Kudos to the citizens who parse Jason Kenney’s policies and winnow the truth from the lies.
This takes tremendous courage given the government’s thin-skinned and overly aggressive response to criticism. (Check its Twitter and Facebook posts, they’re replete with attacks on anyone and everyone from Calgary’s mayor to doctors, academics, journalists, union leaders and ordinary citizens).
One would expect such an over the top reaction from the Kenney government to have a chilling effect on free speech and public discourse.
However, the opposite is true.
Push back
When the government’s $30 million/year War Room went after the Medicine Hat News for publishing a column critical of the War Room’s activities, the paper said bring it on, its subscriptions surged and its writers, Jeremy Appel and Scott Schmidt (I’m sure there are others) gained loads of new followers on social media.
When it singled out Steven Lee, a young environmental activist with the 3% Project, in a story featuring a parent irked by Mr Lee’s presentation. Mr Lee said he was disappointed that all the War Room could muster given its mega budget was “the normal messaging everyone else already does”.
When the War Room reacted to an op-ed by environmental activist Bill McKibben, Professor Andrew Leach took it to task for publishing rubbish (my word, not his). He urged the War Room to correct the misinformation it presented as fact. As Professor Leach delicately put it, “Words are important, and it seems that perhaps they were not chosen carefully enough. I’m sure it could not have been intentionally done to mislead, and I expect you’ll want to correct the record.”
This is significant
This push back from academics, journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens is extremely significant. Why? Because they are fighting to protect our democracy.
Jason Stanley, in How Propaganda Works, says it’s a fundamental principle in a democracy that all citizens can participate equally in debating the policies that affect them, and the political discussion is reasonable and rational.
Falcons symbolize wisdom, vision and protection.
The Kenney government violated this principle when it earmarked $120 million over four years to aggressively protect the energy industry from criticism and set up a $2.5 million public inquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns. It moved from simply promoting the energy sector (as it would promote any other sector of the economy) to attacking industry critics in a politically charged forum as a matter of ideology—anyone suggesting the oil sands are contributing to climate change is anti-Albertan—they are fair game and the government will use the weight of the state to stop them.
That’s why the push back is so significant. Citizens are reminding us that War Rooms and anti-Alberta energy inquiries and ad hominem attacks on critics are not normal; they’re an attack on democracy.
They know the government and its supporters will respond with both barrels.
And yet, they refuse to remain silent.
They’re fighting back against the government’s efforts to silence them. They’re fighting back to protect public services like education, healthcare and support for our most vulnerable. And they’re showing up at goof ball panels which are nothing more than a distraction from the government’s failure to address a flawed fiscal structure.
Citizens have taken strength from the government’s attempt to marginalize them.
This gives me tremendous hope.
Susan on the Soapbox 
I studied for 6 years, 4 out of the work force, and taught for 30 years. I paid thousands of dollars into MY pension plan for old age security. I have to take always felt that I could have made a whole lot more money outside of educating our children. Now at 72 years of age and problems with my health I hear Mr. Kenny has raided my ATA pension fund. This is unacceptable and reflects a learners lack of understanding and empathy for a large portion of his electorate. This is a Trumpian tactic, shameful will and disgusting. I want my hard earned money back with interest.
You’re absolutely right Ted, what Kenney has done with your pension is unacceptable. We need to continue to tell him and his MLAs that until it finally sinks in.
Susan: My elderly dad, nearing 90, was from a farm, as was I. He had a saying, “stubborn like an ox”. I think the UCP are just like that. They won’t budge. They bully anyone who is against them, just like Ralph Klein did. How can their takeover of people’s pensions be reversed? Given the nature of Alberta having a virtual one party state, I think the UCP is going to find a way to remain in power. When I was on Twitter, I saw other people criticizing Jason Kenney. Knowing him, would he get their accounts suspended? With butter, you have to leave it on the counter to soften. The UCP is like the most hardest, frozen butter. It might be hard to soften.
