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 Narwhalwhich 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