COLUMN: Alberta Sells Its Soul to Oil While the World Burns

Preaching Cooperation While Turning Off the Taps

Nathan Neudorf, Minister of Accessibility and Public Services, traveled to Montana in January to discuss grid reliability and cross-border cooperation. “Meeting the growing demand for electricity means looking beyond our borders,” he solemnly declared. A noble intention. Except that Montana is furious with Alberta. The U.S. state accuses the province of restricting the flow of electricity on the cross-border interconnection line. The company that owns the line has even filed a formal complaint with the Alberta Utilities Commission. The Trump administration has raised the issue as a trade irritant.

Discontented neighbors on all sides

Alberta denies the accusations but faces similar complaints from British Columbia. Meanwhile, the interconnection with Saskatchewan remained out of service for about a year before resuming operations recently. Preaching cooperation while turning off the taps: that is Alberta’s paradox when it comes to electricity. The minister travels, makes grand speeches, but on the ground, the lines remain blocked and the neighbors are growing impatient.

It’s fascinating, this ability to say one thing and do another. To talk about cooperation while sabotaging trade. To promise reliability while cutting off the flow. It’s like a bad sketch—except it’s real. And it affects millions of people. On both sides of the border.

$400,000 to Kill a Sheep

Todd Loewen, Minister of Forests and Parks and an avid hunter, returned to Nevada in January for the third time. His destination: the Wild Sheep Foundation Sheep Show. Mission: to auction off a special permit to hunt bighorn sheep in Alberta. Last year, this auction raised $400,000. Four hundred thousand dollars to ensure there will be at least one fewer sheep in the world. That’s the price some are willing to pay for the privilege of killing a wild animal in the Canadian Rockies.

When Conservation Meets the Rifle

The Alberta government presents this auction as a conservation measure. The money raised supposedly funds wildlife protection programs. But there’s something deeply troubling about this logic: protecting a species by selling the right to kill it. It’s like funding the fight against cancer by selling cigarettes. The logic is a vicious circle, but it doesn’t matter—as long as the money keeps coming in.

I just can’t get my head around it. The idea that the life of a wild animal can be sold to the highest bidder. That conservation has become a pretext for satisfying the egos of wealthy hunters. There’s something broken in our relationship with living things when we reach this point. When nature becomes a catalog where everything is for sale—even the right to take a life.

After Killing Off Renewables, It’s Time for Nuclear Power

The provincial government, whose policies have effectively killed Canada’s most robust renewable energy market, now wants to know what Albertans think about building nuclear power plants in the province. A panel, including two United Conservative Party MLAs, will hear public comments and prepare a report by the end of March. The stated goal: to generate clean electricity. The irony: having first scuttled wind and solar power before turning to nuclear.

High-Stakes Public Consultations

The last panel organized by the province ended with a memorable incident: the executive director of the Alberta premier’s office told a high school student that he deserved a spanking. Public consultations in Alberta are never boring, to say the least. But beyond this anecdote, the question remains: why nuclear power now, after systematically dismantling renewable alternatives? The answer is simple: because nuclear power doesn’t threaten the oil and gas industry.

It’s actually ruthlessly logical. We’re killing off wind and solar power because they compete with natural gas. Then we propose nuclear power because it will take decades to build and won’t change anything in the short term. Meanwhile, oil flows. Gas burns. And we can keep pretending we care about the climate. Brilliant.

Corb Lund Won’t Give Up

Alberta musician Corb Lund has successfully filed a citizens’ petition against coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, after his previous petition was derailed by a change in government rules. Lund is a vocal critic of the government’s plans to reopen part of the Rockies to new coal mines. He warns that this threatens water supplies and the livelihoods of ranchers. The petition calls on the province to ban all coal exploration and mining activities on the eastern slopes for mines that were not already producing coal as of January 1, 2026, as well as any expansion of existing mines.

A Fight for Water and Land

The petition still has a few bureaucratic hurdles to clear before Lund can mobilize volunteers to collect signatures. But the message is clear: Albertans do not want coal mines in their mountains. They do not want to see their water contaminated, their landscapes disfigured, or their natural heritage sacrificed on the altar of short-term profit. Corb Lund embodies this resistance—this determination to say “no” when the entire political system says “yes.”

It takes courage to stand up to a government that has already shown it’s willing to change the rules along the way. Lund is doing just that. Because he knows what’s at stake: water, land, and the legacy we leave behind. It’s not just about the environment. It’s about dignity—about refusing to let ourselves be walked all over.

10 Billion for Canada’s Largest Data Center

Canada’s largest data center could be built in Olds, Alberta. Synapse Data Center promises an investment of 10 billion dollars, including its own gas-fired power plant and a closed-loop water system designed to reduce the facility’s water consumption. This is different from the project announced by Kevin O’Leary in December 2024—a data center more than 32 times larger than the world’s largest data center—which has yet to materialize. Data centers consume enormous amounts of energy and water. The Alberta government thinks they’re great and wants to see $100 billion’s worth of them across the province.

