The morning dawned with a strange hue. The light was too intense and vivid. All of this seemed odd as the sky was grey and cloudy. All day I kept looking out, fearing that some kind of storm was brewing. At one point I saw an orange sun masked by wispy clouds. But those weren’t clouds; it was smoke from distant mega-fires. In Toronto, the orange haze has been called apocalyptic. We used to have summer. Now we have fire season.
The news media are full of stories of record-breaking temperatures, heat domes, and thousands of deaths in Europe from heat stress. Scientists are warning of mass die-offs in the ocean due to ever-increasing ocean temperatures. What “Super” El Niño has in store remains to be seen, but people are worried, given the reports. Eleven years ago, world leaders gathered in Paris to address the looming threat of catastrophic climate change. Scientists warned us we had a narrow window to dramatically lower emissions. Canada made bold pronouncements about meeting our global Net Zero commitments. Yet in that same period, oil production jumped from 2.9 million barrels a day to 5.3 million. Canadians were told that we could somehow massively increase oil production while still getting to Net Zero. It was a ridiculous premise, but it was rarely challenged in the media. Now the issue of Net Zero has been thrown out altogether as the Canadian political class bets our common future on the promise of pipelines. Mark Carney and Danielle Smith have inked an MOU for a million-barrel-a-day pipeline to the coast. Premier Doug Ford is claiming he can build a 3,200 kms pipeline to refineries in Ontario. Who will pay for the projects? Nobody in the oil industry is stepping up. They have other options for increasing production without the added cost of building “nation-building” mega projects. The cost will fall to the public. Canadian taxpayers paid $34 billion for the TMX expansion. The public was reassured that it would get the money back when it was sold to the private sector. That hasn’t happened. To shift the huge problem of debt, the government established a shell corporation, TMX Finance. It has no employees, but this shell entity holds all the debt. This has allowed the government to claim that the pipeline is profitable. And still no private company wants to touch it. Imperial Oil has calculated that a new pipeline will cost $100 billion. No company is going to take on that cost. And so, like the shell company spin used to promote TMX, the government is telling us this new project will be a public-private partnership. If you break down the numbers, the public is on the hook for 90% of the cost, and the pipeline company that has agreed to put their name forward is protecting themselves with all manner of prevaricating language. The urgency of the pipeline stems from opening new markets to China. This, as global reports indicate, is because China is taking advantage of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to drive forward its staggering increase in renewable energy. We are building a pipeline to nowhere. Meanwhile, the planet burns. Recently I spoke with Markham Hislop of Energi Media, who has been tracking the energy industry in Canada for years. We discussed the insanity of Canada doubling down on pipelines at this time and why that matters. I hope you take the time to watch.  If any photos or images on this site are under copyright, please let us know and we will provide appropriate credit. This content is used in accordance with applicable copyright laws, including “fair dealing” under Canadian law and “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, for purposes such as criticism, comment, and news reporting.Thank you for reading Charlie Angus / The Resistance.
|
