Alberta premier must not support the climate scare when promoting her province’s hydrocarbon fuel resources in Washington DC this week
By Tom Harris
Introducing the International Climate Science Coalition video, “Alberta government feeding the fire that threatens to destroy Canada’s main source of wealth”.
History is replete with tragic examples of those who collaborated with the enemy or sought to appease political correctness and wishful thinking for their own short term benefit. Nowhere is this more evident than in today’s climate change debate. Politicians from across the political spectrum, fossil fuel companies and academics who should know better, not only bow to the climate scare, but actively support it. They even use the unscientific, misnomer-riddled language of their opponents.
The situation is especially alarming in oil-rich Alberta, Canada. There, a supposedly conservative government feeds the fire that threatens to destroy the province’s, and indeed the country’s, main source of wealth, their vast hydrocarbon resources. In an attempt to please the Obama administration so as to secure approval for the Keystone XL pipeline project, and to keep climate campaigners and Canada’s mostly left wing media at bay, Alberta Premier Alison Redford has completely capitulated to climate alarmism.
Her approach is doomed to failure. After all, the primary threat to Keystone XL is the feared impact of oil sands expansion on global climate, and XL will certainly facilitate oil sands expansion.
If approved, the pipeline will pump 830,000 barrels of crude oil every day from Alberta’s oil sands, the world’s third-largest proven reserves, to refineries in Texas. That is over 4% of U.S. daily oil consumption and about 20% of all U.S. imports from the Middle East and Venezuela combined. Besides enhancing America’s energy security, thousands of jobs and billions of dollars are at stake in both countries. Significant tax revenue will flow to provincial, state and federal governments and industry and ordinary citizens alike will see enormous benefits.
But oil sands processing produces more carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas of most concern in the climate debate, than does the refining of conventional crude oil. So activists have drawn a line in the sand with Keystone XL. Even though the oil sands contribute only just over 1/10th of 1% of humanity’s total CO2 emissions, anything that helps the oil sands grow must be stopped, they say. XL is symbolic of our dependence on fossil fuels, an addiction that campaigners believe is destroying the climate.
If science supported the hypothesis that CO2 emissions are causing climatic Armageddon, then anti-Keystone protesters would have a point. To the degree possible, we should then be looking for less CO2-intensive energy sources and trying to ramp down, not up, projects such as the oil sands. Rejecting Keystone XL would then be a cogent symbol that President Barack Obama is serious about tacking global warming, a legacy he would dearly love to be remembered for.
But the science is too immature to know how much influence our CO2 emissions have on climate.
Computerized climate models clearly do not work—even the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admits there has been no overall warming for the past 17 years, something the models failed to predict. Applied mathematics professor Christopher Essex of the University of Western Ontario emphasizes that “the big policy questions are beyond the best models we can currently make. Climate is far from a simple solved scientific problem.”
The geologic record does not support dangerous CO2-driven planetary warming either. “CO2 has played no role in the dramatic climate change of the ice ages, or at any other time over the past 500 million years”, said University of Ottawa Earth Sciences Professor Ian D. Clark. “Only in unverified computer models cited by the IPCC does CO2 drive climate change.”
It is not surprising that the Alberta government dare not contest the scientific foundation of the climate scare. Perhaps they even believe Al Gore when he says that the science is settled. But it makes no sense for Redford and her cabinet to accept, let alone promote alarm. While they do not have the training to know which side of the science is right, they must know that ending our use of fossil fuels entirely, the ultimate aim of climate activists, would cripple the province’s economy, and eventually that of Canada and the United States.
Redford meets with lawmakers in Washington DC this coming week to lobby for the Keystone XL pipeline project and the oil sands. By more carefully crafting her message, and not simply caving in to political correctness, Redford can boost these important projects effectively without helping her strongest opponents.
The 14 minute video just release by ICSC lays out how to do this.
