Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage wants the federal government to treat Alberta\u2019s oil and gas reserves as a strategic asset, not a liability to phase out in favour of green energy sources.<\/p>\n
During a press conference on Friday, Savage said Western democracies have been exclusively focused on climate change to the detriment of energy security, reliability and affordability. She pointed to federal policies such as Bill C-69 and emissions caps on oil and gas production as evidence that the federal government is vilifying Alberta\u2019s energy industries.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, the world is in an energy transition. We need to address climate change, and we are doing that, but the transition is going to take time and it\u2019s not going to be easy. Oil and gas will continue to be used during that transition for decades,\u201d Savage said.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Alberta premier files defence in defamation lawsuit about oil inquiry comments<\/p>\n
Savage also claimed the failure to prioritize energy security has made energy production difficult in North America which resulted in a transfer of wealth to places like Russia and Venezuela. Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the need for \u201cethical\u201d oil from Canada instead of places like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, Savage said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is terribly frustrating to see the U.S. government now scrambling to increase supply from some of the world\u2019s worst regimes: Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an industry that\u2019s committed to net-zero production in the oilsands. We\u2019re a responsible democratic government, so it is very frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Click to play video: ‘Kenney speaks about \u2018foreign-funded\u2019 interests trying to \u2018landlock Canadian energy\u2019’
\n1:34
\nKenney speaks about \u2018foreign-funded\u2019 interests trying to \u2018landlock Canadian energy\u2019
\nKenney speaks about \u2018foreign-funded\u2019 interests trying to \u2018landlock Canadian energy\u2019 \u2013 Jun 27, 2019
\nSavage\u2019s comment comes as the federal carbon tax is set to increase from under nine cents to 11 cents a litre on April 1, a move that Environmental and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says is a central part of the federal government\u2019s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Canada\u2019s program to cut greenhouse-gas emissions is failing, audit shows<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s completely true to say that during the transition away from fossil fuels, we still rely on fossil fuels,\u201d said Werner Antweiler, a professor at the University of British Columbia\u2019s Sauder School of Business. \u201cI think the real question is \u2026 what kind of policies can be put into place to deal with that transition?\u201d<\/p>\n
Antweiler also criticized the Alberta government\u2019s aversion to the carbon tax and said carbon pricing is the most efficient way to put a price on the climate crisis because regulations are not sufficient.<\/p>\n
Premier Jason Kenney previously said he is opposed to the federal carbon tax because it is punishing people for consuming energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there\u2019s a price on pollution, the industry will figure out the most efficient way to reduce emissions \u2026 Alberta is saying that we don\u2019t need a carbon tax even though there is a climate crisis, so this is just another form of denying that there is a problem,\u201d Antweiler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is what I could never understand about the approach from Alberta, where they want to rely on regulation when it is perfectly clear to everyone who understands the subject matter that putting a price on pollution is a superior way of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Is Canada\u2019s carbon tax working? Experts, advocacy groups weigh in<\/p>\n
Savage\u2019s comment also comes after U.S. President Joe Biden banned imports of Russian oil on Tuesday, a move that critics say would be the best way to force Moscow to pull back from Ukraine. Kenney has called for an increased role for Canadian oil and gas, saying the U.S. can replace \u201cconflict oil\u201d from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela with Albertan oil.<\/p>\n
Click to play video: ‘Russia-Ukraine conflict: U.S. to ban imports of Russian oil, Biden says’
\n0:33
\nRussia-Ukraine conflict: U.S. to ban imports of Russian oil, Biden says
\nRussia-Ukraine conflict: U.S. to ban imports of Russian oil, Biden says \u2013 Mar 8, 2022
\nBut experts say the concept of ethical oil simply doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no such thing as ethical oil, it\u2019s a made-up concept, because how exactly do you define ethical? What metric is used to define ethical oil? What is ethical is in the eye of the beholder?\u201d Antweiler asked.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Biden announces U.S. ban on Russian oil imports as Ukraine war rages<\/p>\n
Sourayan Mookerjea, a sociology professor at the University of Calgary, said oil produced in Canada is no different from oil produced anywhere else in the world with regards to global warming, environmental justice and violence against Indigenous women.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadian oil production is enabled by the foundational and accumulated violence of colonialism and the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples. While nothing justifies the Russian government\u2019s aggression in Ukraine, the problem of oligarchs is not only a Russian problem,\u201d he said in an emailed statement to 770 CHQR.<\/p>\n
770 CHQR reached out to ECCC with requests for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage wants the federal government to treat Alberta\u2019s oil and gas reserves as a strategic asset, not a liability to phase out in favour of green energy sources. During a press conference on Friday, Savage said Western democracies have been exclusively focused on climate change to the detriment of energy security, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3044,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3042\/revisions\/3044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/3043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}