Dwayne I suspect you’re right. Kenney and the UCP won’t reverse their policies no matter how ill conceived they are because it would be viewed as a sign of weakness. This is unfortunate because as one economist said: when the facts change I change my opinion, don’t you? But let’s face it, the UCP is a government driven by ideology, which isn’t the same as one driven by what’s best for ALL Albertans.
I am a nurse in a physicians office and we have been fighting for our senior patients in regards to the impending cuts to healthcare. We have written letters and are currently accumulating letters that our patients are signing which we will be sending to Alberta’s Health Minister, Mr. Shandro. Last time I checked I live in a Democratic society but the actions of our current UCP government does not reflect that these ideals. We must all fight back!
Connie, thank you and the dedicated physicians and medical personnel in your office for doing everything possible to fight behalf of your patients. As you said, we must fight back. Democracy depends on it. We can help you by writing our own letters to Shandro and Kenney protesting these cuts and the harm they will do. Once again, thank you!
I’m in the same boat, sir . . . this Kenney is a freak of even Conservative political moral compass standards. I hope you have a moment to read my response to Susan’s blog re: Kenney . . . stay well, Ted . . .
Oh how I’ve tried to get on Kenney’s S List – such a badge of honor, I’d consider that to be – as a 4th generation Alberta family patriarch. I’ve even tried this, on social media – but he’s either well-insulated or won’t take the bait . . .
An Open Letter to Jason Kenney
Your Fascist, Corporatist, nest-feathering, Trump-style approach to Alberta politics isn’t working out too well, is it, Jason? Your “trickle-down” B.S. backfired on you, didn’t it?
$4.7 BILLION in UCP gifts to the corporate elite? At the expense of Albertans’ health care, seniors, education, and God knows what other poisonous plans are afoot in your twisted, anti-Alberta excuse for a mind? Just so “they” can take the money and run?
As your popularity slides deeper and deeper into the Tar Pits you (pretend to) support (it’s crystal clear you support NOTHING Albertan – let alone any modicum of decency), you’d better come to the realization that if you can’t keep Alberta rednecks happy, your days are numbered.
I am a crippled senior on pension income only, a retired teacher, supporter of energy and industrial diversification, VEHEMENTLY anti-Tar Pits, and will spend the rest of my days on this earth railing against charlatans and frauds such as you, Doug Ford, and Stephen Harper, Andrew Scheer and your ilk. YOU ARE BAD NEWS for Alberta, Canada, and everything decent. You are revered by Fascists, Racists, anti-LGBTQ kids, and old, white, thieving, morally bankrupt corporatists and Big Oil.
You are done. Go back to Ottawa & see if you can get a job cleaning up after Scheer.
My advice to MLA Roger Reid – as a Livingstone-Macleod constituent – is to spawn a non-confidence initiative ASAP if the UCP, a rag-tag bunch of near-dead, delusional Alberta PC’s, Reformers, Racists, Fascists, Harperites (the Northern foundation), Tar Babies and other undesirables supported by the likes of the Soldiers of Odin, the Yellow Vests, and what’s left of the Alberta KKK and other extremist thugs.
If the UCP has ANY hope of survival as a viable “party” – it must redefine itself as a more traditional form of “conservative” movement rather than the radical (yes, sport, it’s YOU who are the radicals) extremist right ideology you assume Albertans esteem. And – BTW – keep your sticky fingers off my CPP, my ATRF pension, my disability benefits, my and my family’s health care, and my beloved Alberta children’s education. Or else.
(Aside – I’ve been admonished by a political activist I admire greatly for their wisdom and writing about it – for not being “respectful” enough to our elected and appointed – you know, the mistaken premise that you can get more flies with honey than vinegar. But we all know what attracts more flies than honey and I will stir up as much of it as I possibly can.)
