Green-energy proponents are not anti-Albertans
By Letter to the Editor on December 4, 2020.
It feels like being hurled back in time, to when people were singled out and hunted down for thinking forward and outside the prescribed political box. I’m left aghast, after reading that Jason Kenney’s UCP Alberta government might consider me, and thousands of other forward-thinking concerned people, “anti-Albertans” for believing in the fight to save our planet from the crisis of global warming by making the necessary switch to greener alternative energy. Not only is this unbelievably absurd and reprehensible, it is just not true.
I’ve read that a man named Steve Allan has been put in charge of the expensive and expansive witch hunt for environmental charities and the people who support them. That’s right, herding up people and organizations that aren’t in line with the colossal fossils and suggesting we are anti-Albertans. I’m not sure if we are to be tarred and feathered, as in the Wild West of old, or what form of torture will befall us. Not only that, multi-millions of Alberta taxpayers are footing the bill for this cull or smear campaign. That should make us all outraged Albertans.
I’m very offended to be branded in this way, for not agreeing with pushing forward on the back of “big oil and gas” dinosaurs. I am a loyal Albertan who feels compassion for oil and gas workers impacted by the loss of oil and gas markets and their jobs. I would have hoped that the Kenney government would have been helping those workers transition to the energy jobs of the future, but it seems like the UCP have let us all down when we needed strong and civilized government the most.
Just so happens that “Ecojustice,” perhaps one of those environmental charities using the legal system to protect all of us, is trying to get an injunction to stop this mad process. It seems unjust to me that Jason Kenney’s UCP could consider accessing information to try to gag those not speaking the UCP language on the future of the fossil-fuel industry. This party does not speak for all Albertans and is edging ever closer to acting like dictators trying to take away the peoples’ right to use our collective cognitive powers to move to the energy of the future, which could benefit all Albertans.
Who are your masters, Jason Kenney? Are you a true Albertan working for the best interest of the people of Alberta?
Concerned Albertan,
Donna Stevenson
Lethbridge
-1
It seems that Donna Stevenson ignores the recent tactics which were employed by the NDP affiliated Alberta Federation of Labor (AFL) when the AFL urged the boycotting of all businesses that voted for or supported the UCP party. Her memory is selective and her hypocrisy is huge. As well, Notley refused to condemn this behavior by her affiliated AFL supporters. Stevenson should also ask the same question of Notley,..”Who are your masters, ‘Rachael Notley’? Are you a true Albertan working for the best interest of the people of Alberta?” Such hypocrisy is unacceptable and immediately negates, destroys and invalidates Stevenson’s weak, laughable argument.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-ucp-afl-business-boycott-1.5752438
Why should Notley condemn a union for pointing out shady business people in, for example, the vehicle industry, purchased Kenney with the understanding he would write legislation to help them?
Notley is not the Premier, unfortunately.
Notley isn’t using taxpayer money to hire head witch hunters to scour the province for them what the Kenneys don’t like. Incidentally on a theory widely proven garbage BEFORE *corrupt Allan was hired.
What we have here is a good ole fashioned false equivalency.
And a good ole fashioned corrupt Kenney govt taking us to the cleaners.
What we NEED is a good ole fashioned tar and feathering of the Kenney culprits.
*corrupt as in hand and glove with corrupt former Justice Minister Schweitzer. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/inquiry-allan-campaigned-schweitzer-1.5364265
Facts do not support Stevenson’s claim that Ecojustice protects Albertans. Ecojustice boasts on their own website that in 2018 alone they received $1,046,974 from a source outside of Canada. They also claim their ‘environmental wins’ of the canceling of Energy East in 2017 and receiving funding from Tides USA’s ‘Tar Sands Campaign’. In addition, Ecojustice has been working for the last few years on trying to quash the Trans Mountain pipeline and with that would also be many good paying jobs. Rest assured, the majority of funds for this endeavor was also foreign funding. Fallacious emotional appeals and using deflective misinformation does not make a good argument to support a foreign funded organization that has an agenda to sabotage and thwart Canadian infrastructure development, energy development, job creation and achieving energy self-sufficiency. Damaging our economy, resource industry and preventing the creation of good paying jobs does not “protect all of us”.
