The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Alberta announced a set of rules on Feb. 28 designed to drive out billions of dollars in potential investment in renewable energy. The Globe's guest columnist Duane Bratt writes that the new rules are designed to protect prime agriculture land from solar and wind farms, while making achieving future renewables projects more difficult. For example, the windiest part of the province is in the south. However, the 35-kilometre buffer zone around protected areas means that about 75 per cent of Southern Alberta would be off limits to wind farms. As well, the new rules only apply to renewable energy, and not to oil and gas development, which dominates the province. Mr. Bratt notes Alberta landowners find it very difficult to prevent oil and gas development on their property. The new rules, however, allow them to block solar or wind farms. Mr. Bratt says that at the heart of the new rules is the fact that the Alberta government simply does not like renewable energy. He explains that renewable investments are undesirable because they are seen as competitors to oil and gas. Ironically, oil and gas companies support renewable projects because those are seen as complementary.