Sorry – I cannot and will not pretend to respect the likes of you, Jason Kenney. You have besmirched the office of Provincial Premier in a few months even worse than Ralph Klein was able to do in his 14 years as “premier”, handing over BILLIONS to Big Oil.) You did that in a heartbeat, didn’t you? )
Oh, how I’d LOVE to meet with you in my MLA’s Pincher Creek office in February . . . are you up for that?
Thank you Susan and the rocky mountain picture show. Your words help me to keep me strong and ready to fight back against the UCP.
Thank you Arlene, We have to do exactly what you suggest. Stay strong and fight back against the UCP. One way that’s extremely effective is sending letters to your MLA and the premier with cc’s to Rachel Notley and the NDP shadow minister responsible for your area of concern.
Rockymountain, your open letter illustrates the incredible damage the Kenney government has done to the people of Alberta. Add to that the fact that the UCP MLAs are reluctant to meet with their constituents and block them on social media which, let’s face it, is the last resort when it comes to communicating with your elected representative, you know that there is something terribly terribly wrong with this government.
So we will do what we have to do, we’ll push back loud and hard every chance we get.
Thanks for your reaction, Susan. Still no response from Kenny or my MLA – I’m not holding my breath . . .
Why am I not surprised?
They will have no problem ignoring you at all – that is what they do everyday
I wonder if the $ 4.00 plus billions paid to corporations might have been a negotiated settlement for the $ Kenney gathered via the tax payers association (only 4 or so employees and made millions) and the he $ poured into his campaign. Who owns Kenney I can’t help but ask.
Good question Sara, $4.7B in corporate tax cuts may not create any jobs but it certainly buys you a lot of friends.
Great piece Susan !
The power of democracy lies within communities & grassroots movements; however some where along the way we gave away our power. Kudo’s to everyone who is joining in and supporting this “ push back”. It shows solitary and also sends a message to this government, that we won’t be pushed around and intimidated. We have each others’ backs.
The message to this group is loud & clear & concise; “Your mandate is to govern, get this province back to work and diversify”
Stop this B.S. and get to work !
Well said Bota28, We may not succeed in changing Jason Kenney’s agenda but we will certainly succeed in dumping his government in 2023.
Amen !
The petroleum industry finances an organization called, “The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers” (CAPP). I always thought it was there job to represent the industry including its protection from “attacks” deemed unfair. The sponsoring enterprises are rich enough to make CAPP far more robust than a government sponsored “war room”. Therefore, why to Alberta taxpayers need to fork over our money to a war room accountable to no one? Surely the oil and gas business should be embarrassed by all this!
Graham
This is an excellent point Graham. CAPP represents the petroeum industry and CEPA represents the pipeline companies. They have more than enough money to advocate on behalf of the energy sector.
What I find interesting is that individual oil and natural gas companies and pipeline companies have zip to say about the value of the War Room. I suspect that’s because they think it has little or no value at all.
Graham & Ms Soapbox: you both missed a couple more oilpatch industry associations, although I don’t know if they also engage in lobbying:
– Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors https://caodc.ca/about_caodc
– Petroleum Services Association of Canada https://www.psac.ca/about-us/
Offered only for the sake of completeness.
Thanks Jerry much appreciated.
Great point Graham! But a mind like Kenney’s wouldn’t even CONSIDER a plan as fir as that . . .
In economic uncertainty and the urgent climate issues the Kenney government is falling back to blame and fear instead of engaging the best minds and hearts on all sides to find the win-win opportunities for business and the environment; including the critical need to employ thousands for unemployed oil folks in cleaning up the tens of thousands of conventional oil and gas installations in Alberta!
Well said David. The UCP says it wants to balance the budget so future generations are not burdened with debt, but it hasn’t done much to address the mega-million dollar liability hanging over all Albertans other than demand the Feds “pitch in” and help pay for it. This is on top of the Feds paying over $4 billion for Trans Mountain. No wonder the rest of Canada is getting tired of our whining.
