Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Premier Rachel Notley has just announced Alberta’s withdrawal from Federal carbon pricing, though she plans to keep the Alberta province carbon tax.
Premier Rachel Notley pulls Alberta out of federal climate plan over Trans Mountain ruling
‘Albertans are angry, I am angry,’ premier says of Thursday’s federal court ruling
CBC News · Posted: Aug 30, 2018 1:34 PM MT | Last Updated: August 31
In a dramatic announcement Thursday evening, Premier Rachel Notley said she is pulling Alberta out of the national climate-change plan to protest a federal court ruling that quashed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
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“Albertans are angry, I am angry,” Notley said in reaction to the ruling that stalled a project her government has spent major political capital to advance. “Alberta has done everything right, and we’ve been let down.”
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Notley blamed both the current federal government and the previous one for creating a situation she said has made it “practically impossible” to build a pipeline to tidewater in a country with more coastline than any other on Earth.
“Now, more than ever, we need to come together and prove to ourselves and to the world that our country works,” Notley said. “This ruling is bad for working families. And it is bad for the economic security of our country.”
Canada can’t accept that the only market for its oil and gas resources is in the United States, Notley said.
“No other country on Earth would accept this, and Canada shouldn’t either, especially when we are doing it to ourselves. It is ridiculous.
“Money that should be going to Canadian schools and hospitals is going to American yachts and private jets. We’re exporting jobs, we’re exporting opportunity, and we are letting other countries control our economic destiny. We can’t stand for it.”
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The premier said the decision reached Thursday has no impact on Alberta’s own climate-change plan, or on the carbon tax her government introduced on Jan. 1, 2017, and raised a year later. But her declaration that Alberta plans to pull out of the federal climate change plan leaves proposed future carbon tax increases in doubt.
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While its fun to watch the breakup of Canada’s Federal carbon pricing scheme, its utterly hypocritical that Premier Notley wants to keep her Alberta province carbon tax.
But Premier Notley is not the only Canadian climate hypocrite.
In May this year Prime Minister Trudeau compared climate “deniers” to supporters of female genital mutilation. But Trudeau himself supports fossil fuel exports – as Trudeau said in 2017, No Country Would Find 173 Billion Barrels Of Oil In The Ground And Just Leave Them.
Trudeau’s ridiculous effort to claim the climate moral high ground, to tax carbon while exporting all the fossil fuels they can dig up, is like a drug dealer who defends their sales on the basis that they are personally clean, that it is up to their customers to decide what they do with the drugs they buy.
Even the Alberta Trans Mountain pipeline court ruling does nothing to reduce CO2 emissions – that oil will still be pumped. Premier Notley is not saying she can’t sell her oil, her complaint is that the USA has Alberta over a barrel on oil prices, because Alberta doesn’t have enough pipeline capacity to ship the oil to other markets.
I personally believe anthropogenic CO2 emissions are harmless. Clearly many federal and state politicians in Canada must also believe on some level that CO2 emissions are harmless as well, or they wouldn’t allow up so much fossil fuel to be mined and exported. But those same Canadian politicians continue their ridiculous game of climate hypocrisy, pretending they care about CO2 emissions, imposing carbon taxes on their own people, insulting people who are honest about what they themselves clearly believe, while at the same time they preside over the export of all the fossil fuels they can dig up.
Correction (EW): h/t Alberta – Canada has provinces, not states.
Hmm- I can’t seem to find my yacht. It must be hiding behind my private jet.
A large number of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec residents were unavailable for comment on this issue.
“its utterly hypocritical that Premier Notley wants to keep her state carbon tax.”
???
Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.
Let us be clear. The purpose of a carbon tax is to tax carbon. That should be enough to justify it.(wink wink)
Eric: Well said! I doubt anyone is listening who would change their minds but well said!
Notley is between a rock and a hard place. The citizens of Alberta are furious. On the other side is the American environmental lobby that paints the oil sands as pure evil. Notley spent a lot of time in Washington and New York trying to convince policy makers that Alberta oil is not pure unbridled evil. I don’t think she can get away with dropping the carbon tax. That will just start the enviro hounds baying. On the other hand, the people of Alberta will not accept if she doesn’t do something drastic. How about secession?
in related news, Canada’s national energy board announced that oil by rail is at an all time high. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/just-as-trans-mountain-is-quashed-neb-confirms-there-are-more-oil-trains-than-ever
Alberta is a province; there are no states in Canada. But we are totally pissed that she’s going to keep ripping us off with a carbon tax.
Personally, I do not consider criticisms of this ilk to advance the cause. Many of the readers of this site would claim that guns do not kill, it is users of guns that kill. If one accepts that argument, then there is nothing wrong with Trudeau’s position; it is not the oil company exploiting the reserve that causes CO2 emissions, it is the consumer of fossil fuels that cause the emissions. A few months ago, I seem to recall that many commentators were suggesting that in the Exon Mobil law suits, that the oil company should not be sued on that very basis.
