian todd VP, Government &

Media Relations Enmax Corporation

Karin gashusUtilities Consumer Advocate

Government of alberta

Kym fawcettManager, HSE, Regulatory &

Stakeholder RelationsEnerplus resources

Lynzey macraePublic Relations Specialist

direct Energy

matthew BurnsAssociate Director (Calgary)

University of alberta

michelle chidleyEvent & Communications

DirectorSmall Explorers & Producer assoc. of Canada (SEPaC)

mike dawsonPresident

Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas (CSUG)

mike doylePresident

Canadian assoc. of Geophysical Contractors

(CaGC)

mike finnVP, Exploration

trident Exploration Corporation

nancy maloneManager, Economic AnalysisCanadian assoc. of oilwell

drilling Contractors (CaodC)

natalie falkBusiness Development Officer

Economic development alliance of

Southeast alberta

natika sunstrumManager, Corporate

Communications Enmax Corporation

nicole collardPublic Affairs Specialist

Penn West Energy

Patricia PoultonCommunity & Aboriginal

Relations AdvisortransCanada

Paul PaynterBusiness Development

Manager, EnergyCalgary Economic

development

scott schreinerDirector, Consultation &

Communicationsaltalink

sean mccarryPresident

Sage Planning Group ltd

stacey BallashExecutive Assistant to

the President & CEOtrident Exploration

Corporation

tracy grillsPresident

Canadian Heavy oil association (CHoa)

travis daviesPublic Affairs Advisor,

Media RelationsCanadian association of

Petroleum Producers (CaPP)

trevor williamsChair, Energy & Utilities

Sector Relations olds College - School

of business

ulrike KuceraMedia Relations OfficerCanadian Wind Energy association (CanWEa)

Members of Energize Alberta’s advisory board come from many energy “walks of life.” This group, with its collective insight and expertise, works closely with the editorial team to suggest areas of coverage that will engage and educate all Albertans about our energy future.

aDviSoRy BoaRDHow it works

horizontal drilling

Horizontal versus vertical well

1. Horizontal well

2. Vertical portion of horizontal well

3. “Kick-off” point, beginning of arc

4. Oil/gas bearing rock, reservoir

5. Horizontal “leg” showing maximized area of contact with oil/gas bearing rock

6. Vertical well

7. Vertical well’s “limited” contact area with oil/gas bearing rock

It might sound strange that oil and gas resources found thousands of metres below our feet could

be reached by “horizontal” drilling. But the technique has become one of the most valuable technologies ever introduced in the Canadian oilpatch.

Horizontal drilling starts with a vertical well. The drill bit bores through layers of rock until it reaches the “kick-off point” — the start of an arc that levels off the well’s tra-jectory — whereupon it continues horizontally.

The horizontal “leg” of a well can be thousands of metres long, and sophisticated navigation instru-ments allow drillers on the surface to expertly guide the drill bit as it cre-ates the well.

to be more easily drained of its valu-able resources.

The Canadian oilpatch is drill-ing more and more of its wells horizontally.

Horizontal wells, used in com-bination with multistage fraccing, which artificially creates fractures in the rock, have opened up new plays across Western Canada and allowed producers to revisit older fields that were uneconomic to produce using vertical wells.

The Canadian oilpatch saw a spec-tacular rise in horizontal drilling in 2010, with a record of about 6,700 horizontal wells licensed for the year, compared to the previous record of 4,019 permits in 2008.

The first advantage that a hori-zontal well has over a vertical one is that the well can penetrate a long way through a layer of rock that con-tains oil or gas. This allows the well to drain more of the resource.

For instance, a vertical well might produce 100 barrels per day from a well that goes straight through a 50-metre thick layer of oil-bearing rock. If the well is drilled horizon-tally through that oil-bearing layer, and extends out 1,500 metres, then the production per day may go up to 1,000 barrels. So this allows more oil and natural gas to be produced with fewer wells and less surface disturbance.

The second advantage relates to the way in which fractures form in the rock. Because they are vertical, a vertical well won’t hit very many of them, and since these fractures pro-vide an easy flow of oil and gas to a well, then the well will not show very much production.

If the well is horizontal, however, then it will intersect many of these natural fractures and allow the rock



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Stronger communities are built by the strength of their members and by our ability to communicate with one another. That’s why we’ve established a program called “Community Matters” which en-courages people to come together to exchange ideas and information about the things we all care about—the safety and well being of our friends and family, stewardship of the land, and having respect for our neighbours.

If you have questions or concerns about operations in your community, or would like more information about Penn West, we invite you to contact us at 1-877-454-8844. To learn more about us, please visit our website at www.pennwest.com

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Faced with loom-ing worker shortages at their oilsands opera-tions in the Fort

McMurray area due to expansion and attrition, companies are hiring locals and often making special efforts to employ the area’s first residents, aboriginals.

According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Alberta’s oilsands region is expected to need more than 100,000 workers by 2015. Attracting under-represented demographic groups such as aborigi-nals, immigrants and visible minorities will help industry meet its human resources needs.

The Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada (Petroleum HR

Council) estimates that in the next few years about 13,000 additional workers will be required by oilsands producers to meet growth targets. The oilsands sector will also need to do sig-nificant hiring to replace workers retiring between now and 2020 because of an aging workforce.

Although oilsands oper-ations are located near to a large aboriginal population, they have not fully par-ticipated in the Canadian labour market. Moreover, aboriginals represent a large potential labour sup-ply pool if a number of educational and societal barriers are addressed, says the Petroleum HR Council, a federally funded agency that examines the energy sector’s staffing requirements. It also col-laborates with industry and governments to meet those needs.

Oilsands employers generally require at least Grade 12 and trade or tech-nical certificates because there is a lot of technol-ogy involved, says Cheryl Knight, executive direc-tor of the council. “Given that aboriginals have lower Grade 12 completion rates, that would be a key bar-rier,” she says.

“Fewer than one per cent of aboriginal students major in science-related courses at the post-sec-ondary level and this is a limiting factor. Even at the high school level, a focus on math and science would really be helpful. A number of employers have recognized that,” says Knight.

She recommended that oilsands companies com-municate to even younger students — in elemen-tary schools as well as junior high schools — the

broad array of job oppor-tunities within the sector. Companies can reinforce how math and science are fundamental skills to both teachers and students, she says.

Oilsands companies should pursue “anything they can do to provide on-the-job training and hands-on learning to give aboriginal youth a taste of what working for oilsands companies would be like

so they might decide to take an apprenticeship or attend a technical college. They can highlight aborigi-nal role models to illustrate success and what it takes to succeed.”

Knight also urges oilsands companies to con-tinue communicating with governments about how they can support aboriginal participation in a meaning-ful way through policy and programs.

Several companies con-tribute funding to Keyano College in Fort McMurray to develop the next genera-tion of workers. They fund aboriginal trades programs, provide scholarships and offer work experience and mentorship.

hiring LocaLLyAboriginal people comprise about eight per cent of Syncrude Canada’s direct workforce, with many more working on site for various contracting companies. At the end of 2009, the com-pany employed about 470 aboriginals: 100 each from Calgary and Edmonton, and the rest from Fort McMurray and the sur-rounding region.

This also marks the 30th year of its fly-in, fly-out program in Fort Chipewyan. The pro-gram began when Fort Chipewyan residents expressed a desire to work in the oilsands without leaving their home and community behind. Rather

Oilsands companies target aboriginals to fill growing labour gap

lynDa haRRiSonEnergize Alberta

opportunity beckons

Oilsands companies should pursue “anything they can do to provide on-the-job training and hands-on learning to give aboriginal youth a taste of what working for oilsands companies would be like so they might decide to take an apprenticeship or attend a technical college. They can highlight aboriginal role models to illustrate success and what it takes to succeed.”

— Cheryl Knight, Executive Director, Petroleum HR Council



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than relocating staff and their families to a town near the worksite, employ-ees are flown to the mine where they work for a number of days and are then flown back to Fort Chipewyan during their downtime.

Cheryl Robb, Syncrude spokeswoman, says the company is one of the largest employers of aboriginals in Canada. The company makes every effort to hire locally and retain these people, says Robb. “There’s a lot more commitment to the com-pany and the community if you’re living there,” she says.

Syncrude is one of 12 companies in Canada, and the only oilsands company, to be accredited at the gold level in the Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) program of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. PAR measures corporate performance in aboriginal employment, business development, capacity development and community relations.

The company also looks to fill its ranks with immigrants. This year

it was chosen as one of the top employers of new Canadians by Canada’s Top 100 Employers program, an annual competition to recognize the country’s best places to work. The company is involved in an English-as-a-second-language program at Keyano, supports new Canadians applying to be professional engineers and recognizes international education and work experience.

As of February 2010, Suncor Energy employed approximately 300 self-identified aboriginal people in its oilsands operations in the Wood Buffalo region.

That is slightly above seven per cent of the com-pany’s workforce in that region, says spokesman Dany Laferriere. They are employed in a variety of areas including human resources, communications and stakeholder rela-tions advisors, operations (extraction, upgrading and mining), as well as trade and technical positions such as heavy equipment technicians and welders.