Susan: Thanks for another great blog. I’m no longer on Twitter anymore, because my account got knackered in June of 2018. I can’t see what those among the over 5300 followers I had, had to say about the UCP’s ‘war room’. I have seen a few of them comment on your blog. I know that the ‘war room’ is a waste of money. I know oil booms are long gone, like dial telephones and computers with punch cards are. The ‘war room’ will never fix that. I don’t like the UCP’s policies. They mirror what the Alberta PCs were doing, since Peter Lougheed was not our premier. They are very Ralph Klein like. We have no say in what the UCP does at all. Their “public forums” are a joke, and have a predetermined outcome. There still are die hard UCP supporters, who want to blame the NDP, instead of decade after decade of poor planning and fiscal mismanagement, by the Alberta PCs, destroying what the late, great Peter Lougheed built up, followed by an oil price slump in 2014. They think Jason Kenney can solve everything. When will they realize his policies are doing nothing to benefit ordinary Albertans? I have relatives, (3 grandparents, and two great grandparents, as well as other relatives) who fled oppressive governments in Eastern Europe. The UCP is just like that. Will this blog even exist? I hope it does. I hope you have a Happy New Year.
Thanks Dwayne. I agree with your comments but think Kenney’s policies are worse than Klein’s because Klein had the decency to campaign on cuts but Kenney promised he’d maintain or increase the education and healthcare budgets. Then he reduced them by stealth by not acknowledging the impact of population growth and inflation. He said he’s maintained these budgets when in reality he’s cut them. I think he thinks Albertans are idiots.
Dwayne and Susan … Thanks so much for the timely comments and reflections on the progress of the UCP. No one mentions the IDU and the role of Stephen Harper and its other alt right members. This is the formative base for everything, I suspect.
KSPS ran a great piece this morning on the origins of Fascism in Europe. Great tutorial for those of us who need a broader context for this behaviour and the manner of dumbing down the electorate.
Kenney is doing the worst harm of all in his interference in the curriculum in the public school system. While cutting resources is crucial as a problem to be addressed at this time, editing the curriculum to answer the demands of the fundamentalist religious community is dangerous to our future and unfair to Alberta’s children. It’s an ethical issue of the highest level.
These are tragically difficult times in our world and unbelievable times in our province!!!
.. though I follow Andrew Leach quite carefully.. he does make the same mistake others fall into or flog for various reasons. That being common use or conflation of the term ‘oil’ instead of Bitumen, especially ‘Alberta Oil’. Here’s a common example, below .. and I would prefer not to have to resort to common crude analogy to make my point. It does become tiresome. Indeed as Andrew says ‘words are important’
If 96 % of Canada’s ‘vast oil reserves’ are in the Alberta Tar Sands.. can anyone show me a current photo of a pump jack, pumping ‘Alberta oil’ (whether ethical or not) from within the tar sands ?? No. The fact is ‘all that wealth in the ground’ (Justin Trudeau) is Bitumen, not oil. 96% of it folks, is Bitumen.. a black granular high sulphur deposit that is scraped or steamed from the tar sands. When upgraded somewhat and a highly refined diluent blended in.. one has ‘dilbit’ – diluted Bitumen – a slurry that is warmed and will flow under pressure through a pipeline.
Its a ‘synthetic oil’.. such as WCS – Western Canada Select that is quoted on the stock exchanges daily, at far less than ‘Benchmark oil’ such as WTI – West Texas Intermediate, a light sweet oil.. or Brent, the North Sea benchmark. The oil from offshore Newfoundland is oil. The oil we import from the USA fracking fields is indeed oil. We do not import a single handful of Bitumen nor a drop of dilbit from anywhere on the planet. We do however import petroleum products refined from dilbit Alberta exports.
