NDP vs. NDP!

Alberta's NDP Premier Rachel Notley is going head-to-head with British Columbia's new NDP Premier John Horgan over the building of a new pipeline from here to the coast! 

After very extensive research and study, the pipeline has been approved by the federal government and was accepted by the outgoing B.C. premier!

This ridiculous impasse has brought up some very thought provoking questions!

• Can one Canadian province hold another for ransom over access to markets?
• Can a province (in this case B.C,) simply thumb their nose at our federal constitution?
• Can a newly elected provincial government simply cancel agreements made in good faith by its predecessor?
• Can a very small group of radical environmental types derail a plan which has been accepted by both federal and provincial governments?
• Can two provinces in this kind of dispute simply be allowed to slug it out with each other without federal intervention?

If the answers to these questions are "Yes", we're in big trouble!

Jane Fonda's Visit to Alberta

Last week, actress Jane Fonda came to Alberta to tell us how to manage our petroleum resources!  She said flying over the oil sands extraction areas made her physically ill.  She told us to stop this terrible industry, right now!

I wonder how much actual research she did on the problems of oil extraction in the Athabasca Oil Sands.  Did she base her comments on strong scientific evidence?  What qualifications does she have to tell us what to do?  I personally don't think she has any right to come here from California (which isn't known for it's pollution free environment) in a private jet fueled by petroleum products to tell us we're all going to heck for what we're doing to the environment! 

I have doubts that she understands the situation!

Wasn't it Jane Fonda who went to North Viet Nam during the war, sat in an anti-aircraft gun and pretended to shoot and kill American airmen?  My case rests!

A Greener Alberta?

We are being inundated by adds from the provincial government telling us that we can look forward to a greener, more diversified Alberta economy with the Climate Leadership Plan.  They show us pictures of wind powered generators, solar panels, and hydroelectric facilities. 

They seem to have forgotten one of Alberta's biggest sources of energy; oil and natural gas.  What is our government doing to help the petroleum industry find ways to make their products greener?  I know for a fact that such research and development exists, where is our government on this? 

With these huge oil, coal, and gas reserves in Alberta, it would seem logical that the Alberta government be encouraging and financing research to find ways to make those products environmentally friendly.

Their biggest contribution appears to be their new Carbon Levy which, in my opinion, discourages any research into making petroleum greener.  It instead encourages us to buy less petroleum products to avoid the tax.  I'm having a problem seeing the logic here.

Does our new NDP government expect the big oil companies to shut down oil production and start building windmills?

Economy vs. the Environment: A Silly Choice!

I saw in the Herald this morning that the Angus Reid Institute polled some 1500 Canadians to ask the what is the bigger priority; economic growth or protecting the environment?  What a silly choice!  That's like asking someone;  When walking, which leg is more important, your right leg or your left leg?

As I see it, the correct answer would be "both"!  If we have economic growth without focussing on environmental responsibility we'll do more damage to our world so it (or parts of it) will become uninhabitable. 

Likewise, if we concentrate on scrapping all economic development to protect the environment, our economy will tank.  Millions will become unemployed. Our way of life and standard of living will become seriously compromised.

Projects like the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion must be built but not at the expense of the environment. 

I truly believe that Canada and Canadians must support economic development, but concentrate on environmental protection along with it!  We can do both! The two are not mutually exclusive!

What's Up with Oil Prices?

Over my 30+ years in education, we always taught that non-renewable resources were not replaceable.  Once they're used up, they're gone forever.  So this battle of the oil barons has me all confused.  Oil is a non-renewable resource!

I understand that some of the world's oil producers are selling oil at fire sale prices which is lowering the price of oil globally.  More than 20,000 Albertans have lost  their jobs because the companies they worked for say that they can't keep them on and make a profit with oil prices so low.

Every day we use more and more of our world wide oil resources but there's a finite amount of oil in the ground!  One day we'll run out!  One day the Arab states will run out of oil. Venezuela will run out of oil. Indonesia will run out of oil.  Russia will run out of oil.  And even Canada will run out of oil! So, why the low prices? 

Don't give me that supply and demand crap, either!  I repeat; the supply of oil is extremely limited and the demand continues to rise.  You cannot conserve oil by selling more of it at extremely low prices!  I think some of these oil producers need to wake up and smell the coffee.   

Resource Industries Will Always Be Canada's Primary Source of Income

We are all happy that Prime Minister Trudeau is proud of Canadians' resourcefulness, however that's not where the problem is today.

Right now, as I see it, Canada is very dependent on selling its natural resources both nationally and internationally. Canada's economy is on a downward plunge because at present we can neither sell nor deliver those resources to customers. I still very much believe that Mr. Trudeau needs to spend most of his time dealing with that crisis. Directing some of the attention to Canadians resourcefulness is not helping!  