The company is continu-ing its efforts to increase

aboriginal employment by working in partnership with communities, schools and local governments. It does so by supporting career fairs, creating man-agement level opportunities and investing in the next generation of aboriginal employees through scholar-ships, work placement and training programs.

Suncor has been cited as a Top 25 Diversity Employer for establishing an aborig-inal affairs department and for providing cul-tural diversity training to employees.

It is also important to look at indirect employ-ment, says Laferriere, noting that while some 1,600 aboriginals had per-manent jobs in the oilsands industry as of 2009, aborig-inal companies earned more than $3.7 billion on work for oilsands operators between 1998 and 2009. Suncor alone accounted for more than $1 billion of these contracts between 1992 and 2008.

worKforce deveLoPmentHiring aboriginals is a key part of Shell Canada’s

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Oilsands operator Syncrude has been recognized as one of Canada's top employers of aboriginals.



Find out more about Suncor’s track record and how we are planning to responsibly

develop North America’s energy supply. www.suncor.com/sustainability

As an Operations Manager at Suncor Energy, Stephen Young is one of more than

12,000 employees who have seen how innovation can turn possibilities into reality.

Like turning tailings ponds into solid ground. Suncor has developed a game-changing

technology that reclaims former oil sands mines into natural habitat decades faster

than before. We’re also marking a significant milestone with the return of our first

tailings pond to a solid surface in 2010. Developing these kinds of solutions begins

with seeing the possibilities. And we’re just getting started.

energy

innovation

commitment

We see the possibilities.

$1.2billion

actual and planned investments

in new tailings technology

3.5million1,182hectaresof land reclaimed to date

trees planted on Suncor’s site

since 1967

recruitment strategy now and in the future, says spokesman Phil Vircoe. Although the company does not disclose in detail its recruitment targets or long-term hiring strat-egy, he did say Shell uses an integrated approach to recruit aboriginals, includ-ing dedicated aboriginal “sourcers,” recruitment marketing initiatives, career open houses in key aboriginal communities and developing relation-ships with organizations.

These include the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation for scholarships; Aboriginal Lynx, an organization focused on providing career opportunities to aboriginal interns and new graduates; and Aboriginal Link, an organization that provides career oppor-tunities for professionals, graduates and operations crafts.

The oilsands offer lots of opportunities for trades-people, technical people

and service providers due to expansion of in situ plants. For unskilled peo-ple, the construction side is the place to be, says Knight. “As a broad rule of thumb, you can assume 2.5 to three times as many people are required for construction and maintenance.”

According to the Petroleum HR Council, the top-10 jobs in demand due to growth and replace-ment needs, in descending order, are: steam and non-steam operators (generally power engineers), heavy equipment operators, mill-wrights and mechanics, heavy equipment mechan-ics, industrial electricians, welders, petroleum engi-neers, instrumentation technicians, drilling coordinators/production managers, and mechanical engineers.

The council is projecting that the services sector will increase hiring by 19,000 people in the next 10 years, driven by expansions of in

situ operations throughout oilsands areas.

Cenovus Energy will need almost 1,200 con-struction workers at its expanding Christina Lake in situ project in the next eight to 10 years, nearly triple the current 450 workers. The company tries to hire locally as much as possible, drawing aboriginals from nearby communities such as Lac La Biche, Chipewyan

Prairie First Nation and Conklin.

“It’s better for the communities and it’s cheaper for us,” Drew Zieglgansberger, Christina Lake vice-president, told reporters during a media tour in September.

The company also contracts with local aborig-inals to run one of their camps and for work such as seismic-line cutting and earth moving. It supports a

local, government-funded program called Change It Up! (see the November/December 2010 edition of Energize Alberta) designed to either keep young people in school or prepare them for the workforce. Cenovus also participates in several initiatives aimed at keeping aboriginals in school, pro-viding scholarships, career fairs, driver’s education and safety skills training through partnerships. It

does not track the num-ber of aboriginals on its workforce.

According to the Alberta government, 17 First Nations with a com-bined population of 16,000 people living on-reserve and six Metis settlements with approximately 6,000 residents live in areas where oilsands are found. Thousands more live off-reserve and off-settle-ment in Alberta’s oilsands region.

According to the gov-ernment, more than 1,500 aboriginal people were employed directly by oil-sands operations in 2008, a 60 per cent increase from 1998. This figure does not include construction-related employment.

“If you looked at other sectors in oil and gas and compared activity of this nature you would find that oilsands are the lead-ers,” says the Petroleum HR Council’s Knight. “They are the most progressive and focused employers with respect to workforce development programs that address a variety of work-ers. I believe they deserve some credit for that.”

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New Entrants Immigrants Aboriginal Peoples Women in Engineering, Trades, Technology

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Historically, industry has not attracted its share of workers from all potential labour supply pools.

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opportunity beckonsContinued from page 11



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capturing the enemy

The need to put the brakes on global warming is prompt-ing governments and industry throughout the world to consider

their options and develop action plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

And while there are several GHGs, including methane and water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from the burning of fossil fuels is the main focus of concern due to the broad scientific con-sensus about its negative impact on the climate and the need to reduce our carbon footprint.

In 2008, the Alberta government released its climate change strategy, which proposes to stabilize GHG emissions by 2020 and includes among its targets emissions reductions of 50 per cent below “business as usual” levels — or 200 mega-tonnes — by 2050.

The province’s strategy paper says that Alberta’s target of a 200-megatonne reduction is the “largest identified and published by any provincial jurisdiction in Canada,” and will bring Alberta’s emis-sions to 14 per cent below 2005 levels.

But to get there, the province has hitched its wagon to carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which it hopes will deliver the majority of the plan’s

reductions — about 70 per cent of the 2050 target. To move the development of CCS forward, the Alberta government is pro-viding $2 billion in funding, which is being topped up by the federal Clean Energy Fund.

In its final report to then energy minister Mel Knight in early 2009, the government-industry initiative known as the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council said that Alberta’s plan to address GHG emissions through the wide-spread implementation of CCS technologies “is achievable.”

“While contributions from renewable energy development and conservation are an important part of Alberta’s car-bon intensity reduction plan, some 70 per cent of Alberta’s potential reductions are seen to arise from CCS,” the council said in its report.

caPTuRing caRBonCCS involves capturing and separating CO2 emitted by coal-fired power plants and other large emissions sources, and shipping it by pipeline to an injection site where it is stored deep underground.

There are two main ways CO2 is cap-tured in the CCS process. Post-combustion capture separates CO2 from the flue gas at the source after combustion. Pre-combustion modifies the fossil fuel combustion technology to make the CO2 easier to capture.

Alberta government and the energy sector are investing in carbon capture and storage to fight climate change

goDfRey BuDDEnergize Alberta

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1. Enhanced coalbed methane recovery and CO2 storage

2. CO2 storage in depleted gas reservoir

3. CO2 enhanced oil recovery

4. CO2 storage in salt cavern

5. CO2 dissolved in formation water (saline aquifer storage)

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The biggest challenge with capture appears to be its cost, and the rule of thumb is that the more pure the stream of CO2, the lower the cost. Capture typically accounts for 70 to 90 per cent of CCS cost.

“Costs can range from $70 to $250 a tonne. No one knows the cost exactly. It depends on stream concentration and whether it’s under pressure,” says Eddy Isaacs, chief executive officer of Alberta Innovates — Energy and Environment Solutions.

Once captured, CO2 is shipped using standard oil and gas pipeline technology. Isaacs says the gas needs to be shipped under pressure at around 2,000 pounds per square inch. “If it comes out from the source under pressure, it could save 25 to 50 per cent of the operating costs,” he says.

The risks in the event of a serious leak differ slightly from oil and natural gas as CO2 is heavier than air, and could poten-tially travel along the ground and get trapped where people or animals are and cause death.

But the network of CO2 pipelines sup-porting enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the United States has been operating success-fully for decades. The biggest CO2 pipeline operating in Canada connects a coal gas-ification plant in Beulah, N.D., to depleted oilfields near Weyburn, Sask., where the gas is then used for EOR.

After capture and shipping, the third phase — storage or sequestration, as it is sometimes called — sees the CO2 injected deep underground into geologic forma-tions. These are either depleted oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers.

Stefan Bachu, distinguished scien-tist with Alberta Innovates — Technology Futures, says that the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), which stretches from southwest Manitoba to northeast British Columbia and southern Yukon, has many potential CO2 injection sites because of the subsurface geology of the region.

“Just in Alberta alone, there are more than 40,000 gas reservoirs and 10,000 oil reservoirs,” he says.

Bachu says that depleted gas reservoirs in the WCSB have the potential to store between four and 10 billion tonnes of CO2 over time. Oil reservoirs could eventually store about 500 million tonnes using EOR

and could result in recovering an extra 1.4 billion barrels of crude oil. For gas, on the other hand, CO2 should only be injected once the well has ceased production.

Managing alBeRTa’S co2 eMiSSionSThere are several reasons for Alberta’s concern around CO2 emissions and plans for CCS.

