You can’t destroy an energy system built on hydrocarbons without having a reliable alternative in hand, writes Donna Kennedy\u002DGlans. Read on.
When German Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to Canada last month hoping he could rely on Canadian natural gas to help ease Europe’s dependency on Russian energy, Justin Trudeau offered him a blue-skies hydrogen development but didn’t commit on liquefied natural gas exports. Ottawa says it won’t stand in the way if the private sector wants to build new export facilities but everyone understands the real political deal on energy in Canada.
Five years ago, there was or at least seemed to be the makings of a very different deal on energy in Canada. It went like this: Alberta steps forward on carbon reduction and mitigation and the rest of the country relents on hydrocarbon exports. Alberta did step forward but the rest of the country hasn’t lived up to its end of the bargain.
How do I know? I was there as that deal was being shaped. In the final years of the Progressive Conservative government in Alberta, people in the province understood the need to get on board with a federal climate plan. In 2013, I was named the province’s first minister responsible for electricity and renewable energy and that meant figuring out ways to phase out coal-fired electricity, put a price on carbon and invest in renewables.
What has Ottawa done in return? Earlier this summer, Guilbeault moved the cap from the oilsands to the entire oil and gas sector, where it’s a much tighter fit. Private-sector actors in the Canadian energy sector understand the need to transition the oilsands and other hydrocarbon energy resources to lower carbon intensities. Investors, lenders, corporate employees and consumers increasingly demand decarbonization.
The Germans and the Brits wreaked havoc on their hydrocarbon-based energy systems for the last decade and Russia’s war in Ukraine has now awakened them to the dangers of destroying one system without having another to replace it. Even Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and champion of electric vehicles, said as much in Norway recently: fossil fuels are needed right now to keep civilization functioning until we can reach sustainability with renewable energy.
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