It's been a while since Canada has been in this pickle. The federal and provincial governments need to be focusing on homegrown solutions to this problem right now! From where I stand there's a few things that governments could do to help out. Here are some of my ideas;

• Encourage all companies to refine and process Canadian oil in Canada. I understand that much of our petroleum products are imported from the United States.
• Give tax breaks to small oil companies based in Canada and owned by Canadians.
• Encourage the creation of small oil companies to operate again in Canada. Sixty years ago there were dozens of small oil companies refining oil and selling those products to Canadians.
• Encourage petroleum support companies to find other uses for their products and help them sell those products abroad. (This is where the resourcefulness could come in)
• Develop a national Pipeline Advisory Board with some real teeth to develop very stringent guidelines as to how pipelines are to be built and maintained across the nation.
• Facilitate the building of the Eastern pipeline to the Maritimes and the Western pipeline to the BC coast as soon as possible.   Also look into building a pipeline to Churchill,  Manitoba.
• Develop even more stringent guidelines as to the operation of tankers within Canadian waters on all three coastlines. There is a tremendous amount of information available on the subject of tanker safety after the Exxon Valdez disaster years ago.  I truly believe that tanker traffic can be made very safe with cooperation from all those involved or potentially impacted!

The governments of Canada need to take the bull by the horns instead of blaming the Arab nations, the Chinese, or OPEC for this petroleum calamity which we are now experiencing. Misdirecting attention away from the problem will not help.

If your car has a flat tire you don't throw it away and buy a new one. You change the tire and carry on. Our economy has a flat! Mr. Trudeau and the provincial premiers, it's time for you to take out the Jack and the tire iron and help fix it!

What's Good For The Goose!

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander!"  That's an old adage basically saying all must be treated the same.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ordered his Ministers to make up a law banning oil tankers on the West Coast.

Oil producers and pipeline folks are claiming they will still build their Gateway pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast.  The Federal Government and the native communities have signed off on it! But what happens when they get the oil to the coast if the Prime Minister outlaws the ships to carry it to foreign markets?

Of course the Prime Minister's law must also apply to other oil tankers, too!  The American ships carrying Alaska oil will have to sail far out to sea to avoid the Canadian coastline.  (I assume the 200 mile limit will apply here.) That will cost them more money.  And what about all that tanker traffic on the East coast?  They will have to be banned too unless the Prime Minister decides the east coast is not as sensitive to oil tanker traffic as the west coast.

The Prime Minister's edict is very short sighted and it could well alienate Alberta from Ottawa again!  Maybe Justin really wasn't ready!

Questions for the Candidates: Economic Diversification & Foreign Ownership

Question #3 addresses economic diversification.  This tends to be something I believe is important.

All parties in Alberta have paid lip service to the idea that our economy must move away from its dependence on petroleum.  But I have yet to hear of anything concrete.

I also fear that any attempt to develop other sources of revenue in our province, especially those exploiting natural resources, will end up in the same hopeless mess that petroleum is in now.

Even though Alberta's gas and oil reserves are found beneath our feet, we have little or no control over its exploitation and distribution. I see most of our petroleum industry owned and controlled by foreign interests.  The price Albertans pay for gasoline processed from our Alberta oil is seemingly decided by folks in Houston, Denver, and Beijing -- not Calgary.

Oil companies take home some huge profits from our oil and gas reserves, higher than almost everywhere else in the world!  What's to prevent any new industries, created to diversify our economy, from going the same way?

Question #3;  If your party forms Alberta's next government, how will you ensure that your efforts to diversify our economy will not turn into another foreign ownership fiasco like the petroleum industry?

Buying Back our own Oil?

Here's one for the "believe it or not" column.  The province of Alberta is a very large producer of crude oil, both traditional crude and synthetic crude from the oil sands.  The way I understand it, our crude is already being shipped out of province down to the United States, where it's processed into gasoline and shipped BACK to Alberta -- to be sold at huge mark-ups. 

I have also been told that there are refineries here in Alberta capable of making gasoline sitting idle or producing at a very low capacity.

I obviously don't understand this industry.  Shouldn't these companies who are exploiting an Albertan natural, non-renewable resource be working hard to put as many Albertans to work as possible?  Alberta has always been proud of its highly trained oilfield workers.  Albertan oilmen and women are being employed around the world to help others with their petroleum industries.

Yet jobs are disappearing here at home while our own crude is exported elsewhere so others in other countries may profit refining it!  Stranger than fiction.

Price of Oil and Alberta's Financial Woes

First, let me remind everyone that I am not a financial guru or even a bean counter.  I and everyone I know are enjoying the low prices of gasoline, but I don't even pretend to know why they're so low.  I understand that a bunch of countries in a group called OPEC (including Saudi Arabia) are selling their oil at rock bottom prices and that's driving the world-wide price down.  Low crude prices means low gasoline prices. 

Does that mean those same countries have too much money and can afford to sell their oil cheap or are they trying to force the other oil companies out of business so they can set any price they want?  Or are they just interested in forcing the companies making oil from the oilsands out of business or at least stop them from growing?  I don't understand their thinking, but then again I'm not an oil sheik either!

I feel badly for those working in the oil patch because their jobs are in jeopardy.  I feel badly for Alberta now dealing with far less revenue from oil than they first predicted.  I can't see this lasting.  The world demand for oil keeps going up while the overall world supply keeps going down.  After all, oil is a non-renewable resource.  I see this as a little blip on the screen. I don't think it can last.

I believe that everyone will have to tighten their belts over the next while, until those offshore oil companies get over their greedy little games.   It may make us stronger.  It may give us added incentive to push for diversification a little harder.  It may convince those folks so against pipelines that those same pipelines will make North America less dependent on foreign oil.  It might help them turn their energies toward making the world's safest pipelines, instead of stopping them.

I hope I'm right about this being very temporary.  Let's all hang in there and wait it out!  We can make it!