The province’s annual emissions are the highest in Canada at 244 million tonnes, accounting for about one-third of the coun-try’s total CO2 emissions in 2008, according to Environment Canada.

Although the province’s oil and gas industry has worked to reduce its carbon intensity, the industry remains a major emitter of CO2. So too does the province’s coal-fired power industry. Unlike British Columbia or Quebec, Alberta has little hydroelectric capacity, nor does it have nuclear power, like Ontario.

Looking at emissions on a per -capita basis is a common way of putting the CO2 emissions of a country, province

or state into perspective. Based on Environment Canada figures, Alberta’s annual emissions are about 70 tonnes per capita, the country’s second highest after Saskatchewan, at 73 tonnes. Ontario’s per-capita emissions are close to those of Canada as a whole at about 18 tonnes per capita.

Quebec’s carbon footprint, at about 12 tonnes per capita, is lower than average and comparable to that of California or New York. Two states, North Dakota and Wyoming, have higher emissions than Alberta or Saskatchewan, according to the United States Department of Energy.

While American consumers and their federal government appear to welcome the 1.5 million barrels a day of oil imported from Alberta’s oilsands, along with another one million barrels of conventional Canadian oil, some lobby groups in the United States are pressuring governments at the state and federal level to stop imports from major emitters like oilsands producers.

At the same time, as a day of reck-oning for big CO2 emitters might be approaching in the form of a much more carbon-constrained world, demand for oilsands crude appears unabated.

To meet the anticipated demand, more development of the oilsands is under way. With 80 per cent of the oilsands too deep for surface mining, the more carbon-intensive in situ extraction, which burns natural gas for steam injection to first soften then produce bitumen from under-ground, is expected to surpass volumes produced from surface mining within a few years.

Alberta

Northwest Territories Nunavut

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YukonAlaska

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Proposed Projects

Operational Projects

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tHree Key Points to Ponder

1. CCS is the process of capturing CO2 from large industrial sources before it is released to the atmosphere, and then safely transporting and storing it in mature oil and gas reservoirs or in other deep geological formations.

2. Of all the technologies used in CCS projects, capture technology development is still ongoing with various research institutions and companies developing and fine-tuning these processes globally. The price of capture is expected to fall as more technologies are developed and implemented.

3. The Alberta government announced in 2008 it will contribute $2 billion to reduce GHG emissions through new CCS projects. The expected result is five million tonnes in annual reductions by 2015 — comparable to taking one million vehicles off the road.

tHe following is a brief synoPsis of tHe four alberta ccs Projects:

• The Swan Hills Synfuels underground coal gasification will produce gas for generating power, and the CO2 emitted in the process will be captured and used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). CO2 has been used for EOR in parts of the United States for decades, particularly where oil wells are within economic pipeline shipping distance of naturally occurring underground CO2 reservoirs. Regarding the storage part of CCS, some of the injected CO2 is produced with the oil while some remains in the oil reservoir.

• A TransAlta project will capture CO2 at its Keephills coal-fired plant west of Edmonton. “This will use post-combus-tion capture using an ammonia process. It is newer technology,” says Robert Craig, director of strategy and technol-ogy at ICO2N.

• The Quest project will capture CO2 from Shell’s upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan and store it in a deep saline aquifer.

• The fourth project will capture CO2 in Fort Saskatchewan and ship it by pipe for EOR near Clive in central Alberta

Active and proposed CCS projects in Western Canada.

}An in-depth look at issues and people on the energy landscape, connecting you to new ideas and interesting Albertans.

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The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers forecasts that oilsands production will almost double from the current 1.5 million barrels per day in 2010 to 2.9 million in 2020 and 3.5 million by 2025.






At Enerplus, we believe our on-going commitment to health and safety is critical to the success of our business. We are dedicated to protecting the health and safety of our employees, contractors and the public in the communities in which we live and operate.

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According to the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based sustainable energy think tank, the oilsands currently produce 37.2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. But with the anticipated production growth from the oilsands, the institute forecasts that oilsands emissions will rise to about 108 million tonnes per year by 2020 — a figure slightly north of half the 190 mil-lion tonnes of CO2 emissions Environment Canada reported for Ontario in 2008.

“This is based on past trends and increased in situ production, which will likely overtake mining in about 2016,” says Jennifer Grant, Pembina’s oilsands pro-gram director.

naTuRal fiT?A more carbon-constrained world could present Alberta’s oil and gas industry and coal-fired power sector with some challenges.

To meet this goal, the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council’s report says that 139 million tonnes in reduction “would be achieved by implementing CCS on an extensive basis in Alberta’s oilsands, in its power sector and in industrial facilities.”

An Alberta and federal government task force paper, titled Canada’s Fossil

Energy Future: The Way Forward on Carbon Capture and Storage, presents government and industry’s case for CCS. It notes that the country’s CO2 emissions have gone up by about 25 per cent since 1990 and that CCS is a “natural fit for Canada” for many reasons.

“CCS can enable Canada to build on its existing energy infrastructure and its fos-sil energy endowment while managing the associated GHG emissions.”

The report also suggests that Canada has the potential to become a world leader in CCS.

The Integrated CO2 Network (ICO2N), an alliance of 16 of Canada’s largest industrial companies who support the development of CO2 capture, transport, distribution and storage, says CCS is one of the key tools for meeting GHG reduction targets for Canada.

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not about a single tool to solve the climate change issue — there will be many tools and we need to move quickly to grow them all,” says Stephen Kaufman, chairman of ICO2N.

“But studies clearly show that CCS can contribute significant CO2 reduction vol-umes and is an important part of Canada’s suite of greenhouse gas reduction options.”

One such study done by the Delphi Group last year looked at the potential supply, timing and cost of GHG reductions in Canada from a variety of alternatives, and concluded that CCS has the most sig-nificant potential for annual reductions, closely followed by nuclear, wind power and vehicle fuel-efficiency improvements.

“While CCS will be expensive in the early stages of development, its costs are

comparable to those of other GHG reduction options such as wind and solar,” Kaufman says. Alberta is a global leader in progress-ing CCS, and there are four large-scale demonstration projects under develop-ment. Carbon capture and storage is not a new or untested idea, Kaufman adds.

“CCS is a technically viable and environmentally safe means of reducing greenhouse gases. There are many CCS projects of varying sizes under way around the world, including a large project in Weyburn, and underground storage of CO2 has been done for more than 30 years in the United States,” he says.

“In Canada, the geologic formations being considered as candidates for long-term CO2 storage — namely depleted oil and gas reservoirs and deep geological sequestration sites — have already proven safe for storing other gases and liquids. These same formations have trapped crude oil and natural gas underground for hundred of millions of years.”

Players on tHe stage1. Integrated CO2 Network (www.ico2n.com)2. Alberta Energy (www.energy.alberta.ca)3. Pembina Institute (www.pembina.org)

going broader, deePer1. Canadian Carbon Capture and

Storage Network (www.ccs101.ca)

feedbacKWhat’s your opinion on carbon capture and sequestration? Send your comments to [email protected].

Canadian CCS storage potential


capturing the enemy

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connectionenergy & agricultural land

P r e s e n t e d b y

C a n a d i a n a s s o C i a t i o n o f P e t r o l e u m l a n d m e n s u P P l e m e n t 2 0 1 1

Get to know your neighbour…you’ll be surprised how much you have in common.

Watch for it March 2011

Presented by

Make the connection with Energy & Agricultural Land Connection – an Official Publication of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Landowners.

A valuable resource for landowners.

One cubic mile of oil (CMO) corresponds very closely to the world’s current total annual consumption of crude oil. The world’s total annual energy consumption — from all energy sources — is currently about three CMO. By the middle of this century, the world will need between six and nine CMO of energy per year to provide for its citizens. A Cubic Mile of Oil describes the various energy sources and how we use them, projects their future contributions, and delineates what it would take to develop them to annually pro-duce a CMO from each of them. The authors also examine how improved efficiency and conservation measures can reduce future demand substantially, and help distinguish approaches that make a significant impact as opposed to merely making us feel good.

In Ethical Oil, author Ezra Levant focuses his attention on the ethical cost of our addiction to oil. While many North Americans may be aware of the financial and environmental price we pay for a gallon of gas or a barrel of oil, Levant argues that it is time we consider ethical factors as well. With his trademark candor, Levant asks hard-hitting questions: With the oilsands at our disposal, is it ethically respon-sible to import our oil from the Sudan, Russia and Mexico? How should we weigh carbon emissions with human rights violations in Saudi Arabia? And assuming that we can’t live without oil, can the development of energy be made more environment-ally sustainable?

By heWiTT cRane, eDWin kinDeRMan anD RiPuDaMan MalhoTRa By eZRa levanT

A Cubic Mile of Oil: Realities and Options for Averting the Looming Global Energy Crisis

Ethical Oil:The Case for Canada’s Oilsands

Recommended reads

oxford university Press, june 2010

“An original, illuminating and entertaining way to experience the energy debate. Cubic Mile is more than an introduction to a new unit of measurement. It is an encyclopedic embrace of energy issues, with dispassionate but compelling analysis of the energy conundrum.”

