Oil export pipelines: Will Canada ever build another'

Now while people complain about pollution. Of course, they won't dare say a word about the level of excessive pollution by China, instead they will try and create more trade with them! let's encourage that pollution!

Sort of like the feminist movement. It's ok to be angry about it here; as long as they can create it into a profitable industry, but these same people care little about third world nation abuses against women.

Short answer: nope. Too many cards stacked against the industry now. The enemies within are just as dangerous as the ones outside. I'm expecting to see a shuttering of the entire industry to begin soon, especially with an entire upcoming year of depressed prices have ruined the entire point of maintaining ongoing operations. The companies will write off their losses and move elsewhere where the domestic opposition isn't as insane as it is in Canada.

Not with oil and the Canadian dollar at $0 US

That is arguable.

It is more likely that a pipeline will occur as the value of the CDN drops. We don't pay for our oil imports in CDN. We would be paying for everything needed to build a pipeline in CDN. From steel, to chemical coatings, right down to labour. It is all available in Canada, if required.

End of the day, the more worthless our moola is outside of Canada, the more likely that all of Canada wants to buy Canadian oil in CDN.

Granted, it will be neat when Monopoly comes with actual CDN, as it will be cheaper than the paper they currently use...

I don't think we'll shutter the whole industry, but it's a good bet that it'll shrink quite a bit.

I don't often agree with the Wildrose, but Brian Jean's statement today about Montreal mayor Denis Coderre's opposition to Energy East was bang on the money.

It was something like, "You can't dump raw sewage, accept foreign tankers, benefit from equalization and then reject our pipelines."

Part of me almost wants Alberta to become a have not province again, just so we don't have to pay equalization to pricks like him. Quebec would probably change their time pretty damn quick if they actually gad to pay for ALL of their social programs.

I don't think we'll shutter the whole industry, but it's a good bet that it'll shrink quite a bit.

I don't often agree with the Wildrose, but Brian Jean's statement today about Montreal mayor Denis Coderre's opposition to Energy East was bang on the money.

It was something like, "You can't dump raw sewage, accept foreign tankers, benefit from equalization and then reject our pipelines."

Part of me almost wants Alberta to become a have not province again, just so we don't have to pay equalization to pricks like him. Quebec would probably change their time pretty damn quick if they actually gad to pay for ALL of their social programs.

Montreal's C*** Mayor has a short term memory.

The thing here is that, while previous administrations actively gave anti-oilsands advocates more ammunition by making it seem as though the government didn't give a damn about people's concerns and would steamroll any concerns whether they like it or not, the NDP government has actually implemented a carbon tax, and is pushing for the oilsands to clean up its environmental act.

These aren't just the ramblings of Rabble.ca bloggers-they're echoed by the likes of Preston Manning, Jack Mintz and the late Peter Lougheed. We also have the government showing a commitment to Indigenous peoples by supporting the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous people.

So it shows that a lot of the anti-oilsands critics are full of it.

Some might say that the Notley government's moves have failed to achieve social licence. Perhaps, on their own, they won't achieve it...but these actions give a hell of a lot more weight to our own arguments in rebutting our critics, and showing how we're actively working to minimize the impact of oil and gas development on the environment, how we have Indigenous people themselves participating in the oilsands not just as employees but as partners, how oil and gas development can benefit the country as a whole.

Six months ago, we were in a much more awkward position when we tried to take such a position, while the CRA was harassing charitable organizations that critiqued the government, the government was reducing environmental funding and rushing through huge changes to environmental law buried in mammoth omnibus bills.

Now we can point to more solid examples of what we're doing to make sure we make oilsands development as clean and sustainable as possible. We can also turn this back on our critics-what other sector of the economy do they expect to do most of the heavy lifting? Where will new jobs come from? How do they propose to facilitate transportation across the second-biggest country, if we're not going to do it with fossil fuels? How should Alberta support all the oil and gas workers who are out of work to find new employment-and where will the tax revenue come from?

I hear plenty of criticism of the oilsands these days...but solutions seem quite a bit harder to come by. I'd be quite pleased to see green energy take off, and for Alberta to be an active player in it...but we're not there yet.

So we've heard the critiques, and we've begun actively implementing solutions to try and address them. We're in a much better position to counter the critics and their strongest arguments.

Now let's see what solutions the critics can come up with.

