While many bemoan the fate of the Teck Resources Frontier tarsands project as yet another example of restrictive regulatory measures, others, as the following letter from the print edition of the Toronto Star suggests, say its death makes perfect corporate sense.
Free market now realizes carbon reserves best left alone
Re Regulatory process blamed for oilsands mine’s end, Feb. 28
Canadians who haven’t followed B.C. Premier John Horgan, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau down the rabbit hole understand that the collapse of the Teck Frontier proposal is a positive indication that the “free market” is functioning as it should.
Corporations, investors and shareholders are belatedly coming to realize that it is in everyone’s best interest that most of the world’s carbon reserves — include Alberta’s oilsands — be left in the ground.
Only in Wonderland would politicians employ massive taxpayer subsidies to subvert the marketplace and promote uneconomical, climate-destroying fossil-fuel projects; $16 billion to buy and build the Trans Mountain pipelines, plus $6 billion to construct Coastal GasLink.
The truth is, pipelines don’t end at a terminal. Every pipeline is a conduit to the sky, ultimately dumping its carbon into a dangerously overheated atmosphere.
Only by changing the ways that we produce and consume energy can we hope to avert climate catastrophe.
Mike Ward, Duncan, B.C.
The private sector is no longer closing ranks around the fossil energy industry. The financial sector knows that it's a lousy bet. Chevron cried "uncle" as it tried, unsuccessfully, to unload its half share in the Kitimat LNG plant. There's no future for $9/mBTU natural gas when the market has a glut of $5.5/mBTU gas and spot prices as low as $3/mBTU.
ReplyDeleteKinder Morgan had decided to bail on the TMX venture leaving Ottawa to have to step in. Now Jason Kenney is musing about the broke Alberta government becoming financier to the Tar Sands even as he gives ordinary Albertans a taste of the austerity lash. When the financial sector, starting with BlackRock, turn against high-carbon fossils, bitumen and coal, Kenney lashes out that it's a devious conspiracy.
These are the actions of man men. Nobody, especially Trudeau and Kenney, wants to be holding the bag when the carbon bubble bursts. Yet every month they pretend it's business as usual the job of an effective transition to alternative energy becomes more difficult.
The fantasy bubble our political 'leaders' live in will be the death of many of us, Mound.
Delete.. anyone recall this being reflected via Mainstream Media during the protests ? Surely the taxpayers and Albertan pensioners were informed they now owned the Coastal GasLink Pipeline ?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tcenergy.com/announcements/2019/2019-12-26tc-energy-announces-the-partial-monetization-of-the-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-project/
'Canada Is Broken' - the 'Poll' (I use that term loosely) by DART Maru/Blue for Post Media very recently and converted into juicy headlines and articles - Quoting 'a majority of Canadians' blame the recent protests on 'Ottawa' is simply contrived garbage - fabricated 'News'. Its malignant weaponized propaganda in my view. The context and questions did not include Coastal GasLink, its parent company TC Energy or LNG Canada as options when apportioning 'Blame' for the protests or handling of the protests or protesters. Thus the very reason for the protests is excluded, obscured. The 'poll' and ensuing national 'news' based on it, and the sale of Coastal GasLink must certainly be key evidence in any subsequent legal actions, especially the question of who the efforts of PostMedia and DART Maru/Blue were really on behalf of whom ? Quid Pro Quo ? Follow the Money..
Thanks for the link, Sal. It makes for some very instructive reading.
DeleteAs for the media coverage, well, I think that is one of the reasons many of us turn to alternative sources to stay abreast of this ever-changing and ever-frustrating world.