Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall heading to Washington to tout carbon capture

REGINA – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is going to Washington to highlight the province’s work on carbon capture and storage.

Wall is to be a panellist at a coal technology symposium of U.S. legislators and energy experts Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

He says he’ll talk about carbon capture and storage research that has taken place in Saskatchewan over the last 30 years, as well as about a project at the Boundary Dam power station near Estevan.

The facility was supposed to start storing carbon emitted from the coal-fired power plant in April, but SaskPower said last month that it will be delayed.

The Crown corporation said it preferred not to give a new date for the startup, but Wall says in a news release that it will happen by the middle of this year.

Wall says he also plans to make another push for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and to talk about the negative impact of a country-of-origin labelling law for meat that recently passed in the U.S.

It’s not the first time Wall has gone to Washington to talk about carbon capture or Keystone. He made a similar trip at the same time last year to promote the multibillion-dollar pipeline that would carry Alberta oilsands bitumen to Gulf Coast refineries and to extol Canada’s green credentials.

He also touted the $1.3-billion Boundary Dam project on that trip as proof of Canada’s intent to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.