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SaskPower doesn’t think that the emissions from the oil they help Cenovus produce is its responsibility and that, in the grand scheme of things, it’s better for the environment to get more oil out of existing wells.

“The fact that you burn gasoline in your car generates CO2,” says Howard Matthews, Vice President, Power Production, “but I guess the question is would you rather have it come from Saudi Arabia or would you rather have it come from an existing oil field in Saskatchewan?”

“What we’ve done on the SaskPower side is take (the CO2) and we’ve converted it to a revenue stream.”

“We get that CO2 out of the atmosphere and it helps extend the useful life of the older oil field and it prevents having to drill new oil fields, so I would make the case overall (for) a total cycle efficiency.”

Duncan Kenyon, Program Director, Unconventional Oil and Gas for the Pembina Institute, disagrees.

“Any claims that the oil produced from the Cenovus project replaces or stops other dirtier barrels from being produced just doesn’t add up with how the oil market really works.”

The clean coal plant that Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says is 10 times cleaner than any other in the world is actually just as dirty — and maybe worse, he says.

Any criticism of the Boundary Dam 3 CCS project is damaging to Wall, who has made the Boundary Dam project the centrepiece of his argument against Ottawa’s proposed carbon tax.

Wall says any carbon tax will hurt Saskatchewan and its carbon-intensive industries. He argues that investments in Canadian research and innovation – such as Boundary Dam – are a better solution for Saskatchewan.