The public can judge for themselves whether Alberta’s premier continues to support the main argument of Keystone XL opponents. Her Tuesday afternoon presentation to the Washington DC-based Brookings Institute, strong proponents of the climate scare themselves, may be heard in line in real time at http://www.brookings.edu/events/2013/04/09-alberta-energy-redford.
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Tom Harris is Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition, and an advisor to the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
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She isn’t bright enough to know when she has a nail in her foot. We elected the wrong women as premier last go round. Dee how we do in three years.
Let me make this perfectly clear:
ALLISON REDFORD IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE.
The party is the “Progressive Conservative” party. We just had a memorial for Ralph Klein, the former Premier of Alberta who passed away last week. This man actually eliminated the deficit AND paid off all the debt! Unfortunately, Alison Wonderland as we call her only heeds the “Progressive” part of the party name.
We are now back to heavy deficits and are headed toward serious debt thanks to this dimwitted liar. During the election they managed to sway the vote at the last minute using lefty campaign tactics that were just despicable. She is as hated here as Gillard is in Australia.
Sadly, we have about 2 more years of this despicable, ignorant, LEFTIST twit.
Oh yeah, I got started… grrrrrr
This post highlights the meme that even skeptic sites [like WUWT] accept too much of the global warming argument.
Just the facts:
There has been no warming in nearly[?] twenty years.
There is no evidence that higher CO2 levels harm the Earth.
The computer models that started this hysteria are junk.
The data used by the models has been fudged.
So called “climate scientists” have repeatedly lied.
The warmists explanations for what real data shows of the world grow increasingly desperate and irrational.
I could go on and on and on, but you get the point.
For the sake of Canadian wealth I hope she fails to halt Keystone XL.
@ur momisugly Tom Harris
I still don’t understand why you, in your second proposal, would mention the reducing of greenhouse gas emissions, inclusing CO2, as something positive. You mentioned earlier that crops are +15% larger thanks to more CO2! So reducing CO2 emissions is something negative imho. We need it to feed the people of the world. You should have focussed on reducing real pollution instead.
Conclusion: you make the same mistakes as what you accuse the Government of Alberta of.
Entire programme (good point at 26 minutes-ish though. Truth in science.
Hmmm…apologies…I meant to link the 10th episode……Ah well, they’re ALL superb.
Albertans have elected the same political party to office – without exception – for over 40 consecutive years.
This has never made sense to me.
They tell me, “Change comes from within the party.”
I’m not convinced.
Didn’t the media go Cuckoo over Cocoa Puffs of Carbon Dioxide during the last Alberta election over a reasonable statement on climate science?
“EDMONTON – Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith was roundly booed and mocked at an Alberta election debate Thursday for questioning climate change, with Premier Alison…”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/09/wildrose-party-leader-danielle-smith-climate-change_n_1504589.html
We are in the midst of an attempt at a world wide restructuring of the West that is mostly out of sight because climate change is the purported emergency necessitating change. And education is the vehicle. Now I have tracked Canadian ed’s role thoroughly and have them admitting that the common core is changing prevailing values, attitudes, and beliefs to support a common good collectivism orientation to get to equity. Socially and economically. Which of course requires constant oversight and opportunities for cronyism. Alberta with its Wheel of Competency and Caring economics that will benefit political favorites and established business and bureaucrats and politicians. Not the rest of us. Keeping the power aggregation and political and noetic transformation going is the whole point of these false models and false learning theories.
Last week I explained that Rio+20 had openly gone into phase 2 of the Green Economy–the Green Urban Economy. You can bet Calgary and Edmonton are deep in the aspirations of these Global Cities Initiative and sympathetic to related Global Cities Education Network. Toronto is explicitly a part. As ids Melbourne, Hong Kong, Seoul, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, Shanghai, and Singapore. And it just rolled out last year.http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/misportraying-the-conspiracy-covers-up-the-broader-plans-of-political-and-economic-transformation/ is the story
As long as politicians in any of our countries at any level are chasing after this vision of a transformed State dominant economy run by a global nomenklatura, they will keep selling off access to our students minds and our economic prosperity. Which are inconsistent with this toxic vision. Toxic for us that is. The bill payers. This really is going into pockets of political favorites in what appears to be a global shakedown. If it’s not climate change research grants or green energy companies it is the massive digital literacy for all boondoggle. All actually weaken us and are lighting real wealth afire.
