Calgarians big part of environmental solutions, not just problems

There are people in our country, in Parisand around the world who view Calgary as little more than"Dallas north" a freewheeling, reckless city filled with swashbuckling J.R. Ewing-style oil barons whocouldn't give a flying fig about what their plundering does to the land.

What a load of codswallop.

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Calgary is not a clich. It is, instead, a complex ecosystem of business brains, engineers, innovators,venture capitalists and,yes, artists and environmentalistswho actually believe we can do just aboutanything we put our minds to.

The western world views Alberta as home to the "tar sands," a source of dirty oil that is contributing togreenhouse gases in a volume way out of proportion to Canada's population.But we are citizens of this planet.

We understand the peril of climate change and we care about whathappens to the people of the Marshall Islands which are gradually slipping under rising tides as muchas we care about the people of this province. We know that something has to be done.

'Ingenious innovators'

Many Calgarians also view the development of our bitumen resources as a massively successful scienceexperiment, in which countless engineers over many years overcame a series of seeminglyinsurmountable technical challenges. These ingenious innovators went after these technical roadblockslike dogs afterbones.

People with ingenuity and a tolerance for risk. That's how Calgarians see themselves. It's a western thingtaking big chances with potential big payoffs also comes with the potential for spectacular failure. Weget a big kick out of jumping without a net.

Max Ball experienced both the highs and lows. In 1930, he formed what would become known asAbasand Oils Ltd., and built a separation plant in northern Alberta that produced a measly 200 barrelsper day of oil. The plant was plagued with equipment failures and Ball was shoved aside in 1943 by agovernment that thought it could do better. Eventually, the government gave up on this money-loserafter the Second World War and shut it down.

The point is we believe that the biggest successes only happen when you put everything on the line.Sometimes it works out and sometimes as with Max Ball you're simply laying the groundwork forpeople who will come after you.

And they did.

Taking a chance

A long line of risk-hungry investors saw the potential of oil sands and stubbornly created amassively successful enterprise at least, when oil hovered around $100 a barrel. The processes wereenergy-intensive and emissions per barrel high, but the business model worked.

Finding ways of makingit work at $40 oil is now just another roadblock to be overcome.

There is, however, an equally urgent new task:finding a far cleaner way to get bitumen out of theground. It's a job for Calgary's army of engineers people who get a kick out of finding solutions whereothers see dead ends.

These great minds are finding ways to mine this resource more efficiently and without destroying theenvironment.

There are dozens and dozens of transformative, earth-saving techniques the people atCOP21 haven't heard of: like a process that takes the sulfur, heavy metals and acids out of bitumen anddelivers clean oil; another tool that converts carbon dioxide into useful chemicals, using a process like aplant's photosynthesis; and Shell's Quest project, which strips one-third of the emissions from itsScotford bitumen upgrader.

That is just a small taste of what Calgary innovators are doing with our industry.

We understand many people think the oil sands represent all that is wrong with fossil fuels; we wantthem to know we're doing something about it.

Beyond fossil fuels

It would be a mistake, however, to assume that our brain trust has put all their eggs into the fossil fuelbasket. Instead, we are applying our world-class energy expertise to develop technologies that justmight transform the future for everyone.

A little Calgary company called Rocky Mountain Power, for example, is tackling one of the biggestshortcomings with wind-generated power storage.

Alberta has a lot of wind that could produce power. But there's a problem. Some days (or nights), thereis no wind, so you need to have a backup system. This "base load" backup uses fuels like coal, gas ornuclear because they work, regardless of the weather.

Rocky Mountain Power has come up with a better way to ensure you have power when you need it. Itwants to carve out massive caverns the size of 60-storey skyscrapers in naturally occurring salt layersunderneath the Lloydminster area in eastern Alberta. Each cavern could store enough energy, in theform of compressed air, to power a town of 100,000 people for five days.

And speaking of alternative energy, BluEarth Renewables Inc. chose Calgary the home of the Oil Patchto establish its business, which focuses on buying, building and operating wind, hydro and solarprojects. In just four short years, the company has gotten 16 projects operating or in development fromcoast to coast.

The pride of David Suzuki?

You see, we're different than the way much of the world sees us. Calgarians care about the legacy thatwe will leave for future generations. We're coming up with energy solutions so green they would makeDavid Suzuki proud.

The emission-cutting tools we're creating will work not just in the oil sands but also in developingeconomies, like China, which this year alone approved the building of 150 new coal-fired power plants.

If we are to take meaningful action to curb carbon emissions around the world, then we will need cheap,effective technologies that any country can afford. Calgarians can do that. We want to transform theway the world uses precious resources and powers their homes.

The people in Paris need to know we are not the problem; we are a big part of the solution.

CBC Calgary's special focus on life in our city during the downturn. A look at Calgary's culture, identity and what it means to be Calgarian. It's called Calgary at a Crossroads.