July 19, 2022 Message to the Membership

Just call me Marty McFly. I had a little Back to the Future experience this past weekend at our cabin in northern Saskatchewan.??

No, it wasn’t time travel per se. Nor was it an alcohol- or drug induced psychedelic mind trip. No, it was an all-day electrical blackout. Ok, it was only 22 hours, but that’s close enough to a day for me.?

You see the part of northern Saskatchewan that we go to has to be among the flakiest power supply in the province. It’s likely more common than not that when we go there, the clocks are flashing either 12:00 or a different, random flashing time to indicate that we experienced another power outage in our absence.?

So what does this have to do with Back to the Future, you might be asking. Well, my fearless prediction is that these blackouts (or brownouts) will become more commonplace in our future. Reason being, we will have more people requiring more energy than our system will be capable of producing. Especially when you get these angelic EV’s (electric vehicles; [I’m hoping you’re hearing a chorus of angels singing]) sucking even more power from the grid. So when that demand exceeds supply, guess what? Someone’s going to be in the dark.?

The nice thing (if there is a nice thing, that is) about it happening at the lake is that, well, Number one, we’re quite used to it. And two, we’re completely set up for it. You see it wasn’t all that long ago that we didn’t have any power up there at all. So we’ve still got the kerosene lamps and all the outdoor cooking paraphernalia that you can shake a wiener stick at.?

So it’s a matter of flicking a non-working switch and we’re back into the 1970s. No microwave? No big deal, just wrap those leftovers in some aluminium foil and throw it on the propane-powered BBQ. About the only difference is that we now have an armada of flashlights instead of the lamps and lanterns that we used to have back in the day.?

Imagine if you had an all-day blackout at your place of work or urban residence. You’d go completely berserk. And don’t count on going to the local store or restaurant to curb your hunger pangs. Because guess what? They’re out of power too. So it’s not like they can whip up a filet mignon or even a grilled cheese sandwich for you. You’ll be S.O.L. there too.?

Of course there are alternatives, our environmental advocates will say. And they’re right, there are alternatives, it’s just that they’re not reliable when it comes to baseload power. Baseload is the term used for a steady, or constant, power source. Like those generated from electrical stations that use coal, or natural gas, in Saskatchewan, or hyrdro or nuclear in other jurisdictions.??

When it comes to wind-generated power, what happens on calm days? I’ll tell you what, nothing. No power, therefore, no phone charging, Wi-Fi, Netflix or even microwaves. Solar? You bet, works great when the sun is shining. Not so hot when it’s not though. And until we get to a point where energy storage (aka batteries) is powerful enough to carry you through those windless, cloudy days (particularly so in winter, when a lack of energy [ie: heat] can be fatal), we will rely on fossil fuels, because it’s reliable.?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about a green future. Full stop. In fact, I’m pretty sure none of us wants to melt our planet (well, don’t rule Putin out on that one). The only way to get there, however, is with a thriving traditional oil and gas industry.?

The thing that seems to escape people’s imagination is how are all those rare earth elements required to build the batteries of the future going to get out of the ground? Through a thriving mining industry, that’s how. And guess what, that mining industry requires oil and gas to operate the machines required to do so.??

Over and above that are all of the products in today’s society that requires petrochemical inputs to exist. Things like your clothes, shoes, phone and anything plastic. Oh, and about your food? Forget about it. You won’t have any because the ag industry also relies on fossil fuels to exist. And that’s not going to change anytime soon. Not in our lifetimes anyway.?

That is unless you can find that DeLorean , get it up to 88 MPH with a working flux capacitor. Then you might be in luck.?

Until next time, be safe, be smart, be considerate, be well, but most of all, be kind.?

?

Keith Moen?

Executive Director?