As long as Canada continues to underwrite the oil and gas industry, it cannot make meaningful progress on the economic transformation needed to address climate change.
It’s been clear for some time now that Canadian oil and gas advocates will do almost anything to get new pipelines built, from spinning stories about the “ethics” of our oil to weaponizing the economic insecurity of Indigenous communities. But they plumbed new depths of depravity with their willingness to treat the crisis in Ukraine as an opportunity to push, yet again, for projects like Keystone XL and Energy East.
Ottawa’s incoming clean fuel standard is being designed to help curb transportation sector emissions, but critics say the existing draft text waters down climate targets and will lock in years of fossil fuel use.
The standard has been in development since 2016 and is scheduled to take effect by the end of the year, aiming to cut about 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. Ottawa wants the regulation finalized by spring to give time for companies to prepare.
The Canada Energy Regulator is so closely tied to the fossil industry that it can’t be counted on to produce independent advice on the country’s path to net-zero—yet it’s considered the leading source of in-house energy modelling the Trudeau government has at its disposal, according to an independent expert commenting on the CER’s deeply flawed energy futures report released earlier this month.
A report published this week by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) finds Ottawa’s tax breaks to the fossil fuel sector are leaving nearly $2 billion on the table each year in lost revenue.
