As extreme cold strains Alberta's electricity grid, Ottawa's green-energy plans face renewed criticism

Some Prairie politicians are taking Ottawa to task over its green-energy plans amid bone-chilling low temperatures, claiming on social media that electricity grid alerts in Alberta show renewables can't be depended on when temperatures plunge.

«Right now, wind is generating almost no power. When renewables are unreliable, as they are now, natural gas plants must increase capacity to keep Albertans safe,» Alberta Premier Danielle Smith posted on social media Friday, shortly after the province's grid operator issued an appeal for consumers to conserve electricity to protect the system.

A day later, following a second grid alert that warned of potential rotating blackouts, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe posted that surplus power it was sending Alberta's way was coming from natural gas and coal-fired power plants.

«The ones the Trudeau government is telling us to shut down [which we won't],» Moe said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The Alberta Electric Systems Operator said no blackouts were required following an emergency alert that was sent to people's phones shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday, noting Albertans responded right away.

At the time, temperatures in much of the province were approaching -40 C.

Randy Boissonnault, the only federal cabinet minister from Alberta and one of only two Liberal MPs from the province, called the statements from the premiers «a petty, untrue and partisan attack.» He blamed part of the issue on «decades of under investment in the electricity grid.»

«Rather than tweeting nonsense about Canada's plans to tackle climate change, perhaps the premiers can focus on the current emergency, and afterwards work with the federal government to deal with climate change,» the Edmonton MP wrote in an