The Lead:

The sudden cancellation of a wind power project by the new Ontario government is expected to cost ratepayers more than $100 million, according to the company leading the project.

Tory house leader Todd Smith announced Tuesday Ontario will cancel the White Pines Industrial Wind Turbine Project as one of its first acts once the legislature resumes Thursday. The company in charge, WPD Canada, said it was caught off guard. “We are shocked by the news. The White Pines Wind Project has been under development for 10 years and is nearing the completion of construction (today there were over 100 workers on site),” WPD Canada president Ian MacRae said in an email. The project was approved in 2009 under the Green Energy Act’s Feed-in Tariff Program. MacRae said construction would continue until the company is directed otherwise, calling the cancellation “gas plant 2.0” and a breach of contract. “The ratepayer will be on the hook for well in excess of $100 million,” MacRae said. Without providing any details, the government argued the move would be positive for ratepayers. iPolitics has the story.

In Canada:

Canadian investment in clean technology has dropped off by half over the last three years, new data show. Despite a gamut of programs meant to entice investment into clean tech, investment fell from US$19.5 billion in 2012-2014 to US$9.4 billion over the last three years, the Financial Post reports. The trend is not isolated to Canada, with investment in clean tech falling around the world. In Canada, the trend can be somewhat explained by the end of provincial and federal targets and incentives that were active from 2010 to 2015. British Columbia wound up its program for clean energy growth, while Quebec met its wind power production target of 4,000 megawatts during the period. On top of that, the federal Wind Power Production Incentive Program and Ontario’s Feed-in Tariff Program ended in 2016. Marren Smith, Executive Director of Clean Energy Canada, said it makes sense that investments have subsided since wind and solar installments have decades-long life cycles. The Canadian energy grid is powered by 80 per cent emissions-free sources.

Oilsands executives see a brighter future now that the Enbridge Line 3 Replacement has been approved and Ottawa has taken concrete steps to ensure Trans Mountain goes forward. The approval of the Enbridge project and the decision by the feds to back Trans Mountain removes some of the uncertainty around investment in future expansion projects, said executives from Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Imperial Oil, Husky Energy and Cenovus Energy. Steve Laut of Canadian Natural Resources said more could be done to streamline the process. “The real concern we have to work on … is the regulatory and the fiscal environment has to improve. We have to be more competitive.” The Canadian Press has more.

Internationally:

OPEC said the return of an oil market surplus may be in the works for the coming year, predicting growth in consumption would slow as the organization’s competitors continue to raise production. As its first peak into 2019 expectations, OPEC forecast in a monthly report released Wednesday that total demand from the 15 OPEC producers would be 32.18 million barrels per day in 2019 — 760,000 barrels per day less than this year. Oil prices in 2018 have been quite high due to demand growth, OPEC-led output controls and involuntary outages from major producers. U.S. President Donald Trump has pleaded with OPEC for output increases to cool prices, Reuters reports.

On Wednesday morning, Brent Crude was at US$76.81 and West Texas Intermediate was at US$72.68.

Noteworthy:

In Opinion:

The path forward on climate change and emissions reduction includes a vibrant energy industry, writes president and chief executive of Suncor, Steve Williams. “Smart carbon policy must inform our plans about how we spend capital, encouraging companies to invest in technology that lowers our carbon footprint. We’ve already invested in technology at the Fort Hills mine that enables production of a barrel of oil with no more CO2 emissions than the average refined barrel in the U.S. Future technologies hold tremendous promise to make further gains yet, making Canada truly a cost and carbon competitive global powerhouse.” Read the whole column in the Calgary Herald.