Please note – Venezuela also has tar sands which hold a lower sulphur Bitumen than Alberta’s. They will export it at lower production and transportation cost, direct to US Gulf Coast refineries or direct to any buyer worldwide via newest largest supertankers and superports that can unload and load simultaneously. Supertankers exiting ‘tidewater’ aka Burnaby BC are only 1/2 full to clear Second Narrows at high tide. The idea that ‘Alberta oil’ is unfairly discounted is as laughable as an idea that hamburger is unfairly discounted sirloin steak.. ask any butcher !
Diamondwalker: this is an excellent point! Thank you!
Sir: want pix of pumpjacks in Alberta? They’re everywhere in certain areas of the province, although, admittedly, not common around Fort McMurray. I live in Grande Prairie, where all I need to do is drive 10 minutes out of town to see pumpjacks on either side of the highway. In fact, there’s even a pink one, emblazoned with a pink “fight breast cancer” ribbon, just 30 minutes east of the city on Hwy 43, near Debolt.
You see, WCS is a blend, and includes conventional oil as well as bitumen-extracted synthetic oil. Now, I do not claim to be an expert on oil and bitumen, but if you live in the heart of the ‘patch — as I have since 1985 — you eventually pick up some understanding of the industry. Also, my Master’s research was on the health effects of working in the oil & gas industry, so I had to learn something about it. There are also bitumen sands in the Peace Country, up around High Prairie, but I don’t think there’s much activity around them at present.
There’s also a lot of natural gas activity around here, due to our proximity to the Montney formation. But gas wells don’t have pumpjacks.
.. Thanks.. I know where the pumpjacks live and where the buffalo roam. I also differentiate ‘in situ’ from extraction of close to surface bitumen. I do not call Bitumen – oil. I worked up there in the very early 70’s, near Swan Hills when the wells were coming in. Few know I wrote the scripts, edited & directed the IPO launch videos re early tar sands stock offerings. I did the same regarding the worldwide IPO when the TSO went public. Few know my background regarding explosives either. I have shot massive scale open pit situations and stuffing sausage like explosives at the bottom of Kidd Creek Mine, or the perils of BC stope mines. I do get around.. Dubai, San Fran, Whistler in the dark after the lifts shut down, Peggy’s Cove when the big sweepers are a comin, Tofino just for the clam chowder. My immediate family also includes a master drill rig captain – whether fracking or traditional wells, and also a master surveyor who was contracted to confirm seismic geolocation as well as navigational equipment on nuclear submarines. Dinnertime can get quite lively.. some are pure prairie wheat farmers and I am an attentive farm boy listener. Ancestors long gone were engineers building the bridges and blowing the tunnels near Crow’s Nest Pass. You also seem very informed.. excellent ! I had worries about my health here n there eh! We could have used your expertise !
I’d LOVE to copy & share your post . . . may I?
Absolutely Rockymountain! Feel free to share far and wide!
So they have this war room and of course they will find lots of ‘terrorists’ and then what?
Can you tell me what can they do?
I would love to know – seriously
will they take them to a Kangaroo court
They can do nothing and so they spend 30 million dollars a year for no results. It is very UCP.
It is so brainy that makes my brains spasm in envy
Carlos, there are some who would argue they’ve already set up a Kangaroo Court, it’s called the Ant-Alberta Energy Inquiry.
https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/braid-ucp-acknowledges-troubled-launch-of-war-room
This must be the fifth I have read and it is a total disgrace.
I cannot stop advertising them because it is the best circus around at 82 thousand a day – wow are we ever rich
If the NDP had done something of this magnitude they would never shut up so it is my job to do the same
Carlos Beca: It is not a surprise. Mark Lisac wrote a book called Alberta Politics Uncovered. He talked about how the Alberta PCs were getting away with more costlier debacles, and the Liberals in Ottawa could not get away with debacles of less severity. The NDP in Alberta were akin to Peter Lougheed, in that they were virtually scandal free, and they did not do mega billion dollar scandals, like the Alberta PCs were doing for so long, or the UCP are now doing. Sadly, the NDP were demonized, because stubborn Albertans want the Conservatives to be in power, no matter how bad they really are.