You're making the assumption the critics are interested in a solution. The only "solution" they want is the full shuttering of the Canadian oil industry. And they're winning too. Yes, Harper botched Keystone by not having a proper climate plan in place and by taunting the Americans too much. He made the mistake of assuming they'd permanently need Canadian oil in the same quantity as before even as the Americans were going full steam ahead with their own shale boom. Aside from the commitment to carbon pricing/taxing/whatever JT made in Paris he's done squat since to get Canadian oil moving again though. The most noticeable thing he's done is go for a massive time-consuming review of Canadian pipeline approvals and codes. That just won't paralyze getting an export pipeline built. It'll jeopardize getting pipeline built inside of Canada. This is the anti-oil side's plan. Stop pipelines altogether through a massive disinformation campaign about their safety and quality of construction. Then start moving against tanker transport via rail and truck. When this is accomplished the bottleneck is complete. It's a self-built internal blockade of the entire industry. When it's complete what's the point of even having an oil industry anymore if all it's shipping routes and methods have been brought to an end? The wells will be closed, the SAGD's and mines will be permanently shuttered, and the whole story of Canadian energy independence comes to a final end.

The game is over folks. It's not going back to what it was before, not even to the doldrums of the NEP and the 1990's that are gonna seem like good times soon in comparison to what's happening today. The anti-oil/anti-Alberta facet of the Canadian character played one hell of a good hand and exploited the opportunity the Saudis began with their predatory pricing as a cover to shove their own stake into the heart of the industry to put us down for good. This is the way this country has and always will do things because at the black heart of the Canadian character, that no one wants to talk about because of our pathetic need to be seen as the good guys all the time, we will do anything we can to fuck over each other for no greater reasons than the overwhelming spite, jealousy, and outright resentment that comes along with Canadian regionalism. And thanks too BTW for the $1 billion dollar stimulus for AB and SK. That's really fucking big of the feds to be so generous with the help, especially in light of the over $500 billion that Alberta alone over the last forty five years sent to Ottawa in transfer payments. Gee, maybe we could have built up a better rainy day fund out here if our money hadn't been needed for much more important things like free education for university brats in Quebec and endless pay hikes for unionized civil servants. Ah well, it's all worth it if those illiterate uneducated rig-pig rednecks out west can't buy their ATV's and F-350's anymore!

That is arguable.

It is more likely that a pipeline will occur as the value of the CDN drops. We don't pay for our oil imports in CDN. We would be paying for everything needed to build a pipeline in CDN. From steel, to chemical coatings, right down to labour. It is all available in Canada, if required.

End of the day, the more worthless our moola is outside of Canada, the more likely that all of Canada wants to buy Canadian oil in CDN.

Granted, it will be neat when Monopoly comes with actual CDN, as it will be cheaper than the paper they currently use...


Makes sense. But will the moola be there to build these pipelines? For export, it doesn't seem likely. For Canadian consumption, ie energy east, that's still a lot of moola that has to be put up by TransCanada.

Things are in so much flux right now, seems hard to plan for anything. Is this a global hiccup or a new world order of depressed expectations. How will Canadian fossil fuel industry adapt to global warming measures? I'd sure hate to be the one having to make those decisions.

So let's turn things around and ask the critics what they propose instead. I know damn well that Alberta hasn't managed its oil wealth nearly as well as it could have, and I know damn well that Alberta and all of Canada would benefit from a more diverse economy, but I'd love to hear what the critics have to say about all the Albertans and other Canadians whose livelihoods are in jeopardy because of the lack of pipeline access and development, about exactly which sector of the economy should pick up the slack the oil and gas industry has dropped, how they propose to facilitate transportation across the second-biggest country in the world without fossil fuels, especially to far-flung small towns and remote communities, how we manage the transition to green energy without fossil fuels in the meantime?

They've thrown plenty of critiques, and Alberta has done a lot to try and address them, especially under Notley. Her changes, whatever you might think of them, are an active response to our loudest critics.

Now, what do they have as a solution?

They don't have any solutions because they don't see what's happened as a problem. It's something that they wanted to see happen all along. As for the people who lost their jobs and businesses as a result of the collapse I doubt they care at all, no more than they gave a damn when the exact same thing happened as a result of the NEP in the 1980's.

They don't, except for more taxes and more government programs that accomplish nothing.

I see tons of people with an agenda that has no thought put into economic reality
everyday in Europe, just spend more government money.