The unravelling of Danielle Smith's case for Alberta's renewables pause

If there was any doubt remaining that Alberta's nearly seven-month moratorium on renewable-energy projects was a political decision — made in the halls of power rather than in the offices of expertise — it was erased by internal documents released to the public last week.

As first reported by The Narwhal, which obtained the documents under a freedom-of-information request, the CEO of the independent Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) was actually opposed to the moratorium. In internal communications, Mike Law said it would send a "closed-for-business message" and could drive renewable-energy investments into a "tailspin."

This, of course, flies in the face of Premier Danielle Smith's long-standing justification for the controversial policy, which has introduced all sorts of uncertainty into the province's once-bustling market for renewable-energy investment.  

After announcing the moratorium last August, Smith claimed "the Alberta Electric System Operator asked for us to do a pause to make sure that we could address issues of stability of the grid."

In support of her claim, she pointed to a published letter from the AESO CEO to Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf — even though the letter said nothing of the sort.

The internal documents now show the opposite chain of events: rather than the AESO asking the government for the pause, it was the government that asked the AESO to write a letter in support of the policy.

"As you can imagine, [CEO] Mike [Law] is not comfortable with this but he has agreed to provide the letter," AESO board chair Karl Johannson wrote in an email to fellow board members in July 2023.

"I told him to support the minister without reservation."

Seeing these contradictions spelled out in black and white may have made a splash in the news cycle, but it didn't come as much of a surprise to those in the renewable-energy industry, who have long seen Alberta's official justifications for the moratorium — which lifted in March — as divorced from reality. Besides, they say, they now have larger concerns with new restrictions on renewable projects and a looming redesign of the electricity market.

Policy experts, meanwhile, say they have serious concerns about how the provincial government misled the public as to the origin and reasons for the seven-month pause, which was accompanied by a parallel inquiry into the impacts of renewable-energy projects. They also worry about how this may affect future decisions surrounding — and investment in — Alberta's electricity market.

And there's plenty coming down the pike on both those fronts.

Vittoria Bellissimo, president and CEO of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, says many in the industry have believed for some time that the premier's explanation for the moratorium didn't stand up to scrutiny.

"The Narwhal article was certainly very interesting but it wasn't news to industry," she said.

Smith's additional claim that the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) had also asked for the moratorium has been debunked, as well. And her assertion that the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) passed a motion requesting the pause has been denied by the RMA, itself.