Alberta

“New pipelines to transition to clean energy” is Canada’s own form of climate denial

Watching Prime Minister Trudeau celebrate President Trump’s executive order reviving the Keystone XL pipeline got me thinking: how is it that our ‘progressive’ Canadian leader is siding with the climate-denying U.S. president on major fossil fuel expansion?

It’s a scary reminder that Trudeau’s recent pipeline and tanker project approvals are simply an extension of the oil patch status quo.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week he "misspoke" when predicting the oilsands would someday have to be phased out, a new study says reducing oil production is exactly what the country needs to be doing if the world is going to meet its targets under the Paris climate agreement.

“Canada’s exports of fossil fuels do not need to drop to zero immediately, but we cannot pursue policies that further increase extracted carbon,” economist Marc Lee wrote in the report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Parkland Institute.

When B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced her support¹ for the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project, she cited an unprecedented revenue-sharing agreement with the company that will deliver up to $1-billion to the province's coffers.

But as the message printed on rear-view mirrors warns, some objects may appear larger than they are: The deal that the Premier announced is a non-binding agreement, and the details now under negotiation will determine the true value of those dollars.

It’s a well-known fact that Charles and David Koch — owners of the second-largest private company in America — have been funding climate change denial in the U.S. for decades.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley have cooked up a sweet deal. Trudeau and Notley get their pipeline to tidewater, while Clark gets federal approval for the Site C dam and the Petronas liquefied fracked-gas plant.

The three-way political backscratching has a high price, and the people of British Columbia will be paying it.

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For years, Chief Allan Adam, leader of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, has been labeled an environmentalist.

He has fought hard to investigate mysterious illnesses plaguing his people who live near major oilsands development and other industrial activity in Northern Alberta. He has been an outspoken critic of both governments and industry for not doing enough to protect public health from industrial pollution.