WikiLeaks reveal Alberta power plans
The leaked internal U.S. diplomatic cables reveal that Murray Smith, Alberta's former energy minister, told U.S. officials in 2003 that excess electricity generated for oil sands operations could be made available for export.
According to the documents, Smith said Alberta lacked the transmission lines needed to export the power to the United States.
"But at least for now there is limited capacity to move this west and then south through British Columbia and on to our Pacific Northwest," the cable notes.
"There is almost no capacity to move it south into the U.S. Rocky Mountain states and markets further afield."
Opposition parties say a proposed multi-billion dollar north-south transmission line will be used to export that power even though the Stelmach government has denied it.
"There's nothing necessarily wrong with exporting surplus power to the United States," NDP Leader Brian Mason said.
"But by hiding it, they're proceeding with a policy that will require Albertans through their electricity bill to pay for this transmission infrastructure which is worth billions and billions of dollars."
Related News
Texas utilities struggle to restore power as Harvey hampers progress
HOUSTON - Hundreds of thousands of Texans were without power along the Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Harvey left parts of the Houston area under water.
There were roughly 280,000 customers without power along the Texas's coast and in Houston and the surrounding areas on Monday, according to reported outages by the state's investor-owned utilities. Harvey, which made landfall on Friday, caused devastating flooding and knocked out power lines along its destructive path.
CenterPoint Energy reported more than 100,000 outages earlier on Monday, though that figure was down to 91,744 shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday.
The company said it was unable to access…