Not Enough Electricity, but Who Cares?

There’s just one small problem: Alberta doesn’t have enough electricity to power all these centers. Never mind—the province has introduced legislation allowing developers to build their own power supply, such as the on-site natural gas power plant in Olds. “We see this as a huge opportunity to grow our tax base and stimulate domestic demand for our natural resources,” said Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation. Translation: burn more gas to power computer servers. That’s Alberta’s vision of the future.

Data centers powered by natural gas. That’s the future they’re selling us. Not wind turbines. Not solar panels. No, gas burning to power computers. And they call that progress. They call that innovation. I call it willful blindness.

A 99% drop in one year

Corporate investment in renewable energy has plummeted by 99% in Alberta, which once led the country in this field. Ninety-nine percent. That’s not a decline. It’s a total collapse. It’s the annihilation of an entire sector. Alberta used to have the most dynamic renewable energy market in Canada. Wind and solar projects were springing up everywhere. Investors were flocking in. Jobs were being created. And then the government decided enough was enough. A moratorium on new projects. Ever-changing rules. Regulatory uncertainty. The result: investors fled.

A market sacrificed on the altar of oil

This is no accident. It is a deliberate policy. The Alberta government has systematically destroyed the renewable energy sector because it threatened the natural gas industry. Wind turbines and solar panels don’t burn fossil fuels. They don’t generate oil royalties. They represent a future where Alberta would no longer be Canada’s oil capital. And that is unacceptable to the current government. So they’re killing the sector. They’re stifling innovation. They’re sacrificing the future on the altar of the past.

99%. Let that number sink in. A 99% drop. It’s as if we’d taken a thriving sector and thrown it off a cliff. Deliberately. Consciously. Knowing full well what we were doing. And all the while, we talk about the energy transition. We pretend to care about the climate. It’s obscene.

Montana, British Columbia, Saskatchewan: Exasperated Neighbors

Alberta is at odds with all its neighbors over electricity issues. Montana accuses the province of restricting power flows through the cross-border interconnection. British Columbia complains about the same practices. Saskatchewan has had its interconnection shut down for a year. This isn’t just bad luck. It’s a pattern. A modus operandi. Alberta wants to control its electricity, even if it means isolating the province and irritating its trading partners. The Trump administration has even raised the issue as a trade irritant in Canada-U.S. relations.

Energy isolationism as a strategy

Why this isolationist strategy? Because Alberta wants to protect its domestic market for its own electricity producers, which are primarily powered by natural gas. Allowing free trade with neighbors would potentially mean importing hydroelectricity from Manitoba or British Columbia, or wind power from Montana. That would threaten Alberta’s gas-fired power plants. So they’re turning off the valves. We’re restricting the flow. We claim it’s for technical reasons, but everyone knows it’s political.

We’re building walls—not physical ones, but electrical ones. We’re isolating ourselves. We’re cutting ourselves off from our neighbors. And for what? To protect a gas industry that’s killing us. To ensure that every kilowatt produced in Alberta comes from a fossil fuel source. It’s pathetic. And dangerous.

A month that sums up a decade of mistakes

January 2026 in Alberta: a month that encapsulates all the contradictions, all the lies, and all the hypocrisies of our time. Borrowing a billion for oil. Killing off renewables. Selling off hunting rights. Dreaming of nuclear power. Building gas-fired data centers. Closing the electricity borders. Reopening the mountains to coal mining. Every decision, every policy, every announcement points in the same direction: protecting the fossil fuel industry at all costs. The rest is just spin, a facade, lies. Alberta isn’t even pretending to care about the climate. It doesn’t even try anymore. It fully embraces its choice: oil first, oil always, oil to the very end.

And what are we going to do?

The question is no longer whether Alberta will change course. It won’t. Not with this government. Not with this industry dictating every policy. The question is what we, as citizens, are going to do. Are we going to accept this? Are we going to resign ourselves to it? Or are we, like Corb Lund, going to stand up and say no? No to coal mines. No to phantom pipelines. No to the collapse of renewables. No to this future being forced upon us. January 2026 is just one month. But it could be the beginning of something. Of resistance. Of defiance. Of an awakening.

I don’t know if we’ll win. Honestly, I don’t know. The forces at play are colossal—money, power, the inertia of the system. Everything conspires against change. But I know one thing: we can’t give up. We can’t look our children in the eyes and tell them that we did nothing. That we let it happen. That we accepted it. So we fight. Even if it’s hard. Even if it seems like a lost cause. We fight because it’s the only thing we have left. The only thing that really matters.

Signed, Jacques Provost