I find this post very sad as Canada has been one of the few voices of reason on climate in recent years.
Politically speaking the term ‘progressive’ generally means purveyor of goofy expensive ideas which don’t work. The word ‘Conservative’ usually means the exact opposite, however there are many exceptions such as in the UK today.
Hopefully, this lady will be politically astute, but she is in the shadow of a great politician, so this means she is probably going to want to prove something, an all too often recipe for disaster. An incredible amount of rubbish has been spouted about this pipeline by alarmists and greenies; kowtowing to this rubbish is also a guaranteed recipe for disaster.
Maybe, Iran will explode a nuclear weapon sometime soon and try and close the Straits of Hormuz. That should provide a bit of reality focus for the natural climate change deniers who are trying to block the pipeline.
When the Spanish Portola Expedition discovered the Los Angeles valley in 1769 there was a 300 ft tall, 350F hot tar geyser at the site of todays La Brea tarpit museum. This natural outflow continued until drilling of the Long Beach oil wells in 1900. Pismo Beach is the native Chumah Indian name for tar balls. How does humanity and the environment benefit from this unused, continually produced flow of Hydrocarbons spilling out naturally ?
“Peak Oil” is as big a lie as “Carbon Climate Forcing” and promoted by the same group of control freak thieves. Read “Fracturing the Fossil Fuel Fable” and accept Hydrocarbons as a natural, abundant and useful resource for the benefit of humanity….and not a finite commodity to be controlled by economic-ecologic dictators.
Right on CodeTech—- Alison Wonderland. I love it.
By just watching and listening to her, she thinks that she is the “Iron Lady” of Alberta.
{even dresses similiarly}.
Many know that she is a CINO [conservative-in-name-only].
This article is confusing. It states: “In an attempt to please the Obama administration so as to secure approval for the Keystone XL pipeline project, and to keep climate campaigners and Canada’s mostly left wing media at bay, Alberta Premier Alison Redford has completely capitulated to climate alarmism.”
Ok, she wants to please Obama to secure approval for the pipeline. But if she secures approval then the project goes ahead, right? I read further, and can’t find anything explaining what exactly she is doing to “appease” Obama, much less why securing the project is capitulating to left wing agendas.
This whole article is a confusing mish mash of different ideas, even though, the underlying message may well be correct.
In my judgment, the debates about whether global warming exists or whether it is caused by man generated greenhouse gases or natural variability may soon become mute. A major heating fuel and electrical energy crisis affecting most Northern Hemisphere nations might only be a couple of years away as the planet cools to possibly the 1880-1910 or lower global temperature levels due to natural climate variability . This period of colder weather will last for 2-3 decades at least since the climate factors that cause the cooling typically last at least 30 years . We are already seeing 100 year plus cold temperature records being broken in Europe .The global winters of 2008, 2009 2010 and regional cold spells of 2012 and 2013 were just a prelude of what is coming fast down the pike. As we saw during the cold spells of 2012/2013 winter, the extra cooling is coming partly from the very cold stratospheric air entering into the lower levels of the troposphere plus the simultaneous cooling from other natural planet variables like the cooler ocean cycle and the low solar cycle. Many countries in the Northern Hemisphere appear to be doing the opposite to protect and prepare their citizens by prematurely shutting down all existing fossil fuel generating plants , restricting the building of new ones and restricting the use of fossil fuel generally as may happen with the Keystone pipline . That is similar to removing your furnace and oil storage tank before the onset of winter with no other reliable alternate to see one through the winter Wind and solar will be of little help in most areas due to the extreme winters, winter clouds and significant snow. It is sheer suicide and we can already see many actual examples of this throughout the Northern Hemisphere and currently more notably in UK and Eastern Europe. Now North American nations are being urged by environmentalists who only think about global warming to do the same. Only Germany, China and India may escape some of the worst heating problems as they retain all their former fossil fuel plants and are continuing to build new ones, If Keystone pipeline is cancelled , North America will loose one of its key sources of fuel during the upcoming cold years and United States will feel the impact as the renewables such as wind and solar sources will fail during the cold and stormy winters , exactly when they are needed the most. Other countries will realize the wisdom of having a secure source of fuel for the coming years and will wisely invest in such a source well ahead.. This is not be about politics or global warming but one of pure survival..If you thought that the 2012/2013 winter and snows were bad , much more severe winters lie ahead.
