So, now we learn that Canada has given up on its commitment to stop exporting thermal coal, thereby giving Alberta free rein to continue trafficking in the dirtiest of the dirty fossil fuels. So much for the Liberal Party’s promise to end thermal coal exports by 2030. That one seems to be out the window along with much of the rest of the Trudeau-era climate policy. 

I say “traffic” because thermal coal is an energy source that is so polluting that only three Canadian provinces — Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — still burn it to generate electricity. And for the sake of their own air quality, they are striving to replace their coal-fired power plants by 2030 with cleaner burning fuels or renewable energy. 

Even Alberta, Canada’s primary producer of thermal coal, managed to completely shutter its coal-fired plants in 2024. Alberta’s Capital Power crowed about the accomplishment, which came sooner than originally planned, saying it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.4 million tonnes per year — the equivalent of removing about 800,000 gas-powered cars from the road.

As Canada moved to clean up its own air, it also committed to stop peddling thermal coal to the rest of the world. A........

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