— Neil Reynolds, The Globe and Mail

Mcclelland & stewart, sePteMber 2010

“Exposes the lies and hypocrisy of the media-coddled opponents of the vast resource, but raises the uncomfortable question of what alternatives to the oilsands these moralists prefer.”

— Peter Foster, Financial Post



two Key Points to Ponder

1. An increased emphasis by Albertans on energy conservation could help save money and reduce the need for additional power generation facilities.

2. More stringent building code requirements would help homeowners save money over the life of their mortgages.

Save easyEnergy conservation measures could save Albertans billions

Albertans could be saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year if governments and businesses would take energy efficiency and conserva-tion more seriously, according to the head of an

organization that promotes energy efficiency.John Rilett, chair of the Calgary-based Alberta Energy

Efficiency Alliance, says if the Alberta government pro-vided the same level of funding for energy-efficiency programs as some other governments in Canada the savings for homeowners and businesses would be eye-popping.

“We could save Albertans billions of dollars between now and 2015 just by not consuming as much energy,” says Rilett, who is also vice-president of Calgary-based Climate Change Central, a non-profit organization involved in consumer rebate programs, demonstra-tion projects and educational outreach related to climate change.

Rilett says the concept is easy to understand.“It focuses on the ‘negawatt,’ meaning the watts of

energy you don’t consume,” he says. “Efficiency is always less expensive than building new power plants and other infrastructure.”

Alberta lags behind much of Canada and North America in conservation and efficiency of energy con-sumption, also called demand-side management.

In 42 of the 60 state and provincial jurisdictions in North America, the power and gas utilities operate under what is called performance-based pricing, where government agencies similar to the Alberta Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities in the province, offer incentives to utilities to get their customers to use less energy.

While that might seem counterintuitive — after all, companies rarely want their customers to use less of their products — it makes a great deal of sense in such capital-intensive businesses, says Rilett.

“For instance, BC Hydro goes to its regulator and says, ‘If you give us an incentive, we think we can charge con-sumers six cents per kilowatt hour [kWh] instead of 13 cents per kWh.’”

It’s called a cost-of-service regulatory structure and no such system exists now in Alberta, although the Department of Energy has asked the Alberta Utilities Commission to produce a report in 2011 on ways of developing “new rules and regulations of consumer choices” for both natural gas and electricity.

As the deregulated electricity system in the province is structured, there’s no incentive for the power generators to build fewer power plants, comments Rilett.

“In Alberta, if you’re a power generator and you spend $100 on new facilities, you might get a guaranteed nine per cent return. If you spend $109, you still get the same percentage return. But in states and provinces with a cost-of-service structure, if the utility produces power for 90 cents [because of conservation initiatives] it gets to keep the 10-cent difference and still gets a rate of return.”

In Canada, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan all have systems

in place to encourage utilities to get their customers to conserve.

There is no province-wide program in Alberta, although the City of Medicine Hat, which owns its own gas and power utilities, operates a conservation pro-gram called HAT Smart, which is aimed at getting the city’s 60,000 residents to consume less gas, electricity and water. The utilities impose an energy conservation charge on residential customers who consume more than 950 kWh of power a month or over 22 gigajoules of natural gas monthly.

Medicine Hat also has in place its Smart Growth initia-tive, which encourages the development of more compact neighbourhoods, the construction of green buildings and the use of public transit.

conservation ProgramsThe most aggressive conservation programs in North America are operated by the State of California and were launched in the 1970s.

“California uses half of the electricity, on a per capita basis, that other states in the U.S. use,” says Rilett. “If it didn’t have those programs in place, it would have had to build four to six new nuclear power plants and 10 to 12 coal-fired plants.”

BC Hydro’s Power Smart program, launched in 1989, has saved enough electricity to power 380,000 homes and avoid the construction of at least two power plants. But the Crown-owned utility receives government incentives.

In Ontario, meanwhile, the Ontario Energy Board and Ontario Power Authority were directed in April 2010 to work with about 100 local distribution companies in the province to achieve 1,330 megawatts (MW) of conser-vation by 2015, enough to power 410,000 homes and to avoid the construction of several new power facilities.

JiM BenTeinEnergize Alberta

going broader, deePer1. EnerGuide (www.nrcan.gc.ca)

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One Hot Opportunity.

Thermal heavy oil is a key part of Devon’s future and we’re working hard to significantly grow our production over the next decade. In addition to the award winning Jackfish facility and its two look alike projects, Devon is in the early stages of multiple development phases of a new program called Pike.

We have the top quality acreage position and resource base, technical track record and values-based approach to get us there, but need more great employees to help us reach our goal.

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Players on tHe stage1. Climate Change Central (www.climatechangecentral.com)2. Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance (www.aeea.ca)

Ultimately, the government says, conservation will reduce peak electricity demand by 6,300 MW by 2025, about 30 per cent of the province’s existing power production.

There is no comprehensive plan for conservation and efficiency in Alberta, and — worse yet — little funding to accomplish it and no incentives for companies to promote it, says Rilett.

“In Alberta, we spend $6 per capita on energy conser-vation programs,” he notes. “Both B.C. and Ontario spend more than $40 per capita on such programs. The B.C. gov-ernment allocates $180 million a year for such programs and Ontario sets aside $300 million a year. In Alberta, meanwhile, we set aside $14 million a year.”

Much of that funding, from both the federal and prov-incial governments, as well as from industry, is managed by Climate Change Central, which has a variety of conser-vation-related programs in place.

The programs are funded by a $36-million, three-year commitment set up in 2009 by the Alberta government, as well as funding from the federal government’s ecoENERGY Retrofit program, set up in 2007 when Ottawa allocated $220 million for home retrofits and $60 million for busi-nesses. In total, about 140,000 homeowners across the country received grants of up to $5,000, supplemented by provincial grants, to carry out energy efficiency improve-ments to their houses.

Although the federal Tories have announced they will stop receiving new applications in 2011, they allocated another $300 million for home improvements in the 2009 federal budget, expected to lead to efficiency improve-ments to 200,000 housing units across Canada.

Rilett says Climate Change Central has been able to get 100,000 households in Alberta involved in a number

of energy-efficiency improvements, ranging from fund-ing for new Energy Star high-efficiency furnaces, washers and dryers, and other appliances, to audits that have led to the installation of insulation and energy-efficient win-dows in homes across Alberta.

creating a conserver cuLtureOne of the problems the organization has dealt with is the province’s inadequately built housing stock, Rilett says.

“Alberta has some of the worst-performing homes in the country, from an energy-efficiency standpoint,” he says. “That means Albertans consume more gas and elec-tricity than other parts of the country.”

Part of the reason for that is the province has not updated its building code standards in any significant way since the 1960s, and many building-envelope improve-ments have been made since then, he says.

As the ecoENERGY program expires in 2011 amid a tor-rent of criticism from the environmental community and others, he says it behoves the Alberta government to step in to fill the void.

“The Alberta government needs to take a long-term view,” Rilett says. “They need to establish a longer-term focus on program funding.”

In addition, he says the Alberta Utilities Commission, which the government has also charged with developing a place for the rollout of so-called smart meters and smart-grid technology, as well as a regulatory review, should be tasked with developing a long-term strategy to help Albertans conserve more.

Ironically, Rilett points out that, despite the province’s woeful performance in the area of energy conservation, Alberta is a leader in another conservation area.

It leads the country in recycling, through the Alberta Recycling Management Authority, first established in 1992 to manage the province’s tire recycling program. It now manages an electronics recycling and paint recycling pro-gram as well.

In addition, the 15-year-old Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation oversees one of Canada’s longest-running beverage container recycling programs.

“It’s a model that can be adopted for energy efficiency and conservation,” he says.

To convert Alberta to a “conserver culture,” he says the emphasis has to be on deploying technologies such as smart meters, which will help homeowners track their power use, on education about the benefits of conserva-tion, and on a “behaviour fix” aimed at getting people to turn off lights when rooms are empty and to only plug their vehicles into power outlets for an hour or so when it’s cold, instead of all night.

Jesse Row, director of the sustainable commun-ities group for environmental organization the Pembina Institute, says increasing building code standards would go a long way towards helping conserve both power and gas.

“The Alberta government said in its climate change plan it was going to toughen building code standards, but they got cold feet after the builders complained,” he says.

The standards haven’t been upgraded since the early 1980s and those changes were minor ones, he says.

Pembina and others have estimated that bringing resi-dential building code standards up to an 80 rating based on the federal government’s EnerGuide standard — an EnerGuide rating shows a standard measure of a home’s energy performance — would save Alberta homeowners at least $70 a month on their power and gas bills, while the higher building code standards would cost them an average of $35 a month over the life of their mortgages.

Since there are more than one million houses in Alberta, if all were brought up to EnerGuide 80 standards, it would lead to billions of dollars in energy savings, Row notes.

“Improving building code standards is the low-hanging fruit of energy conservation,” says Row.

feedbacKWhat ways are you conserving energy use? Let us know by emailing [email protected].