Excellent point Carlos and Dwayne: the conservatives give their party a pass, but crucify the Liberals and the NDP for errors that pale in comparison. This is ideological tribal behaviour, it demonstrates a lack of rational thinking.
I absolutely agree Carlos that the A$30M/year War Room is a disgrace and I also agree that we must not stop talking about it until it is finally shut down. It will cost us dearly in hard tax dollars and credibility until this gong show is shuttered once and for all.
Well I will be sending an email to all UCP MLAs and cc Rachel Notley on this
This man or better this idiot gives himself the right to create this War room to spy on its own citizens that disagree with his government! WOW this is brilliant but not a surprise. It comes from a person that cries about taxes every single minute of his microscopic life and lectured the NDP in every single opportunity that they could find and call a waste but in the meantime they have already spent more money than the NDP government spent in 4 years and for nothing. This is not a disgrace, this is stupidity and total lack of critical thinking and commons sense.
82 thousand dollars a day – for nothing than propaganda and sick ideology.
This is a man that keeps calling others socialists and communists and whatever else – what a disgraceful germ.
Carlos, isn’t it interesting that when people like Kenney run out of rational arguments to attack a progressive policy they resort to calling people socialists or communists. Is as if they believe this will silence us when in fact it only shows how stupid they are because they clearly don’t understand what those terms mean and why they’re not applicable to the behaviours they’r complaining about. I like your game plan of sending emails to all the UCP MLAS and cc Rachel Notley. We should all do the same.
Susan: As I looked at the current price of oil again, it was down again, below $60.00 per barrel. I guarantee that we will not see triple digit prices of oil ever again, let alone 80 something dollars for a barrel of oil anymore. Is the ‘war room’ going to change that fact? No. Also, what will the UCP do about the $260 billion cost that was thrown on Albertans for cleaning up oil industry related messes in Alberta? That mess started with the Alberta PCs, in the early 1990s. Also, what will the UCP, and the ‘war room’ do about the $35 billion petrochemical (bitumen) upgrader boondoogle that the Alberta PCs left us? It is that cost, because of different factors thrown in. There have people who have downplayed the cost, and said it’s only $9 billion. That petrochemical upgrader has structural and other defects in it. How many needy people in Alberta suffer, and we have these gargantuan wastes of money? There was another letter writer to the Edmonton Sun yesterday, trying to say that people should quit blaming Jason Kenney for the ‘war room’ logo mishap. They tried to blame Rachel Notley for the mistake, by saying she probably hired the firm that did the logo, so that she could try and blame the UCP for it. Even the Sun had to admit in their response that the buck stops with the group tasked with spending taxpayer’s money.
You bet we should – these little steps may seem useless but I would bet they have some influence
I am sure that some of the UCP MLAs are not amused with this silly war Wasteful Room
I was at a wedding in southern Alberta last fall, where someone tried to convince me that Andrew Scheer was “a Saskatchewan farm kid, like you and me”. My response went like this, “I guess if the city of Ottawa, where Scheer was born and raised, is a farm in Saskatchewan, then he is a Saskatchewan farm kid, and if the city of Calgary is a farm in Saskatchewan, then we are both Saskatchewan farm kids, but you and I will never be alike.” I got up and moved to another table, rather abruptly. I had no desire to talk politics at a wedding, and this was interjected into benign small talk completely randomly. It was all I could do not to scream, “FGS, can’t you READ?”
It occurred to me that we are living in Zombieland. Zombies accept whatever drivel is spoon-fed to them, without checking simple facts or investing time in research of any kind. Zombies do not ask questions. Zombies do not think. Zombies just shuffle through life with half-dead eyes because they are zombies, and zombies are undead. Worst of all, zombies want to infect everyone else with their disease.
So while I would like to believe that 3.5 percent of any population can affect change in that population, I question if that much of Alberta’s population remains uninfected by the zombie virus.
I really, really want to be optimistic that someone will come up with the anti-venom for this sickness. And fast.
