George Skulsky’s Post

The Trans Mountain Contradiction: How can Canada lead on climate while doubling down on oil? https://lnkd.in/gEuZh4Np A question all Canadians should be asking about our dirty little stranded asset—the $25bn Trans Mountain #Pipeline that nobody wanted, but that ordinary Canadians have to pay for. And don't get me started on Canada's $18.6bn #subsidies to the #fossil fuel and petrochemical industries in 2023 ALONE.

After years of protest and litigation and billions of dollars in cost overruns, the Trans Mountain Expansion Project came into operation today. https://lnkd.in/g_dNcWnc For background on the controversy, you can check out my 2021 book, The Resistance Dilemma, through open access at MIT Press. https://lnkd.in/g7TW43tG The Trans Mountain case is Chapter 6. Chapter 8 contains some larger reflections on the impact of the strategy of resistance to oil sands pipelines. I'd be curious to know your thoughts on whether the "grand bargain" struck by Trudeau to approve the pipeline in exchange for advances in climate policy was, ultimately, justified.

“The new oil and gas field licences forecast to be awarded across the world this year are on track to generate the highest level of emissions since those issued in 2018, as heatwaves, wildfires, drought and floods cause death and destruction globally, according to analysis of industry data by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).” Where all my boiling frogs at?✋🏼🐸

If you believe climate change is a global phenomenon (which it is), restricting America's access to oil/gas/mineral reserves HARMS NOT ONLY AMERICA, BUT THE PLANET, for 3 reasons: 1) The world's population is increasing dramatically, and oil/gas energy use is rising in kind. If oil/gas isn't extracted in America, that void is filled by Russia/Iran/Venezuela for oil and China for minerals. 2) America's regulated industries extract oil/gas MUCH CLEANER than Russia, Iran, Venezuela and the Saudis. Restricting American exploration = more pollution for the planet. 3) Importing the oil we need instead of drilling for it ourselves not only threatens our national security and increases our national debt...it also funds the wars being waged by Iran and Russia. Wars America is spending $100's of billions to combat. In a nutshell, this move by the B1d3n admin is 1+1=3 dumb. Regulations that stifle innovation is the solution to neither America's debt nor the world's climate crises. Cleaner fossil fuels are a vital part of our planet's future prosperity. Happy Earth Day! #energy #oil #gas #exploration #innovation #regulations #climate #nationaldebt #nationalsecurity #alaska #energypolicy

🚨 When your house is burning, you act.     Our hearts ache for Jasper and all communities across Canada experiencing extreme weather events and raging forest fires as a direct impact of the climate crisis. Citizens for Public Justice joins eighty other organizations calling for immediate government action to regulate fossil fuel emissions through an open letter. Knowing that Indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable to evacuation and loss due to these climate-related events, we call on the government to act with the justice, equity and urgency that this moment demands.      Read the letter on our website: https://lnkd.in/eydgNJv6     The letter emphasizes the pressing need to regulate oil and gas companies and highlights Canada’s failure to reduce fossil fuel production despite its commitment to the Paris Agreement. Continued inaction puts all human and more-than-human communities at risk – the time to act is now.    #canada #cdnpoli #jasper #Wildfire #ClimateEmergency #NoMoreSubsidies #ClimateActionNow #ProtectOurPlanet #ClimateJustice #SustainableSolutions #FightForOurFuture #EnvironmentalJustice #CPJ #publicjustice 

I recently shared an important article from the Guardian about the Canadian Tar Sands. Continuing to raise awareness of this, I copy in an article from 2019 – so not recent news, but it gives some powerful background and some excellent photography of what is going on in Alberta. This article comes from National Geographic. +++ The scale of Alberta’s oil sands operations, the world's largest industrial project, is hard to grasp. Especially north of Fort McMurray, where the boreal forest has been razed and bitumen is mined from the ground in immense open pits, the blot on the landscape is incomparable. If Alberta, with its population of four million people, were a country, it would be the fifth largest oil-producing nation. While it produces conventional oil, most comes from the Alberta oil sands, the world’s third largest proven oil reserve at 170 billion barrels. And these days, even as Canada promotes action on climate change on the world stage, the Canadian and provincial governments are pushing to expand oil sands operations—which brings substantial economic benefits to the region—in the face of a chorus of opposition from environmentalists and indigenous people. +++ One of the keys here, to my mind is of course the "economic benefit" compared to the environmental destruction. As ever, these are the "externalities" which enable to polluter not to pay, and enable the economic system not to have to factor in the real cost. I can't prove this but I do get the feeling that if the ecological destruction linked to fossil fuels had been factored into the economics, we would not have been able to burn through so much in so short a time. The article discusses the impact on the First Nations. Karim Zariffa, the executive director of Oil Sands Community Alliance, an industry group, says the industry has tried to work closely with local and indigenous people over decades to share information and provide funding. But if local communities object to proposed oil sands projects, says Janelle Marie Baker, an anthropologist at Alberta’s Athabasca University, it makes no difference. “Projects are always approved by government,” Baker says. Here we have another problem. The article, though not recent also deserves to be widely read and shared. #tarsands #Canada #fossilfuels #environmentaljustice #firstnations https://lnkd.in/e4g6vM7M

Whelp, this week Biden and Buttigieg rubber-stamped the SPOT, Sea Port Oil Terminal, off the coast of Texas. Once built, the SPOT will (per Sierra Club): *Release carbon emissions equivalent to operating nearly 90 new coal-fired power plants, *Add 140 miles of onshore and offshore oil pipeline to the region struggling to recover from previous spills, *Export up to 2 million barrels of crude per day, representing the largest offshore oil export terminal in the United States. To say that this is a major loss to those advocating for communities most affected in Texas and a major insult to climate science experts and environmentalists everywhere is an understatement. https://lnkd.in/gSGHqyf6

Government of Canada/Government of Nova Scotia - Investment in Wildfire Equipment and Enhanced Wildfire Resilience On October 1st, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Nova Scotia's Ministry of Natural Resources and Renewables announced a joint investment of nearly $30M over five years under the Government of Canada’s Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program (FMWCC) – Equipment Fund and the Resilient Communities through FireSmart (RCF) Program. https://lnkd.in/en2mpC8X

so many opportunities in Alberta to take advantage of the energy transition not only to tackle climate, but to make life more affordable (energy efficiency, more low-cost renewables), set a path for long-term, sustainable economic prosperity and jobs. But a year after Alberta announced ERED, and basically nada.

The new oil and gas field licences forecast to be awarded across the world this year are on track to generate the highest level of emissions since those issued in 2018, as heatwaves, wildfires, drought and floods cause death and destruction globally, according to analysis of industry data by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). CMP=share_btn_urlhttps://lnkd.in/dcdsVz2h