INFORMATION ABOUT CANADA’S EMERGING ENERGY RESOURCES

laSia kReTZelEnergize Alberta

one simple actGovernment initiative celebrates Albertans who’ve found it ‘simple’ to be environmentally friendly

A s carbon emission estimates rise, garbage piles high in city dumps and our energy demand continues to climb, the thought

that one single person, business or com-munity can make a difference might seem ridiculous.

Yet if you add up all those single actions, you can get some rather dramatic and positive changes.

This is the idea behind the prov-ince’s One Simple Act initiative, a public information and education program encouraging and celebrating Albertans who want to lead more environmentally friendly lives. The program helps ordi-nary citizens realize their goals of saving energy, reducing waste and conserving resources though various online presenta-tions and workshops.

Already, thousands of Albertans at home, at work and within their commun-ities have taken a stand and committed to reducing their own waste.

enviRonMenTal aWaReneSSComplete environmental awareness is exactly the philosophy employed by Industry Images, a national printing shop with locations in Calgary and Edmonton.

Bib Patel, manager of the Calgary location, says the company has made environmental awareness a natural part of its employees’ work and home lives.

“Business and personal life can be very much parallel,” Patel says.

At work, Industry Images has gone to great lengths to minimize its environ-mental footprint.

“We are a printing company, so us reducing waste is like saying, ‘Butter with five per cent less fat,’” Patel says. “We’re going to have waste product regardless. It’s the nature of our business.”

To help mitigate the company’s impact, however, company president Gavin Harrison introduced My Liife,

a program designed to streamline environ-mental efforts within the company.

Efforts include using Forest Stewardship Council certified paper (from trees grown in sustainable climates) as a standard, while offering clients upgrades to recycled paper, working with Scouts Canada to plant two trees for every equiv-alent of one tree used, using manual cutters to save electricity and encourag-ing clients to reuse large print jobs such as banners. Blue bins are also a common sight around the small office located above Crossroads Market in Calgary.

The company has also signed up with Bullfrog Power, which provides 100 per cent green energy. When customers sign up with Bullfrog, the company’s power-generator partners inject electricity from renewable sources into the grid to match the amount of power a home or business uses.

On a national level, Industry Images reduces its transportation emissions by printing at the closest location to its client. If the client is national, the same print job will be done at multiple locations.

Patel says this is also financially benefi-cial as it means the company pays less for transportation.

But he says it’s not just about sav-ing money. Everyone in the company has made a conscious effort to lessen their environmental impact.

At home, employees are encouraged to use enviro-friendly soaps and cleaners.

Patel says it’s not just a business strategy, but a way of life.

He says it’s not difficult for companies or individuals to find ways to reduce their waste, but a person’s heart and priorities must be on the environment.

“I think it’s just a matter of taking the time, sitting down and looking to see where you can reduce your impact,” he says. “Start taking a look at what kind of legacy you want your company to leave — one that just makes a lot of money as opposed to one that is very successful on multi-levels.”

STaRTing SMall, STaRTing localCalgarian Sophie Barry says the key to environmental protection is to start close to home before focusing on global environ-mental issues.

“I believe that it should start small. It’s not like one day you wake up and go, ‘OK, I’m going to take all the cars off the road.’ If everyone does one small thing, it will make a big impact rather than all these people wondering what to do because their heads are in something much too large.”

At 12 years of age, Barry’s environ-mental passion began right at home with her family’s recycling habits. Encouraged by her parents and teachers, Barry hosted an environmentally friendly 11th birthday party. Guests ate locally grown food off compostable plates and enjoyed an after-noon nature scavenger hunt.

Rather than presents, Barry asked her friends to bring a donation for the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation. Together they raised $250.

This one act caught the attention of local environmentalists, and since then, Barry has spoken about local environmental action at multiple events, including the Calgary Low Carbon Future Summit and the Symposium to Enhance Global Citizenship and Environmental Education in Alberta.

The summit “was kind of the big boom that made me go, ‘OK, I need to do some-thing about all this because there’s not enough happening,’” Barry says.

Her results included inviting represen-tatives of One Simple Act to Elboya School in Calgary to speak to students, as well as the creation of a three-phase plan to reduce her school’s environmental footprint.

“I really wanted it to be localized,” she says.

Phase one of the three-year project created a Green Team for the school and encouraged recycling. The second phase is about integrating environmental edu-cation into the curriculum, and the third phase, which Barry is hoping to focus on in the coming year, is about getting students to take their eco-knowledge and apply it on both a local and global scale.

Although it may seem like she has a lot on the go, Barry says she has made each project manageable and simple. She says environmentalism doesn’t need to be com-plicated and can become part of people’s everyday life at home and around the world.

Barry says she also believes the only way individuals will have any impact is if they start looking at their simple acts in a global context. “Say if I had a gum wrap-per and there’s no garbage can in sight and I chuck it on the ground. But if everyone in your school, in the city or in the world threw that gum wrapper on the ground, we wouldn’t be able to see the ground.”

She says she encourages everyone, but especially the youth today, to speak up for the world they will inherit.

“Kids like me, we are the leaders of tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be leaders today. You can still bring some-thing into your school or do a project and be a leader in this whole environmental movement. You can do that even if you’re a kid. And I think it’s about getting people to realize that they can make a difference without taking all the cars off the road.”

Visit www.onesimpleact.alberta.ca to find out more about the program and read success stories.

Sophie Barry’s environmental passion began at home.

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http://www.onesimpleact.alberta.ca

read more online atenergizealberta.com

Where energy, the economy, and the environment intersect.

cutting consumption

aTco Mark Antonuk, program manager for ATCO Energy-Sense, a service offered by ATCO Gas and ATCO Electric to their 1.3 million gas and electricity cus-tomers in Alberta, says the company has a number of programs aimed at helping consumers conserve.

Perhaps the highest- profile initiative is its “mobile energy classroom,” a travelling classroom

designed to teach students about the province’s energy sources and to teach them about conservation (see the September/October 2010 edition of Energize Alberta). Topics are designed to tie in with Grade 4 science and social studies curriculum.

Developed by ATCO’s EnergySense unit in con-sultation with Alberta teachers, the biodiesel-fuelled vehicle visited about 6,500 students by the end of 2010.

Using computers and interactive games, students are learning to identify where Alberta’s energy

comes from and why it is important to min-

imize waste.

Two ATCO employ-ees act as co-ordinators and facilitate the learn-ing experience, answering questions and helping stu-dents engage with various learning stations.

“Students can make choices about electri-city in their homes,” says Antonuk. “The modules show them how they can reduce their power con-sumption by, for example, 150 kWh a month,” he says.

The thinking is that by reaching young Albertans, ATCO can help sow the seeds at an early age for a life-long commitment to energy conservation. The youngsters may also pass along what they’ve learned to their parents.

One of the modules is a model of an average

home,

where participants can see where heat is being lost and recommend what to do about it.

Another one has the young “energy detectives” look at a number of photos and asks them to iden-tify what is more energy efficient (for example, a refrigerator with a closed door and one with an open one).

“The target is to visit 100 schools a year,” says Antonuk. “But we also take the energy classroom to major events, such as the Calgary Stampede.”

ATCO is also offering workshops and over-the-phone advice to its gas customers (ATCO Gas has more than one million customers).

In addition, the util-ity is currently involved in the ecoENERGY Retrofit program, a federal gov-

ernment initiative aimed at

helping homeowners to upgrade their houses and key appliances to make them more energy efficient.

A key part of both pro-grams is the energy audit, where ATCO experts iden-tify the steps that can be taken to improve energy efficiency (they do an assessment after the improvements have been made, too).

One of the most com-mon improvements is a shift to an energy- efficient furnace, which can cost about $5,000. Grants of up to $790 from Ottawa and a $600 grant from the Alberta govern-ment make installing them much more affordable.

Antonuk says home-owners can reduce their heating bills by about 30 per cent with the more effi-cient furnaces.

ATCO also has a program for its commer-cial and institutional customers.

“We spend a substan-tial amount of time doing a comprehensive assess-ment,” says Antonuk. “It can take a month to six weeks.”

That assessment involves looking at a build-ing’s envelope, furnaces, lighting and anything else that consumes energy.

“We’ve done assess-ments of more than 20

million square feet of com-mercial building space,” he says.

enMaXCalgary-based ENMAX will be rolling out a program early in 2011 that will be aimed at helping its 650,000 customers reduce their energy consumption by at least 10 per cent, with the goal of increasing that sub-stantially over time.

The utility, which is owned by the City of Calgary and provides elec-tricity, natural gas and other related services to custom-ers in the Calgary area, is going ahead with the pro-gram, aimed at electricity consumers, without any direct encouragement from the provincial government.

“The program isn’t fully designed yet,” says Helen Bremner, executive vice-president of smart grid initiatives for the com-pany. “However, it would likely be a component of our EasyMax business. If customers commit to reducing their consump-tion 10 per cent below their baseline use, we would give them a credit at the end of the year.”