Alberta has a population of 3.6 million people, but 2/3rds of the entire population live in Calgary and Edmonton. These two cities are cosmopolitan and like most cities tend to support environmentalism and lean toward the left, while the remaining rural population leans right. The Premier’s main support is in these cities Calgary and Edmonton, so she must be an environmental premier.
She could always try the Canadian Prime Ministers approach, he’s also an Albertan. He is methodically closing coal fired power plants across the country under the excuse of environmental concerns and carbon emissions, of course the coal fuel will be replaced by oil fuel. Alberta oil. The Canadian Prime Minister is Alberta’s best oil salesman.
The word for these people is Quislings.
As to the biggest of them, I disagree. The biggest Quislings are those liberals, feminists and activists of the atheist Left who offer help, support and encouragement to Islamic states, parties and pressure groups (such as your CAIR).
Your president is the greatest of these since….well, Quisling himself.
There is only one way, and one way alone that Alison Redford can pull this off. Ok, two ways. She could have her makeup artists and seamstresses to outfit her and make her look like Morsi. But I suspect Valerie and Michelle would see through that. (How do the two of them get along?) So, there is only one way. Redford has to offer to build the Keystone pipeline, not to Louisiana, no, but to Washington instead, right to the airport that houses Air Force One, Two, and so on. Now, the amount of fuel that’s slurped up by these, shall I say, rather large personal jets on important diplomatic junkets for Obama, Michelle, and the little ones to such important hot spots as Idaho (for skiing junkets), Bermuda (for Atlantic beach conferences), Hawaii (Pacific beach conferences), and Chicago (to institute steps to prevent voter fraud) probably is equal to the capacity of the pipeline anyway. Now, I recognize that, unlike us, for whom our CO2 emissions reek of flatulence, the CO2 emissions of Washingtonians are probably sweetly perfumed and thus able to perfumigate the very theories they, themselves present to us. So, the voters have no right to complain about the prodigious amounts of fossil fuels Obama sucks up. But, at least, sending the pipeline to Washington will free up some of that fuel from other sources for our use. And, even if those theories are utter nonsense, well, I have to save that for another time.
As CodeTech says April 7, 2013 at 3:27 am
ALLISON REDFORD IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE.
She’s a typical Canadian Liberal, who cannot get elected in the West without pretending to be something else. She believes all that Warmista carp. She probably has secret trysts with Joe Clarke. She is also an idiot to give one inch of ground.
An example of what extremism does to reduce judgement and critical thinking is demonstrated by the enviro extremists who have decided that somehow Canadian oil sands are going to destroy the Earth.
They are so extreme they do not recognize real threats and instead obsess over their contrived beliefs..
The real threat is lack of energy, not oil. The real danger is reliance on distant oil supplies, not Canadian supplies. The real risk in transporting oil is not pipelines, it is rail, and ship. The threat to the climate from Canadian oil sands is zip.
Total world consumption of petroleum is unlikely to be affected much by the pipeline decision. However, without the pipeline, Canada ships its petroleum overseas, while the US imports an equivalent amount, also from overseas. The main difference in fossil fuel consumption will come from the fuel needed for the additional tanker trips, minus any reduced sales because of the consequent higher prices. It looks like blocking the pipeline will actually increase world CO2 emissions.
herkimer says:
April 7, 2013 at 6:13 am
///////////////////////////////////////
Well Said.
