CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) –– Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has once again vowed her province will not comply with nor enact Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new Clean Electricity Regulations, promising to disobey any such rules should they come into force.
“If they become the law of the land, they would crush Albertans’ finances, and they would also cause dramatic increases in electricity bills for families and businesses across Canada,” said Smith at a press conference Monday.
Smith said that “Alberta will not go along with it [the Clean Electricity Regulations],” adding, “We will never allow these regulations to be implemented here, full stop.”
“If it comes down to it, we are going to do our own thing. We have to,” she emphasized.
Smith made clear that she is open to negotiation with the federal government but reaffirmed that it also needs to come to the table with realistic goals regarding so-called “net-zero” power generation.
“So let me be clear, any plan that makes electricity more expensive and less reliable is a bad plan and the Clean Electricity Regulations are an exceptionally bad, poorly thought out and illogical plan,” she said.
The draft version of the federal government’s Clean Electricity Regulations states that there will be billions of higher costs associated with so-called “green” power transition, especially in the resource-rich provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, which use natural gas and coal to fuel power plants.
The federal government claims that “significant new investment” is needed in “green” power, and that is why its new regulations stipulate that by 2035 all provinces must have “net-zero” power generation.
In Alberta, about 89 percent of its electricity grid runs on power generated by natural gas and coal.
This May, Canada’s Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault declared that violating environmental regulations banning the use of coal and gas-fired power after 2035 may even result in criminal sanctions, a statement which only increased the tension between the federal government and the provinces opposed to the proposed policies.
The Trudeau government also recently threatened to withhold billions of taxpayer money to provinces that will continue to use resources such as natural gas, oil and coal to generate electricity beyond 2035.
Recently, the federal government’s own analysis found that if the regulations push through, by 2040 people living in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will face steep increases in their electric power bills, but the Trudeau government is trekking forward anyway.
Opposition to the Trudeau government’s “climate change” agenda is nothing new, as just last week Smith had also stated that her government would refuse to implement any of Trudeau’s “clean electricity” regulations .
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has likewise promised to fight back against Trudeau’s new regulations, saying recently that “Trudeau’s net-zero electricity regulations are unaffordable, unrealistic and unconstitutional.”
“They will drive electricity rates through the roof and leave Saskatchewan with an unreliable power supply. Our government will not let the federal government do that to the Saskatchewan people,” he charged.
In June, Smith condemned the Trudeau government’s “Sustainable Jobs Act,” one part of the new energy regulations, and reaffirmed her past promise to defend her “province’s constitutional jurisdiction” over its “natural resources” and “energy workforce.”
The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – which are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil-fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – of which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
While Trudeau’s plan has been pushed under the guise of “sustainability,” his intention to decrease nitrous oxide emissions by limiting the use of fertilizer has been criticized by farmers. They say this will reduce profits and could even lead to food shortages.
Moreover, experts are warning that the Trudeau government’s new “clean fuel” regulations, which come into effect next year, will cost Canadian workers – many of whom are already struggling under decades-high inflation rates – an average $1,277 extra annually.