The EasyMax program, which about 200,000 cus-tomers have signed up for, involves commit-ting to five-year contracts in return for discounts,

Utility companies developing programs to help residential and small-business customers reduce energy use

JiM BenTeinEnergize Alberta

ATCO’s Energy Education Mobile

Ron Liepert, Alberta’s energy minister, and ATCO president Nancy Southern visit with children in the Energy Education Mobile.




advocate’s corner

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q: WhaT’S a kiloWaTT houR (kWh) anyWay?

a: The aMounT of eneRgy conSuMeD By a loaD of 1,000 WaTTS oPeRaTing foR one houR.

The basic unit of electric power is a watt. The higher the wattage, the more energy the electrical device will need to operate. Of course, how long a bulb or other device is operating also determines the amount of electricity used.

The amount of power consumed multiplied by the duration (measured in hours), creates a kilowatt hour.

For example, a lamp using a 100-watt bulb that is left on for 10 hours will use 1,000 watt hours of energy, which translates to one kilowatt hour. Similarly, a lamp that uses a 40-watt bulb and is left on for three hours will use 120 watt hours of energy, which translates to 0.12 kilowatt hours.

The average home uses about 600 kilowatt hours of power each month, while the average farm uses approxi-mately 1,800 kilowatt hours per month.

Here’s how the use of household appliances may impact residential electricity bills:

By the numbers

One of the questions we hear frequently from consumers is, “How do I make sense of my electricity bill?” The Utilities Consumer Advocate (UCA) receives between 125 to 150

calls per month on this topic alone.With all the different line items, fees and unex-

plained charges or credits on the bill, it can be quite difficult to understand what exactly you are paying for. A recent study conducted by Ipsos Reid indicated that 47 per cent of Albertans are confused about the termi-nology and fees included on their monthly bills.

Consumers aren’t asking for more information, they just want a better understanding of the informa-tion currently being provided. Many of the terms used are unfamiliar or not explained in enough detail for consumers. Though the intent is to ensure consumers know exactly what they are paying for, the language — rate riders, access fees, fixed and variable delivery charges — can be intimidating.

The UCA is working with the electricity industry to create a standardized plain-language bill that clearly explains all the individual charges and credits. The goal is to simplify the billing format to help you better understand what exactly is on your bill. Consumers can expect to start seeing the new bills in the spring of 2011.

You can find an explanation of electricity bills on our website at www.ucahelps.alberta.ca. You can also contact your electricity provider directly, or call the UCA helpline at 310-4-UCA (310-4822).

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rather than being subject to the ups and downs of the market.

The average power consumption by resi-dential customers is 600 kilowatt hours (kWh) a month, meaning average consumers could reduce consumption by 720 kWh a year.

As part of the pro-gram, ENMAX will offer an energy audit to determine where the most logical sav-ings might be. Bremner says the company hasn’t determined yet what it will charge for that audit, or even if it will charge.

It offers energy audits now, which customers pay a nominal charge for.

The auditors usu-ally recommend such

low-cost moves as cleaning furnaces, shifting to high-efficiency lighting and adding weather stripping to windows and doors.

“We think 10 per cent is an easy target,” says Bremner.

She cited one recent study that determined most homeowners and renters could reduce their utility bills by 30 per cent through such steps as installing high-efficiency furnaces and appliances, or making other energy-saving investments.

The company hasn’t yet done the calculations, but reducing energy bills by 10 to 30 per cent could save Calgary-area custom-ers several million dollars a year.

foRTiSalBeRTa FortisAlberta, which transmits electricity to about 485,000 residential, farm and business cus-tomers, mostly in rural Alberta, is just beginning to ramp up its conserva-tion programs.

It recently launched a program that sees it donat-ing power monitors to libraries throughout its ser-vice area, starting with the Calgary-area communities of Okotoks, Airdrie, Black Diamond and others.

Power monitors are small devices that measure and display the electrical usage of household appli-ances, as well as the cost of running them. Fortis plans to donate the devices to libraries throughout its ser-vice area.

Library members will be able to borrow the moni-tors from the libraries, just as they would a book.

Part of the company’s Energy Your Way program, the initiative will be fol-lowed by others in the coming months and years.

ePcoR Edmonton-based EPCOR Utilities, which operates electrical transmission and distribution networks and provides service to 600,000 residential and small busi-ness customers in the Edmonton area, offers its EnVest energy-efficiency consulting service to businesses.

However, as a water provider, EPCOR also emphasizes reducing water consumption. John Short, manager of the EnVest program, says conservation is a more complex issue than it might appear.

“For example, just by doing the right landscap-ing you can reduce your energy [and water] use,” he says.

After a comprehen-sive audit, customers are shown what their energy savings could be if they

make certain changes to their building and fur-naces, as well as take other steps. They pay a fee based on their total energy savings.

The usual improve-ments involve changes to the HVAC (heating, ventila-tion and air conditioning) systems and lighting.

In addition, because saving water is a priority for EPCOR, the company might recommend such things as reusing storm-water or other sources of grey water.

Short says his depart-ment is also planning to focus on getting its com-mercial clients to look at using renewable energy.

“To me, solar energy is the [renewable energy source] with the great-est potential, because Edmonton gets more sun-shine than many places in the world,” he says.

FortisAlberta is donating power monitors to select libraries within its service territory.


cutting consumption



growing pains

Five years ago, after the Alberta government had announced a $239-million program to spur the development of plants to produce fuel, power and heat from field crops, animal and human waste,

forestry waste and other biomass, it looked like the bio -energy sector was on a roll.

On the heels of an announcement shortly afterwards by Florida-based Dominion Energy Services that it and part-ners would spend $400 million to develop a 374-million-litre ethanol and biodiesel plant near Innisfail, Alta., a govern-ment official promised it would be the first of many such plants built in the province.

“There are at least six projects now [that have been announced] in Alberta and there are a flurry more com-ing,” Ed Philipchuk, senior manager of technology and development with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s Bio-Industrial Development Branch, told a reporter then.

But the Innisfail plant, which would have been the first integrated project in North America to produce ethanol, biodiesel, canola meal and animal feed while also captur-ing carbon dioxide to be used in enhanced oil recovery, is on hold, as is most of the “flurry” of plants that were talked about at the time. And Philipchuk has retired.

Other plants the government official said would pro-ceed are also on the back burner, including a $275-million plant near Strathmore that would have produced 113.6 million litres a year of biodiesel and 95 million litres of ethanol annually, a planned $65-million plant near

Edmonton that would have produced 114 million litres a year of biodiesel, and a proposed 175-million-litre-a-year biodiesel plant in central Alberta.

But two other projects that were touted at the time have gone ahead — and there are signs the sector is stir-ring back to life.

Lethbridge-based Kyoto Fuels will open a 66-million-litre biodiesel plant in 2011, a project being built as a result of an alliance with a local oilseed crushing plant and a trucking company.

Also, two years ago Western Biodiesel opened a plant near the Cargill meat processing plant near High River, Alta., which converts beef tallow and other animal wastes into a targeted 19 million litres a year of biodiesel. (The company ceased operations in late 2010, however, due to tough market conditions. Western Biodiesel says it is also awaiting outstanding payments from the federal govern-ment through its biofuel incentive program. The company hopes to re-open the facility once it gets the infusion of federal money.)

Then there’s the legacy biofuel producer in Alberta, Permolex, which has operated a 12-million-litre-a-year ethanol plant near Red Deer for many years.

But that’s hardly a “flurry.”

SloW PRogReSSWhat happened to the optimism that emerged from the government’s announcement of its bioenergy plan?

“It has been a lot slower progress than anyone thought,” says Morley Kjargaard, leader of the bioenergy commercialization team for Alberta Agriculture and Rural

As Alberta’s renewable fuels standard is about to kick in, the province’s bioenergy sector looks to get back on trackJiM BenTeinEnergize Alberta

Development. “Some of that is due to the economy and some of it was due to high steel prices and labour costs in Alberta prior to that.”

However, the Alberta government soldiers on with its bioenergy program, which has since been tweaked to extend the bioenergy producer credit program, originally set to expire March 31, through to 2016.

Two other programs — to help offset facility start-up costs and to assist with commercialization and market development for those developing biorefineries in the province — are set to expire in April.

The government’s intent in establishing its bioenergy plan was to stimulate the development of “value-added opportunities” for Alberta’s forestry and agriculture sectors.

In addition to the economic diversification poten-tial of the bioenergy sector, the government committed the funding to help tap domestic sources for ethanol and biodiesel production, since it has established a renewable fuel standard that will require (starting in April 2011) that five per cent of all gasoline sold in the province contain ethanol, while diesel contains two per cent biodiesel.

Now virtually all of that renewable fuel will have to be imported.

After the program was announced, it appeared as if accessing domestic sources of biofuels would not be a problem, says Kjargaard.

five Key Points to Ponder

1. Modern forms of bioenergy include converting biomass to motor fuels and electricity. There are three main types of biofuels derived from bioenergy: ethanol, biodiesel and biogas.

2. Ethanol is a form of alcohol, fermented and distilled from a wide range of plant life such as wheat, corn or woody material.