The article is interesting. Money always rules, and the State of Alberta would be fools to limit their market and not find alternative buyers and markets for their valuable resource. Where the State is wrong, and where Canada is wrong, is in its reasoning that CO2 emissions are dangerous, for Canada any warming would be a godsend, and that even if Canada curbs its emissions this will have any impact at all given that China and India are given a free pass. Canada is merely virtue signalling and over something that is not a serious problem, and this virtue signalling is causing economic harm to its citizens.
Butts got exactly what he wanted, shutting down anything related to Oil/Gas related. Shiny Pony just follows along (hey, look at my nice socks!).
“She said Alberta will not sign on to the national climate-change plan “until the federal government gets its act together.””
So, she has nothing against the plan, she just wants to hold it hostage. Funny how Warmunists are always the first to cry foul, when it’s their bacon getting burned.
Once the pain starts the virtue signaling goes out the door.
Not just harmless, CO2 emissions are highly beneficial.
Hippocrit! Bigly!
Joe Wagner:
What Notley should have said is that because there is no pipeline to tidal water, Alberta WCS crude is captive to the US markets.
The result is that WCS trades at US$37/barrel vs. $70 for West Texas. That means there are folks in the US greasing their pockets on the diff.
Until there is a tidal water pipeline, those revenues are lost to Canadian taxpayers.
One can always see the commitment to an idea when it comes to actually paying the price.
Other words – talk is cheap. …when it’s time to pay the piper. Walk the talk.
Amazing the number of cliches that have been developed over the years that explain this behavior.
She wants to demonize the US for buying oil with higher sulfur and wax content that sells for less than sweet crude. The tar sands oil is essentially heated up sludge. This is like bawling how rich Venezuela is with the highest sulfur content oil in the world. This is very expensive to remove in refining. She can cut a deal with Trump for a pipeline immediately. The cost is the transfer cost that includes maintenance. The pipe is longer to Gulf refineries, but does not go over major mountains with serious landslide, erosion, river, and slumping problems to constantly fight. She tossed in a few victim cards to play up Canada being bullied by the US while she is bullied by Ottawa exclusively.
This is like griping how greedy foreigners are stealing South Africa platinum. Yeah, spend your own $2 billion to get down 2 miles to the ore body, haul it out, and refine it, and tell me how rich you are. People with low emotional maturity count their riches but never costs.
You take West Texas Intermediate sweet crude and dream how you tar sludge is the same thing all day, baby. Oh right, all the desirable volatiles have blown off leaving behind the high sulfur, high wax residue. That residue has long carbon chains that have to be cracked using platinum catalytic conversion. That ain’t cheap. The towers cost millions and are 300 feet tall to distill that mess. Route that to Keystone and shut up. Few refineries in the world can handle Venezuela or tar sands low grade crude. Else, pony up $5 billion and build your own refinery and make gasoline on the spot, if you think you can.
No pipeline?
Then use rail.
No trains or insufficient rail?
Then use trucking.
No trucks or roads?
Then build a refinery!
Build chemical plants!
Build resin manufacturing and research facilities!
Ship refined, formed, assembled, and manufactured product instead.
Stuff that has provided local employment, earnings while gaining value.
I am an Albertan. I am angry with PM Trudeau, and I am angry with Premier Notley.
“I personally believe anthropogenic CO2 emissions are harmless.”
The fool speaks.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-how-much-more-can-canadians-ask-alberta-to-take
Breaking News! Canada Embargoes Itself!
She is still bending Albertans over though with the existing carbon tax. Her election was a fluke and a mistake that Albertans realized the morning they woke up after the election. She is toast.
This pipeline was actually not killed for CO2 reasons. It was killed because the government did not consult with native groups enough. It’s true the native groups are funded by Tides. The NDP (Notley) and Liberals (Trudeau) also received electoral support funded by Tides through “grassroots environmental groups” Vivian Krause investigated it thoroughly.
I have also traced the funds through publically available records. It’s not even difficult to do. Vivian Krause’s research is correct, even understated. Complaints that the Liberals and NDP benefitted from foreign funding contrary to election finance laws were quietly dismissed by the Minister (a Liberal). The state funded media, which dominates Canadian news, was dutifully silent.
Notley’s tough language does not reflect any change of heart. It is a piece of political theatre used to cover her true loyalties. The mock outrage and Trudeau’s effeminate “tough talk” are meant to provide cover for the inevitable and orchestrated failure to build the pipeline. Which is exactly what the Tides Foundation and others set out to do. Mission accomplished.
I have concluded that the government and the courts in Canada are deeply corrupt, and our journalists are too meek and stupid to say anything. Our citizens are stupid, credulous people who follow the state media like dolts. God help us. I mean it.
Her response was weaksauce. She said basically she won’t do anything until after the next provincial and federal elections. There is no there there, except for faux outrage.