I hope so too.
Oh so many people in Alberta think the movie “Fubar” was promoting a life style choice, rather than mocking one.
“Give ‘er!”
GoinFawr…people missed the point? Again? We’re back to CallmeHal’s comment about zombies.
CallmeHal, good on you for making the effort to correct another piece of misinformation. As you said, there’s something very worrying about people who don’t check the facts before mindlessly repeat garbage, especially in the age of the internet where anything you want to know is readily available on our phones. Yes, it’s disheartening to be forced to do this over and over again, but I think any effort to correct misinformation is time well spent. The misinformed might not change their minds, but at least they’ve discovered not everyone agrees with them. That’s worth something.
A few minutes later, the other guests had left the table, too, leaving AmericAndy’s biggest fans alone. This was in a rather progressive pocket of the province, where news reporters have found themselves on the wrong side of the War Room. I call this place “South of Insanity”.
The democratic world including Alberta is in a transition when it comes to public discourse. What used to be powerful media are becoming increasingly diminished and irrelevant. Of course, in Alberta with its history of being a one party state, they were never quite as strong a voice against the government as in other more vibrant democracies. What will replace them is not yet entirely clear and that gap has provided governments in various places an opportunity to spin more, lie and put out propaganda that is not as easily countered as it was in the past.
Perhaps 2020 will be the year when grassroots movements push back effectively against Mr. Kenney and all the UCP’s fairy tales. He might have been able to easily silence the grassroots in his own party, but there is no guarantee he can do the same to the larger public. Mr. Kenney may often try to use populist tactics, but he has neither the charm or appeal of those elsewhere who are more effective at it. In the process, he often comes across as dour, mean spirited self interested and just a bully, which probably makes it easier to push back against him and the UCP.
Dave, excellent observations on the vacuum created by the lack of an impartial media. As you said, it’s too soon to how this will work out, but the growing sense of unease doesn’t bode well for Mr Kenney given his shortcomings as a populist leader.
Well said. I am one of the people whose pensions are being highjacked and I am very worried. This government’s arrogance and ignorance is simply astounding. I wish I knew how to push back more effectively because emails and twitter posts are definitely not making an impact.
Snowbird, I wonder if Kenney and the UCP realize that when they highjacked public pensions they inadvertently stepped on the third rail. Klein had enough sense to back off when he proposed “The Third Way” (more privatized healthcare), but Kenney shows no signs of backing off. This will come back to bite him.
Oh, I hope so! I also hope this process can be undone.
“Furthermore, over time, more crude bitumen has been produced without the additional processing
step of upgrading to synthetic crude oil (SCO), which has also contributed to decreasing the overall
emissions intensity. This was particularly evident between 2010 and 2017, when non-upgraded
bitumen production increased by over 125% while SCO production increased by only 28%. The
additional energy required to process the crude bitumen (and resulting emissions) is therefore
transferred downstream, mainly to export markets where the bitumen is processed at petroleum
refineries”
https://unfccc.int/documents/194925
Click “English” to download an archive. Page 59 of the first doc in the archive.
Thanks Keith.
But the January 8 War Room says:
“The lack of progress disappointed Canada’s energy sector, as a proposed emissions trading plan for Article 6 would enable Canada to take credit for a portion of the significant GHG reductions that would result from replacing coal with natural gas for electricity generation.”
https://www.canadianenergycentre.ca/canada-poised-to-provide-worlds-greenest-lng/
So they think we will get credit for exporting our “world’s ‘greenest’ LNG”, but won’t the same “trading plan” also penalize us for the unprocessed bitumen? I suppose we could ask them, haha.
I found an explanation in: “No, Canada cannot get credit for its low-carbon exports”
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2019/no-canada-cannot-get-credit-for-its-low-carbon-exports/
The industry pitch: “CCAP Submission on Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes”
Click to access 696.pdf
I don’t see how the latter addresses the issues raised in the former.