3. Biodiesel is manufactured from vegetable oils, recycled cooking greases or oils, or animal fats.

4. Biogas (also referred to as “renewable natural gas” or “green methane”) contains approximately 70 per cent methane. Biogas is created through fermentation of organic feedstock, including manure, food processing waste or various plant life. Biogas is often used in the generation of electricity. In this application, biogas is used to generate heat and steam to drive turbines.

5. The Alberta government says the use of renewable fuels in the province has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about one million tonnes each year.

best ProsPectsBioenergy projects that are built around gener-ating power and that include other components have had the most success, says Jim Jones, senior development officer with the bioenergy branch of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

For instance, Growing Power Hairy Hill, located near Vegreville, Alta., has partnered with ATCO Group’s midstream division to build a pro-ject that will use organic wastes and high-starch wheat to generate electricity and produce bio-fertilizer and ethanol (see the July/August 2010 edition of Energize Alberta).

Another project that has already gone ahead is the Enerkem Alberta Biofuels plant

near Edmonton. Construction started this past summer on the $80-million facility. The Quebec-based developer of the project, which will take 100,000 tonnes a year of municipal solid waste from the City of Edmonton and convert it to 36 million litres a year of ethanol, received $23.35 million in grants from the prov-ince and the city.

Also, Ottawa-based Plasco Energy Group, which first proposed a similar project for the Red Deer area in 2007, recently said it plans to proceed with that facility, which would treat 300 tonnes a day of trash from area municipalities and produce 15 megawatts of power.

Jones says projects that use agricultural, forestry and municipal waste materials now appear to have the best economics.

“There will still be projects that use crops, but those tapping wastes seem to have the best prospects,” he says.

Dave Patterson, bioenergy project spe-cialist with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, remains bullish on the sector, particularly because of recent technological advances.

He says the forestry sector holds the great-est potential.

One of the forestry-based projects that is on track is planned by Minnesota-based Otoka

Energy for the Drayton Valley area. The plant would gasify 380,000 a year of waste wood to produce 25 megawatts of power, synfuel and chemicals. It would cost $100 million to build, and the provincial and federal governments have provided $25 million in grants to Otoka.

Another forestry waste project is planned by Tolko Industries, Alberta’s largest sawmill operator, and Ottawa-based partner Ensyn Technologies (also see July/August 2010 edition of Energize Alberta). The two plan to use a pro-cess called pyrolysis to convert 400 tonnes a day of biomass into 85,000 litres of liquid fuel, which would be used to provide power and heat for Tolko’s sawmill at High Level, Alta.

Kyoto Fuels, based in Lethbridge, will open its biodiesel plant this year.

Players on tHe stage1. Alberta Department of Energy (www.energy.alberta.ca)2. Alberta Biodiesel Association (www.albertabiodiesel.org)

“It looks like [cellulosic biofuel] may cost $2.30 a litre and that just doesn’t compete with gasoline or diesel.”

— Morley Kjargaard, Leader, Bioenergy Commercialization Team, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development




Talking energy talk

Renewable fuels StandardA renewable fuels standard (RFS) is a govern-

ment requirement to blend renewable fuels such as ethanol or biodiesel into fuels that are sold to customers, like gasoline and diesel.

Beginning in April, Alberta’s RFS will require five per cent ethanol content in gasoline sold in the prov-ince and two per cent renewable content in diesel.

Renewable fuels used to meet the RFS must demon-strate at least 25 per cent fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the equivalent petroleum fuel.

The RFS is expected to reduce GHG emissions by about one million tonnes per year, which is the equivalent of taking 260,000 vehicles off Alberta’s roads each year.

The government says the use of advanced chemical and biological processes to create biofuels will lead to further reductions in GHG emissions, due to processes that improve efficiency and yield.

All gasoline vehicles made since the early 1980s can use gasoline that contains ethanol. All major vehicle manufacturers approve the use of up to 10 per cent ethanol in their warranties.

Alberta’s RFS comes on the heels of one enacted by the federal government last year. Ottawa’s RFS of five per cent ethanol content in gasoline came into effect on Dec. 15. This adds nearly two billion litres of renew-able fuels into the country’s gasoline pool each year. A start date for the two per cent renewable content in diesel has not yet been set by the federal government, although it has committed to implementing it in 2011.

“We had over 200 applications, with a cumulative request [for capital funding] of more than $300 million,” he says.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to Alberta’s new bioenergy development boom.

First, the recession made it difficult for developers to access capital, even with substantial government back-ing. Next, much to the surprise of the province’s crop

producers, a worldwide commodity price boom sent the prices for canola and grain crops to levels never imagined.

It was good news for producers of those crops, but bad news for those wanting to build bioenergy facilities tap-ping them.

“After the prices of corn, wheat, canola and other crops rose substantially, the developers had to look for other alternatives,” says Kjargaard. “The focus now is on waste streams from the forestry sector as biomass sources. The forestry sector is in a funk [economically], so they were willing to look at alternatives.”

Other developers are looking to so-called cellulosic sources — essentially crop wastes such as wheat straw, or even plants that are considered to be weeds, such as pennycress (stinkweed). For instance, a company called TPA, headed by James Padilla, former chief executive of Ford Motor, is looking at developing a plant near High Prairie, Alta., that would cost $30 million and produce 66 million litres yearly of biodiesel from pennycress and

off-grade canola. It is also looking at developing other plants in Alberta.

But Kjargaard says the dream of developing cellu-losic biofuel, by using thermal and chemical processes to break down the core elements of plants, may still be a few years away.

“It looks like it may cost $2.30 a litre and that just doesn’t compete with gasoline or diesel,” he says.

However, he notes there are about 50 companies worldwide working on cellulosic technology, including Ottawa-based Iogen, which has had a pilot plant operating near that city for several years.

moving forwardMeanwhile, developers have sharpened their pencils.

For instance, Dominion Energy Services, the company which proposed the $400-million ethanol and biodiesel plant for Innisfail, has revised its project and is now pro-posing a smaller facility that would cost $200 million.

The amended project would produce 140 million litres a year of ethanol, 40,000 tonnes of wheat gluten, 145,000 tonnes of dried distillers grain with solubles, and 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The facility would tap feed wheat, normally used in the livestock sector. The downturn in Alberta’s livestock sec-tor has left surplus amounts of feed wheat available.

The company is now trying to raise $33 million from local farmers, which would make it eligible for a federal grant of $25 million.

Several others are proposing smaller projects, one tap-ping camelina, related to mustard seed.

“There are a hundred different ways to structure a [processing] plant, even using wheat and canola as a feed-stock,” says Kjargaard, who remains optimistic about the sector, despite the problems it has encountered.


growing pains

feedbacKEmail [email protected] and let us know what you think about bioenergy use in Alberta.

going broader, deePer1. Alberta Innovates — Bio Solutions

(www.albertainnovates.ca/bio/introduction)2. Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (www.greenfuels.org)



The biofuel conundrumReport suggests ‘ethics’ of large-scale biofuels production must be considered

Paul WellSEnergize Alberta

While biofuels like ethanol are often lauded by advo-cates as a viable

green alternative to gasoline, two university researchers say the benefits of such fuels have been “overstated” and that the “ethical risks” of large-scale ethanol pro-duction have been ignored.

In a paper released Dec. 14 by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, authors Michal Moore, senior fellow, and Sarah Jordaan of Harvard University’s department of Earth and plan-etary sciences, look at the basic question of whether biofuel energy sources are ethical.

“If policy is designed to cre-ate better outcomes for everyone, then we need to subject policy to ethical tests. In many respects, current policy around biofuels fails those tests.”

In addition to arguing that the reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by using biofuel are trumped-up by many policy-makers and green groups, Moore stresses that there are questions that need to be considered before encouraging and supporting the production of more biofuel.

For instance, the authors pondered what the effect of large-scale biofuel production would be on food costs and other social factors. As an example, Moore

points to an influx of subsidies in 2007 that promoted corn-based ethanol production in the United States, which resulted in a land rush that displaced food crops, caused corn prices to soar and saw smaller farms being dis-placed by corporate agriculture.

“A widely debated issue is the effect of increased bio fuels production on agricultural mar-kets. If demand [for biofuels] increases, the price of the feed-stock will increase in response,” the report says.

And their conclusions might come as a surprise.

“Policy-makers, especially in the U.S., have been in a rush to expand biofuel production. But they need to start thinking out-side of the box of climate change and the corn lobby. In the world-wide race to develop energy sources that are seen as ‘green’ because they are renewable and less greenhouse gas inten-sive, sometimes the most basic questions remain unanswered,” Moore says.

“In the absence of new crop-land or if land conversion lags increased demand, this can be expected to increase the price of food produced from the same feedstocks. Shortages will affect regions and countries dependent on trade of these commodities.”

The report also advises that Canadian policy-makers should consider the following when determining the future of large-scale biofuel production:

• Should more land be used for biofuel when the return of energy per acre is low? Are there better uses for that land?

• In addition to worry-ing about the impact of global warming, should we not consider the impact on land of massively expanding biofuel

production?

• What are the other economic impacts of large-scale production of biofuel?

“Our central point in the paper is that good decision-making, whether if it’s local, regional or even national, must take all

these things into account,” Moore says.

