Premier Danielle Smith addressed the issue of feedlots at the Rural Municipalities Association's convention in Edmonton Wednesday.

She was asked by a delegate from the Willow Creek MD why municipalities exist if boards like the Natural Resources Conservation Board or Alberta Utilities Commission can make decisions on major projects without consulting them.

"I know that we're talking about biodigesters in my community around High River, I've been told by the company that biodigesters are actually a very common aspect of any intensive livestock operation in Germany to be able to mitigate against smells and so I think that with technology we should be able to address some of the harms but I I accept the fact that it's got to be very frustrating for municipalities, you're the ones that are impacted by this if there's extra costs associated with upgrading transportation you're the ones that are having to shoulder that cost, so we've got to be a bit more interactive on how we deal with that," Smith told delegates.

The Premier says she's also willing to look at making sure wind and solar companies put aside money for recycling and reclamation when they reach the end of their life cycles.

"We are getting to end of life with some of the early projects and what happens, who bears the cost of dismantling those, in the case of wind turbine farms, as I understand it, installing them is typically 1,500 truckloads to install those so someone's got to pay 1,500 truckloads to take them away once they're at the end of their useful life."

Smith says Alberta is a natural gas province and we will continue to build natural gas plants.

"Solar and wind don't seem to generate much electricity for us but it does generate carbon credits which are purchased by Ontario companies to offset and improve their ESG (environmental, social, governance) scores and I can tell you that we need better balance."

She claims solar farms take up valuable farmland and don't generate power when they're covered in ice and snow.