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CALGARY – Executives at Albertan utility companies are now living by the old proverb, “Once bitten, twice shy.”

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Any hope that Jon Schroter, owner of a small well-service rig business, had of returning to work in Alberta was pushed out of reach by Premier Rachel Notley’s climate change plan

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The bite comes from Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s new climate change policies that require coal-fired power plants to either cut their emissions to zero or shut down by 2030, a move which analysts say will force the early retirement of six coal-fired generating stations and strand billions of investment dollars for three utility companies.

Executives are also shying away from investing in the next cheapest form of electricity, natural gas-fired power, out of fear that future legislation would strand those assets as well.

“I’d hate to be standing here in 10 years, having invested in 25-year, long-life, gas-fired assets and having the same conversation of: ‘How do we cut their lives in half?’” Canadian Utilities Ltd. president and chief operating officer Siegfried Kiefer said.