Posted by I hate politicians but I admire their survival instincts as they casually discard “deeply held” beliefs and values the second they become politically inconvenient. The news that Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau (or as I like to call him – Junior), has approved two of three pipeline projects has sent environmental groups into frenzy of rage and betrayal. That’s not surprising as most environmentalists are fanatical nutters akin to religious fundamentalists. An exaggeration? This is what Greenpeace has to say about the now approved Trans Mountain pipeline. “Whether through the courts, in the streets, or on the land, this pipeline will never make it in the ground”. There are no facts, no debate, no science involved here; just evangelical beliefs that what they hold dear is the gospel truth and everyone else is the anti-Christ (or some other evil deity). Their reaction is we will protest on the streets and if that doesn’t work we will drag you through the legal system. Up until this point, it is all within the scope of a law-abiding, free and democratic society. It’s the last part which basically advocates civil disobedience at best and eco-terrorism at worst which puts them in the category of fanatics.
Getting back to the original point, under President Obama, the Keystone XL pipeline was vetoed at the end of 2015 after his seven-year strip tease of pretending to be open minded on the issue. President Obama’s justification was the project, “would not serve the interests of the United States… All of this obscured the fact that this pipeline would neither be the silver bullet to the U.S. economy proclaimed by some, or the death knell to climate proclaimed by others.” So yes, one pipeline doesn’t change everything in either direction. But this is a poor justification as NO one project would do that. Elon Musk’s Tesla, giant solar farms in the desert, huge wind and tidal turbines off the coast don’t move the needle significantly either. That was a political decision, and a bad one at that; but to be fair, I have a vested interest so I am extremely biased myself. This is what then GOP front-runner Donald Trump had to say in response to the news of Obama’s veto. “Thousands of jobs, good for the environment, no downside!” One of the most ironic outcomes of Trump’s election victory is that he is accidently “making Canada great again” even though most Canadians (especially in the liberal urban centres of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) hate him.
Trump’s victory in the United States has sent a clear message to left-wing politicians around the world. Average citizens are tired of urban, coastal, over-educated, pretentious, arrogant, condescending, limousine liberals running the social and economic agendas of the country for their own narrow benefit and ignoring everyone else. They are sick being labelled as being uneducated, ignorant, old white male rednecks, homophobic, xenophobic, racist, misogynists. They are especially tired of living in economic decline with the constant shadow of unemployment and stagnant wages. The Romans over 2000 years ago understood that political stability was simple: panem et circenses (bread and circuses). Keep the population fed and entertained and they gladly give up their freedoms and votes in return for material comfort and instant gratification. Technology and science may have progressed immensely over the last two millenium but human nature appears to be constant. We may not be sending gladiators to fight to the death on the sand of the coliseum anymore, but Ultimate Fighting Championship surely comes close.
http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/why-donald-trumps-election-boosts-canadas-oilsands-pipelines
“Sooner or later, Trudeau will have no other choice than to accept the pipelines to ensure his economic agenda (growth) has a chance of success.” It looks like it will be sooner rather than later as Trans Mountain has now been approved, Energy East will likely get approval this month, and Trump will likely approve Keystone XL next year in 2017. The holy triumvirate of Canadian pipeline projects will be complete adding nearly 2.5 million barrels a day in transport capacity.
It appears that politician, even left-wing ones have finally woken up to the reality of the world which is there is a mass revolt from the working and middle class against their agenda. This is not because there is a surge in racism, homophobia or sexism; its because the single-minded pursuit of the liberal agenda has taken away their bread while leaving them with a poorly orchestrated circus. Thus, we have comments like this from Trudeau Junior, “Voters rejected the old thinking that what is good for the economy is bad for the environment.” British Columbia’s Liberal Premier Christy Clark has this to say now, “I believe we have to find ways to balance resource development and job creation in this country with environmental protection.” Even Alberta’s socialist NDP premier Rachel Notley now says, “We shouldn’t be asking working people to choose between making a decent living and being secure in the future of the environment for their kids.” The political momentum is quickly moving away from the eco-hippie’s radical ideology of “save the planet at all costs, even if your family starves to death” to a more balanced one. And a balanced view requires arguments based on logic, facts and science; not one built on a house of rhetorical cards. Heck, to its credit, even uber left-wing Huffington Post managed to figure out that pipelines are a necessary and least offensive evil of all the alternatives.
Let’s get a few assumptions out of the way. First, the modern world is dependent on energy. We need it to power our homes, factories, offices, computers, cars, and yes, our computers, smart-phones and the internet. Despite the billions and billions of dollars spent on subsidizing green energy sources over the past decades, when I say energy I mean fossil fuels. I’ve seen this chart updated many times over the past few decades and it hasn’t changed much.
If early human civilisations were classified as the stone age, bronze age, and iron age; surely the 20th and 21st century should be the hydrocarbon age. Will we wean ourselves off fossil fuels by the 22nd century? Possibly, but for the foreseeable future, we are stuck with dead dinosaurs (yes I know that’s not where oil comes from) to fuel our societies. In other words, we are going to continue to use lots and lots of oil, gas and coal for the next few decades. For Canada, that means oil sands as that’s where the bulk of our reserves are (about 200 billion barrels using current recovery techniques and a 10% recovery rate).
- Q: Do the oil sands have higher emissions than conventional oil production?
- A: Yes, by about 12-17%.
- Q: Is Canada going to produce these huge reserves?
- A: Yes, if its profitable, currently at around $50-60/bbl.
- Q: If we block all your pipelines then you won’t be able to sell your evil tar sands so we can save the planet.
- A: No, we’ll just ship it by rail which is more costly, more dangerous, and more environmentally unfriendly.
If you really want to quickly find out how biased your news source is on this issue, just check to see if they use the word tar sands instead of oil sands. To be clear, the correct terminology is oil sands or if you want to be more accurate, bitumen. It is not tar. If what you are reading refers to the tar sands, it is very likely a left-leaning publication that uses that inaccurate term just to make it sounds nastier and dirtier… oooh, look… nasty icky tar. Editors of The Economist take note; please stop using the term tar sands and/or at least change it when your biased correspondent(s) in Toronto/Ottawa write their stories about Canada.
Update (24 January 2017): Donald Trump signed executive action memos approving a fast-tracking of both the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline. While the detailed terms of the project still need to be negotiated, the move completes the approval of all the major pipeline projects that Alberta has been trying to get for years and has failed to so previously with the notable exception of the Energy East pipeline project. If the idiots in the East want to keep moving their oil by rail and importing it from the US, that’s fine by me. Just don’t bitch and moan if another Lac-Mégantic rail disaster happens because you’ve been told a million times that moving oil by pipeline is safer and cheaper but you refuse to listen. Even after 47 people died and the town center was levelled, idiots in Quebec still want to block pipelines. There really is no cure for stupid.