Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image – Page 15

Repeat After Me: Canada is Uninhabitable Without Fossil Fuels – David Yager – by David Yager (EnergyNow.ca – January 20, 2020)

February 8, 2021

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Please note, this article is a year old but still very relevant. – RepublicOfMining.com.

If you remained in Alberta during the first major cold snap of the year and are alive to read this article, you owe your continued existence to fossil fuels; coal, oil and natural gas.

Using Red Deer as an example, from January 12 to 18 the average daytime high was -25.9oC and the nighttime low -34.7oC. It was a bit warmer in the south and colder in the north, but high/low ranges for the entire province were similar.

Without heat from carbon-based plants and animals – either long dead in the form of coal, oil or gas or not yet fossilized wood or grass – we’d all have frozen to death.

Trudeau paved the way for Biden’s rejection of Keystone – by Joe Oliver (Financial Post – January 27, 2021)

January 27, 2021January 27, 2021

https://financialpost.com/

Under Trudeau’s leadership, the government is deliberately squandering a stupendous legacy — the third largest proven oil reserves in the world

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got a taste of his own medicine when on Inauguration Day, President Joe Biden dealt a body blow to the Canadian energy industry by cancelling the partly-built $8-billion Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline.

What Biden did to our country was hardly different from what Trudeau had inflicted on us before. And for the same fatuous and hypocritical reasons.

When I served as minister of natural resources I called the proposed pipeline, which would bring Canadian crude oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refiners, “the most studied energy project in the history of the world.”

Were I an Albertan today, I’d be asking: What’s the point? – by Rex Murphy (National Post – Janaury 23, 2021)

January 25, 2021

https://nationalpost.com/

I’d be asking, how long are we going to put up with being mauled and mocked and stymied and blocked, by forces within Canada and without?

He couldn’t wait. Joe Biden didn’t let the sun set on his first day as president before coming down like a ton of bricks on Alberta. Almost with his first breath, he smashed Keystone XL.

And Justin Trudeau didn’t let 24 hours go by to assure Mr. Biden he understood. Ever so kindly he “acknowledged the new president’s decision to fulfil his election campaign promise on Keystone XL.” The promise to kill it on the first day.

My guess is, to borrow a phrase that the now defunct governor general, Julie Payette, and Trudeau have both found useful in tight situations, the citizens of the province of Alberta “will experience the decision differently.”

Biden Poised to Freeze Oil and Coal Leasing on Federal Land – by Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Ari Natter (Yahoo Finance/Bloomberg – January 21, 2021)

January 25, 2021

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden is poised to suspend the sale of oil and gas leases on federal land, which accounts for about 10% of U.S. supplies, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The moratorium, which would also freeze coal leasing, is set to be unveiled along with a raft of other climate policies next week, according to the people, who asked for anonymity to discuss plans not yet public.

The move would block the sale of new mining and drilling rights across some 700 million acres (2.8 million hectares) of federal land. It could also block offshore oil and gas leasing, though details are still being developed, some of the people said.

[Opinion] Let’s see violent pipeline protesters the way we see violent Trump supporters – by Rob Port (Pipeline Technology Journal – January 20, 2021)

January 22, 2021

https://www.pipeline-journal.net/

The problem is not opposing pipelines and oil production, or believing the 2020 election was somehow stolen from Trump, though I, and I suspect many of you, find both positions to be equivalently wrong-headed. The problem is people who have concluded that their cause is so righteous they are justified in scaring and even hurting other people to get their way.

As the years-long regulatory and legal saga around the Line 3 pipeline replacement project in Minnesota has unfolded, many of the activists opposed to the pipeline have vowed that their opposition will mirror the violent, months-long protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.

That hasn’t happened yet, but already left-wing activists are instigating inane stunts to get themselves arrested in protest of the pipeline.

Tiny Keystone vs. the global coal boom – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – January 20, 2021)

January 22, 2021

https://financialpost.com/

Canadian hopes of overcoming Biden’s climatism look hopeless

Canadians aiming to break through the Democratic Party climate policy barricades, past the army of anti-fossil-fuel green activists surrounding Joe Biden’s White House, are likely to be disappointed.

Political experts grounded in the world of diplomacy, negotiation and reasoned argument seem to believe that a careful strategic approach to the New Green Washington will enable Canada to forge new bilateral energy pacts that would, among other things, allow the $9-billion Keystone XL oil pipeline to proceed.

The false assumption behind such optimism is that the global climate policy agenda has some grounding in economic and technological logic and sound science, as if it were part of a well-thought-out master plan to restructure the world energy system so as to avoid an inevitable environmental crisis that allegedly poses a threat to the very existence of humans on the planet.

How Canada should respond to Joe Biden’s Keystone XL decision – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – January 19, 2021)

January 19, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Joe Biden is poised to begin his presidency with a wake-up call for Canadians who expect him to compromise his climate agenda in the name of diplomacy.

The president-elect’s apparent plan to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline expansion as one of his first actions after Wednesday’s inauguration, laid out in leaked transition documents, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

It’s what he promised during last year’s U.S. campaign, it’s easy to act on and failing to do so swiftly would have sounded alarms within the Democratic Party’s base.