In the UK, the government is still pushing the cAGW meme and the political correct response thereto. The Met Office is still projecting global warming, although it projects that there will not be a return to warming before 2017.
What is being overlooked is that CET Winter temperatures have not simply stalled similar to the stalled global warming. CET Winter temperatures for this century (ie., post 2000) show a fall in temperature of 1.5degC . Incidentally, this is more than the entire late 1970s warming! or 20th century warming.
Of course, no one knows whether this temperature trend will continue, ie., whether winter temperatures will remain low, or will fall even further. But the UK government should be alive to the fact that these past 12 years Winter temperatures in the UK have fallen by 1.5degC which is a substantial amount and should this trend continue, the UK is in for an unpleasant spell where citizens will wish to receive not simply reliable energy (free of brown outs) but will require more than usual energy consumption in the winter months imposing an additional strain on an already over strained system. The UK government should be planning for that possibility.
The UK energy system is truly resting on the edge of a precipice. It could go into freefall even as early as winter 2013 if 2013 turns out to be another cold frigid winter such as that of 2009/10 or 2010/11 where a blocking high persisted for approximately 6 weeks bring cold and little wind. In those winters, wind energy was producing only about 1 to 3% of installed capacity (ie., next to nothing) whilst that blocking high persisted.
XL not being built would be a pain, and it seems more likely than a BC pipeline (picture Texas wanting to build a pipeline to California’s coast without a lot of direct benefits for them. It might be feasible, but less so than XL), however it seems like Quebec’s Premier is pretty friendly with Redford about a pipe going the other way through Canada. It seems like we’ll eventually go somewhere. I’d actually like an eastern pipeline even if less optimum as there’s enough east/west friction. And it would be hilarious if Quebec and Alberta pushed the agenda for a pipeline together.
I feel like this is a lose lose situation for the enviros right now. If they block XL leaving more oil to be transported by rail they’ll look like they don’t really know what’s going on and people will feel like Obama’s allowed a minority voice to make the decision. It might be better for them to lose the fight – they could look ineffective, but they could regroup and expect some other kind of concession in the government’s policy to make up for it. Obama’s on his last term but he might be wanting to wait out a round of House/Senate elections before he’s ‘home free’.
She should just stay home, keep her mouth shut and let Brad Wall do the talking. As the Premier of Saskatchewan he has defended Alberta’s interests better than REDford (the former UN consultant) ever has since she took over from the NDP in Conservative clothing ED Stelmack. Ever since King Ralph left office liberals and socialists have been infiltrating the PCs in Alberta since they can’t get elected any other way. The growth of the public service employees in Edmonton and Calgary is what is keeping the PCs in power now. The people af Alberta missed a golden opportunity last election IMO and now have to suffer until the next election. Wild Rose may not have been quite ready for primetime but neither was Social Credt or the PCs when they first came to power.
I agree with one of the earlier bloggers comments and found that the author spent a little too much of his time faulting ALBERTA and not enough time presenting his own good ideas or alternate points of view that urgently need to be told to the public. .If you spend too much of your effort reviewing, discussing or opposing the other guy’s ideas instead of presenting your own good ideas or alternate points of view, you have very few reasons for the public to hear your truth or vote for your ideas .. What is it that you stand for? Plus you give too much public attention to the oppostion story , which is the worst thing that you can do. Lot of politicians have lost many an election for the same reason. Instead of devoting most of his time criticizing ALBERTA’s ad, he should have spent more time shooting down the global warming science that the alarmists use , with all its many obvious mistakes, failed predictions and flawed science and why using this flawed science to shape a critical public/ interantional energy policy is so wrong . What are the reasons why this project should go ahead should be the prime focus of Alberta pr ad and not to explain a flawed global warming science .