Peace River Environmental Society (PRES) is making a call for members to help challenge the proposed nuclear plant.
PRES feels that there are better, cheaper, cleaner, and quicker solutions to change the electrical legacy grid.
“PRES is responding to the Alberta Energy (Heneuset family), nuclear proposal mainly, and we need members to undertake our actions to counter the proposal,” says Wanda Laurin.
“PRES is also connected to other environmental groups, in the province and across Canada, who are advocating for alternative energy. We need PRES members to undertake research and just get together and talk about our shared values.”
Laurin says the legacy grid is expensive to consumers and involves substantial line loss of eight to 40 per cent of all electricity generated. The grid then experiences catastrophic instability when the plants (coal, gas, nuclear) go down for maintenance or when they malfunction.
“People who are concerned about the environment want some tangible actions to deal with climate change,” she says.
“We are looking for people in the Peace Region who share our values of clean air, land and water and are willing to put in time and effort advocating for these things.”
PRES has been a society for more than three decades, initially assembled to hold the local pulp mill to a high standard of environmental practices.
“There is a saying, ‘silence is consent’, and we know that if we are quiet about the decisions of different levels of government, and the corporate sales pitch, if we don’t hold them accountable, governments seem to choose corporate interests over the interests of ordinary residents,” explains Laurin.
“The environmental society realizes that we have viable options to a large corporate nuclear reactor; the options are much, much cheaper, come on line quickly and benefit local residents and small businesses as these alternatives reduce their reliance on the grid electricity – which is very expensive because of transmission and distribution costs, from corporate providers.”
Laurin says the local and regional grids can be created with wind and solar and some geothermal energy on every residence and business with battery backup storage for peak demand or nighttime low demand.
“The regional power makes us more resilient when the grid goes down in other areas because of storms; we can continue to have power,” she says.
“A regional grid would also not depend on large transformers so much, and is more resilient because less equipment is susceptible to breakage in storms.”
PRES is looking to add members to its team to help be the voice in the region for a transition to clean, cheap electricity and other green initiatives (like green transportation and conservation incentives.)
Laurin says PRES has a monthly meeting, but new members should also plan to attend webinars and community gatherings. She explains a member should expect to have around three or four planned events they would be involved in.
“I have joined other groups in my life that are like-minded in their endeavours and it always fills me emotionally and gives me a means to tangibly take action to do the right thing,” she says.
“I find to associate with people who are progressive and looking for solutions that are positive keeps me optimistic about the future. PRES is a meaningful and proactive group. I think others who share our values would find our meetings and activities to be engaging and purposeful.”
Laurin says their team recognizes that the majority of the world is moving away from fossil fuels and both the Canadian and Alberta governments are locking the province/country into a fossil fuel and nuclear future, where electricity is corporate, expensive, and out of ratepayers’ control.
“We need to gather our forces to change that trajectory into a clean, environmentally friendly, people centric and cheaper means of providing for our basic electricity needs,” she says.
Laurin says PRES’s secretary sends out monthly meeting notices and the Zoom link to registrants.
To register, please go to email address presociety2026@gmail.com
Emily Plihal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter – South Peace News – southpeacenews.com
By Emily Plihal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Feb 18, 2026 at 11:10
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