Donna Stevenson has a burden of proof. No doubt, she believes on the Sciences of Global warming in-spite of the fact that several peer reviewed scientific papers have been published that question these extreme possibility and nebulous virtual sciences, on which the AGW claims are based.
Perhaps Donna feels comfortable to ignore them. I don’t. Sciences is either black or white. If Donna wants to be a gullible believer, it is her problem. If she is not a gullible believer then she must have readily available her convincing scientific evidence without hearsay. . (who said what). Please make it available.
Thank you, Donna Stevenson, for stating the obvious.
Major players in the resource extraction industry are moving away from oil and gas and investing time and money in green energy initiatives.
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/9/16/the-pandemic-and-green-energy-leave-oil-s-supermajors-at-a-crossroads
Prior to the pandemic oil demand was calculated to grow but with the pandemic that growth is now reduced. The demand for oil still continues to grow but at a reduced rise. Post pandemic the demand for oil will continue on an upward trajectory. There is not yet enough green energy, infrastructure, development or technology to cause the demand for oil to slow any time soon. It still takes enormous amounts of fossil fuels to create and develop green technologies. Most financial investment by big oil into green energy is to add to, compliment and shore up their own corporate financial stability but oil/gas is still fundamentally their number one marketing commodity drives and delivers shareholders profits.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7395025/iea-oil-demand-growth-forecast/
https://www.upstreamonline.com/production/opec-bets-on-post-covid-19-oil-demand-growth/2-1-890153
https://www.spglobal.com/en/research-insights/articles/oil-demand-may-climb-new-peaks-in-post-coronavirus-world-fuel-for-thought
https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/oil-demand-will-recover-a-lot-faster-than-people-believe-eric-nuttall
Thank you for this letter, Donna Stevenson. It is important that all Albertans should have a voice in our future and not be intimidated and silenced by a government intent on resuscitating oil and coal production, even though it is clear that these commodities will be in steady decline from this time onward.
Of course, we have our own conspiracy theorists and climate-change deniers who seem to enjoy their voice without the government investing millions of dollars in propaganda and intimidation against them. This may be because they are the people who seem to vote for the type of government we currently enjoy.
Specifically, we have Socrates demanding ‘proof’ of something that is established science, while the burden of proof remains with him. He says there are a few peer-reviewed papers somewhere that supports his perspective. We can take his word for it.
And Dakota, when he is not arguing for the anti-mask movement, assures us that we will continue to increase our demand for oil. He provides no explanation on how we will mitigate climate disruption and the consequent devastation of modern society – consuming fossil fuel is just a fact, like gravity, that is somehow out of our ability to manage.
Dakota does refer to the latest EIA World Energy Outlook which, tellingly, does not say what he thinks it says. They provide three scenarios for energy use over the next few decades and they take climate disruption and the necessary reduction targets very seriously. They anticipate a 60% growth in energy production from renewables with a steady decrease in coal consumption and a 5 to 10% increase in oil production over the next decade and decreasing thereafter. The EIA report provides a roadmap to net-zero emissions by 2050 which includes a massive shift in how electricity is generated with renewables; a focus on end-use efficiencies; and a nod to behavioural change. Interesting how much this looks like the way the carbon tax program was going to work in Alberta.
Traditionally, the EIA is the most conservative prognosticator in this business. The BP Energy Outlook shows a much greater decrease in coal consumption and a steady decline in oil. Natural gas is anticipated to continue to grow slightly (mainly in electricity production) and they expect a fourfold increase in renewable energy production by 2050.
So, Donna, the Kenney government would have been wise to invest in an energy transition and create long-term jobs for Albertans. That is, rather than dumping a number of billion dollars on a pipeline to nowhere, and removing the mountain tops in our eastern slopes to dig coal and pollute our drinking water. But don’t tell Steve Allan that I think so.
All yes, always use the “conspiracy theory” card in the attempt to invalidate or discredit any argument. That is an old tired trick.