A key driver for increased global biofuel

demand comes from the United States, where a federal

fuel standard that mandates increasing renewable energy content for transportation fuels has stimulated new investment in and accelerated growth of the corn ethanol industry. Between 2000 and 2009, U.S. ethanol pro-duction grew exponentially, from 1.6 billion to 10.6 billion gallons per year. To provide some context, while ethanol production has increased nearly sevenfold since 2000, bitumen production from Alberta’s oilsands has tripled.

“Right now we have a biofuel industry, especially in the etha-nol area, that has progressed or expanded largely in response to subsidies for production,” Moore says. He points to large subsi-dies in the corn industry, which compensate for crops that are vulnerable to seasonal ups and downs or can’t compete in the fuel marketplace.

Moore says that expansion of the biofuel industry is also directly related to increasing demands for new land con-version, and corresponding intensification of investment in processing facilities. Increased production of some biofuels raises “important social as well as economic issues” that should be addressed within the policy and regulatory process.

“Some of these issues may be grouped under the term ethics or ethical choices in decision-making,” he says.

Moore is also convinced that the focus on renewable energy sources might be taking away from any efforts to promote demand reduction as a means to decrease GHG emissions.

“Since we’re all worried about global warming these days, should we not consider the impact of simply responding to demand for new fuels by adding to sup-ply?” he says. “Should we not be asking a different set of questions which revolve around the area of diminishing demand over time, as opposed to simply meeting any new demand with new supply?

The report, called Ethical risks of environmental policies: The case of ethanol in North America, can be found at www.policyschool.ca under “Latest Papers.”

feedbacK Email [email protected] to let us know what you think about biofuel production. Is it good way to reduce GHG emissions? Does it make sense to convert agricultural lands to fuel production from food production?

Michal Moore says biofuel policy must be subjected to ethical tests.

“A widely debated issue is the effect

of increased biofuels production on

agricultural markets. If demand

[for biofuels] increases, the price of the

feedstock will increase in response.”— Report by School of Public Policy, University of Calgary

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enviro watchdogMonitoring system for oilsands recommended

A federally appointed advisory panel has told Ottawa and Alberta to put politics aside and set up a world-class environmental monitoring system for the oilsands. Former environment minister Jim Prentice appointed the panel to review concerns about oilsands pollution entering the Lower Athabasca River basin and connected waterways, and whether environmental monitoring sys-tems are well designed and implemented. The panel, which released its results before Christmas, recom-mended a new system be set up to establish baselines, collect relevant data and refer it to a group of renowned scientists for review.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? “How Canada addresses the environmental issues surrounding the current and projected growth of the industry is of fundamental importance to Canadian trade and national and international energy security,” said the panel. “Until this situation is fixed, there will continue to be uncertainty and public distrust in the environmental performance of the oilsands industry and govern-ment oversight.”

Western provinces to seek new energy markets

Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan have agreed to unite to improve access to Asian markets and promote interprovincial and energy industry collabo-ration. A memorandum of understanding was signed in December between the three provinces. The pact builds on the New West Partnership agreement signed earlier in 2010 by the premiers of the same provinces to promote co-operation between them.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? “It’s never good business to be reliant on only one customer,” said Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert. He underscored the importance of finding Asian markets for the provinces’ natural gas rather than relying exclusively on the gas-glutted United States market. The provinces also want to reduce cross-border regulatory burdens.

Seven oilsands mining companies announced in December that they plan to work together in a unified effort to advance tailings management as well as to foster innova-tion and collaboration in research and development relating to tailings. The companies include Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, Suncor Energy, Syncrude Canada, Teck Resources and Total E&P Canada.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? The oilsands miners believe the partnership is a key step towards tailings solutions that will allow them to accelerate the pace of reclamation using the most advanced environmental measures. Each company has pledged to share its existing tailings research

and technology and to remove bar-riers to collaborating on future tailings research and development.

Tailings targetIndustry collaboration to target challenge of oilsands tailings management

French oil giant Total and Calgary-based Suncor Energy have strengthened their oilsands alliance, inking part-nership agreements to develop the Suncor-operated Fort Hills mining project, the Total-operated Joslyn min-ing project and the Suncor-operated Voyageur upgrader project. As a result of the agreements, however, Total will no longer proceed with its planned construction of a 295,000-barrel-per-day upgrader at Strathcona, near Edmonton, since its Joslyn mine will use Suncor’s Voyageur upgrader near Fort McMurray.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? While the news isn’t the best for those trying to promote an upgrader hub near Edmonton, the alliance is another shot in the arm for the oilsands sector and leaves little doubt that that the industry is back on track. Suncor’s Voyageur project was halted in 2008 as the worldwide economic downturn flattened con-struction plans.

extreme makeoverJuniors succeeding with shift towards oil production

Junior producers have been swinging their budgets away from natural gas for the past year and appear to be having success both expanding oil and liquids production as well as beefing up the percentage of liquids content in their total output. Some of these smaller companies are dedicating their entire capital program to oil-related pursuits in 2011.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? In light of the low natural gas price outlook, many junior producers have repositioned for oil production growth — even companies that were known as pure gas companies — to ensure their long-term survival.

Oil and gas producers spent $2.41 billion on Alberta oil and gas rights in 2010, a sign of industry’s renewed interest in the province following the introduc-

tion of a revised royalty regime. The 2010 tally was second only to the amount spent in 2006, when Alberta attracted $3.43 billion in bonus bids thanks to heavy spending for oilsands acreage.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? The land sale results solidify Alberta’s status as a jurisdiction that industry wants to invest in. It also signifies that oil and gas producers are encouraged by opportunities in the province, and bodes well for the Alberta economy in 2011.

Each edition of Energize Alberta contains a listing of 10 topical energy stories — key trends, events and initiatives — that are shaping the province’s energy future.

1

2 getting windyCompanies plan Alberta’s largest wind farm

Calgary-based Greengate Power will work with Edmonton-based Capital Power to develop, build and operate what it expects will be the largest

wind farm in Alberta, located 275 kilometres northeast of Calgary. The 150-megawatt Halkirk 1 project is scheduled for commercial operation in late 2011 or early 2012. It will produce enough electricity to power

about 50,000 homes.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? Companies continue to pursue wind power development in Alberta. Privately held Greengate is developing nine wind projects in Alberta

with an aggregate capacity of 1,550 megawatts. The Halkirk project will contrib-ute to the municipal tax base and create jobs, while diversifying the province’s

energy production base. 5

land bonanzaProducers spent $2.41 billion at Alberta land sales in 20107

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WHy IT MaTTeRS? The AltaLink project is the first stage of a $3.5-billion upgrade that includes another north-south high-voltage DC line running the length of the east side of the province. ATCO was assigned to build the second line. If the Alberta Utilities Commission approves the AltaLink application, construc-tion could begin in the summer of 2012 and power start to flow by 2015.

getting to the route of itAltaLink chooses power link routes

Jobs, jobs, jobsAlberta job growth to lead Canada in 2011

fuelling green growthFederal government’s renewable fuels standard comes into force

The federal government’s renewable fuels standard (RFS) officially came into force on Dec. 15. The RFS will add some two billion litres of renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, into the Canadian gaso-line pool each year and change the way Canadians drive going forward.

WHy IT MaTTeRS? Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, says ethanol and biodiesel will help diversify the coun-try’s fuel supply, add new income for farmers and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to a recent third-party study, Canadian ethanol reduces GHG emissions by 62 per cent compared to fossil fuels and biodiesel generates a 99 per cent reduction. The RFS represents an annual GHG cut of 4.2 megatonnes — the equivalent of removing one million cars from Canada’s highways.

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Calgary-based AltaLink has identified pre-ferred and alternate routes for a $1.1-billion

north-south power line in Alberta. The Western Alberta Transmission line would run from the coal-fired power plants in the Genesee area west of Edmonton to the Langdon area east of Calgary. Both routes go straight south from Genesee, with the preferred path cut-ting east across Highway 2 just north of Crossfield, 50 kilometres north of Calgary, and the other turning east earlier, north of Ponoka.

Increased oilsands development will brighten Alberta’s employment picture in 2011. The province is expected to lead the country in

employment growth in 2011 with an increase of 2.3 per cent, up from a “scant” 0.5 per cent in 2010, says a report released in December by

RBC Economics. The anticipated increase represents the creation of 37,000 jobs.

wHy it Matters? Alberta’s economy continues to recover from the worldwide recession that began in 2008. Improvements in the employment market will help spread recovery more widely throughout Alberta’s economy next year, with a positive effect on retail sales.

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albertaisenergy.ca

building our future

The world is watching Alberta.

We are the kind of place that can attract and hold investment – whether it be time, money or human capital. To realize our potential we need to remain competitive.

Being competitive means jobs for Albertans – not only in oil and gas production and construction, but also hotels, restaurants, accounting firms, transportation companies, and more.

Every dollar invested in the province’s oil and gas industry creates three dollars of value for Alberta’s economy.

Alberta is Energy is supported by several Alberta business associations, many of which are focused on the oil and gas sector.

energize alberta jan - feb 2011

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