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“There would be no SaskPower without Estevan and Coronach,” Haukeness said of the Crown electrical utility that produces an estimated 19 per cent of Saskatchewan’s GHG emissions.

Like many in his community, Haukeness — who bristles at the term “dirty coal”, even as it is applied to the local less-heat-efficient lignite coal that comes from naturally compressed peat containing 60 to 70 per cent carbon — views carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a viable alternative.

However, SaskPower has now made it clear it won’t be extending the $1.6-billion carbon capture and storage (CCS) investment at Boundary Dam 3 to Boundary Dam 4 and 5. Also, the Shand Power plant — initially, expected to last until 2042 — will be phased out by 2030.

While this is in accordance with the federal coal phase-out, it is also part ofSaskPower’s own goal of reducing GHG emissions by 40 per cent by 2030by “increasing renewable electricity generation from 25 per cent today to as much as 50 per cent by 2030” through increasing wind power capacity to 2,100 megawatts (MW) from 221 MW, and adding 60 MW of solar generation by 2021.

Haukeness does not oppose seeing cleaner renewal options added to the mix. However, he argues that in a province like Saskatchewan, which has less capacity for hydroelectric generation than other provinces, becoming less reliant on coal-fired electricity will be far more difficult than most realize.

Moreover, lost good-paying Estevan-area jobs related to coal will not be easily replaced by clean-energy jobs — notwithstanding politicians’ call for money for transition training to prepare for other employment.

For Estevan and people like Haukeness, it makes for an uncertain future driven by what they see as an unfair government policy.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.