OPINION: Why President-elect Biden’s energy plans could derail the American Dream – by Jason Issac (Fox Business – January 17, 2021)

January 18, 2021

https://www.foxbusiness.com/

The coming inauguration of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States sets the stage for a policy agenda that openly and proudly demonizes the affordable, reliable energy resources we all rely upon.

Biden’s energy plans are bad for our national security, economy, public health, and overall quality of life. But the American people’s ingenuity and creativity — and the very nature of how our planet and energy systems work — mean all is not lost.

Under Biden’s attempts to “phase out” natural gas, petroleum, and coal, the prices we pay for energy will go up.

Joe Biden plans to block Keystone XL pipeline as one of first acts in White House – by Janice Dickson and Adrian Morrow (Globe and Mail – January 18, 2021)

January 18, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline expansion as one of his first acts in office, transition documents suggest, dealing a blow to Canadian efforts to get the project built and jeopardizing the prospect of thousands of jobs in Alberta.

Rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline is included as an executive order on a to-do list, according to The Canadian Press, which has viewed the documents. Outgoing President Donald Trump in 2017 signed the construction permit, which will now likely be terminated.

“Roll back Trump enviro actions via EO (including rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit),” the document reads.

As Ottawa prepares to unveil its Clean Fuel Standard, industry warns of refinery shutdowns – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – December 10, 2020)

December 10, 2020

https://financialpost.com/

CALGARY – Canada’s federal government is poised to unveil its long-awaited Clean Fuel Standard by the end of the year, which executives say is concerning for a wide range of industries that may not have sufficient time to make dramatic changes before new regulations come into effect in 2022.

The Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) will be published in the Canada Gazette by the end of the year, Moira Kelly, spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, confirmed to the Financial Post Wednesday.

“The Clean Fuel Standard remains an integral policy in Canada’s climate plan, and will contribute to the government’s goal of exceeding its current 2030 target,” Kelly said in an email.

OPINION: Question for the Trudeau government: What does UNDRIP stand for? – by Editorial Board (Globe and Mail – December 8, 2020)

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Take Two: Ottawa is again moving to codify the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canadian law. In this reshoot, the Trudeau government is spending a lot of time insisting its bill is both weighty and insubstantial.

The declaration, known as UNDRIP, is a non-binding resolution passed by the UN in 2007. At the time, Canada opposed it, as did Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Three years later, the Harper government reluctantly endorsed the document, but said it was merely “aspirational.”

In 2015, the Liberal platform promised to implement UNDRIP, but didn’t say how. Thereafter, an NDP private member’s bill wended its way to Parliament – “an act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony” with UNDRIP. The House passed it in 2018, but it died a year later in the Senate.

End of the road? Quebec’s goal to ban gas-guzzling cars latest move to hasten oil’s decline – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – November 21, 2020)

November 23, 2020

https://financialpost.com/

Bob Larocque’s industry is planning for a future where the market for their main product, gasoline, begins to evaporate as national and sub-national governments phase out gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles under increasingly ambitious timeframes.

“I need to understand how this will work,” said Larocque, president and CEO of the Ottawa-based Canadian Fuels Association, which represents Canadian oil refineries.

The global shift started with a planned ban on oil-powered vehicles in India in 2017, then Taiwan and Japan, with major economies in the European Union following suit.

The National Energy Program’s bitter aftertaste has lasted 40 years and provided a hard lesson to Ottawa – by David Olive (Toronto Star – November 21, 2020)

November 23, 2020

https://www.thestar.com/

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the National Energy Program, one of the most arrogant and misguided acts by a Canadian federal government.

Ranking high on the list of giant, well-intentioned government schemes that failed, the NEP marked an end to ambitious nation-building projects in Canada.

As historian Taylor C. Noakes aptly put it in an essay this year on the NEP’s legacy, Canada’s “executive leadership lives in fear of three little letters throwing shade on seemingly everything Ottawa does.”

Indigenous group strikes deal for equity stake in Keystone XL pipeline – by Emma Graney (Globe and Mail – November 18, 2020)

November 18, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Indigenous-owned Natural Law Energy Inc. has signed a deal allowing it to make an equity investment of up to $1-billion in the Keystone XL pipeline, in a move it also hopes can help persuade opponents to support the project.

The deal with TC Energy Corp. gives Natural Law until September, 2021, to secure financing to buy into the pipeline. It builds on a memorandum of understanding signed two months ago. TC Energy TRP-T +0.09%increase says it will use similar ownership models for additional Indigenous communities along the Keystone XL corridor in Canada and the United States.

Natural Law Energy is an alliance of First Nations from lands that span Alberta and Saskatchewan.

How do you diversify a city’s economy? As Calgary tries, it looks south for inspiration – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – November 16, 2020)

November 16, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Samir Kayande made his living in Calgary for two decades, analyzing the financial nuts and bolts of the oil and gas industry. But now, he’s making a change.

The research company he worked for was bought out by a new owner earlier this year. Rather than stick it out or seek other work in the oil patch, Mr. Kayande wants a new career outside the industry. This is partly to avoid the risk of a future layoff in a business rife with them.

The 48-year-old professional would like to stay put in Calgary with his family, but he worries, not just about the availability of work, but the quality of what’s available as the local economy suffers through the chronic energy-sector downturn. A global shift in energy has only accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.