Marsden: Pipeline politics could fuel talk of Alberta separation (with poll)

Few people are indifferent to the prospect of global warming, but that doesn’t mean that greenhouse gas emissions should cloud the debate over construction of new pipelines. Unless we’re going to ban automobiles and other forms of transportation, such as buses and jets, the focus should be on reducing the amount of emissions that are discharged into the air, not on preventing Alberta oil from getting to market.

Such common sense is apparently lost on U.S. President Barack Obama, who has been told repeatedly by his officials that the Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t increase greenhouse gas emissions in any sizable way. After dithering for six years, it has become evident that politics, not legitimate concern for the environment, is behind Obama’s refusal to green light the pipeline, which would replace imported oil from dodgy regimes such as Venezuela with bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands. After all, the amount of emissions associated with a pipeline is negligible — certainly much less than the amount of pollution generated by railways, which is how oil is being shipped across the continent in the absence of a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative.

Canadians have no choice but to accept Obama’s fuzzy thinking, but sadly, the leaders of Ontario and Quebec have adopted the same approach, insisting that greenhouse gas emissions be considered in the application for the Energy East project, which would repurpose an existing natural gas pipeline and extend it to New Brunswick, creating tremendous wealth and employment in the process. Such talk has gained favour in British Columbia too, where opponents of construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline and expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline have dwelled on climate change. They choose to ignore the fact that pipeline companies aren’t the biggest consumers of fuel — the real culprits are moms and dads who insist on filling up their cars each week so they can get to work, drop the kids off at school and go on holiday from time to time.

Instead of flouting the law and holding up Kinder Morgan’s studies on Burnaby Mountain, the protesters should go down to the docks and stop fuel from being barged over to Vancouver Island. It wouldn’t take long for the British Columbia capital to run out of fuel and for West Coasters to finally put their hollow rhetoric into action. No one is interested in that, of course. The rain-soaked demonstrators would rather demonize Alberta oil and conveniently overlook the fact that our modern way of life is dependent on the very resource they wish to obstruct.

Similarly, if Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is really concerned about global warming, how about shutting down her province’s automotive industry? Granted, cars would still arrive on our shores from the United States, Asia and other countries, but at least Wynne could claim some moral high ground. Prattling on about greenhouse gas emissions associated with a pipeline, while churning out hundreds of thousands of vehicles equipped with gas-powered engines, is the height of hypocrisy. It’s a pretty foolish politician who would nurture a manufacturing industry using taxpayers’ dollars and then wring her hands over the very fuel that propels the vehicles that are produced.

The federal government and recent Alberta premiers have made it clear that Canadian energy needs to get to tidewater in order to fetch a fairer price. In pandering to a naive electorate and First Nations groups, leaders in B.C., Ontario and Quebec are doing themselves no favours. Where do they think much of the wealth comes from that allows Canadians to enjoy a quality of life that is the envy of much of the world?

Quebec separation appears to be dead for the time being. But if Alberta is continually thwarted by politicians peddling spurious arguments, don’t be surprised if talk of Alberta separation begins to catch fire once again.

David Marsden is a member of the Herald editorial board.

dmarsden@calgaryherald.com