• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska March 14, 2023
U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse March 14, 2023
$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’ March 14, 2023
UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’ March 9, 2023
Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions March 9, 2023
Next
Prev

Alberta Needs a Plan B Before Fossil Economy Collapses, Globe and Mail Columnist Warns

November 26, 2018
Reading time: 3 minutes

sbamueller, Oil Sands Discovery Centre/flickr

sbamueller, Oil Sands Discovery Centre/flickr

76
SHARES
 

Alberta’s lack of a Plan B to prepare for the looming collapse of the fossil fuel economy received a stern response last week from Globe and Mail national affairs columnist Gary Mason.

In contrast to the mostly overheated coverage and rhetoric around the crisis Alberta faces due to crashing oil prices, Mason cites a recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change that shows clean technology beginning to kill off fossil fuel demand over the next 15 to 20 years. “Crucially, the findings suggest that a rapid decline in fossil fuel demand is no longer dependent on stronger policies and actions from governments around the world,” National Observer reported at the time. “Instead, the authors’ detailed simulations found the demand drop would take place even if major nations undertake no new climate policies, or reverse some previous commitments.”

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

In his column, Mason brings home the impact for the Alberta tar sands/oil sands industry, and for the province that is still overly dependent on it. “It suggests that oil-exporting countries, including Canada, will see a steep decline in their output and consequently will experience massive layoffs,” he writes. “Canada, and the oil sands in particular, are especially vulnerable because production costs are relatively expensive compared to other energy-exporting jurisdictions such as Saudi Arabia. That means those countries with the highest production costs are likely to be the first affected when demand begins slowing, as it will.”

What differentiates Mason’s analysis from most any other is that he sees those realities as a backdrop for Alberta’s future, rather than a side show.

“All anyone is talking about is the need for more pipelines, as if that alone will solve the province’s problems,” he writes. “Sure, another pipeline will alleviate some of the economic misery Alberta is experiencing. But that is not going to happen for a while, if at all. Meantime, no one is talking about what is happening around the world, and the implications these changes have for the province.”

Even if “no one in Alberta, certainly among its political leadership, wants to even broach the subject,” he asks, “what’s Plan B when oil prices collapse permanently? Well, there is no Plan B. The government, meantime, is facing a grave economic threat. The province’s financial picture is an ugly mess,” with economist Trevor Tombe projecting annual provincial deficits of C$40 billion by 2040.

“No political leader wants to talk about what happens when the demand for the province’s oil dries up,” Mason writes. “No political leader wants to talk about the need for a sales tax to increase revenues, or the massive public sector cuts that will be required to balance the books in the absence of one.”

Which means that “one pipeline is not going to fix all that ails Alberta. And someone needs to have the courage to begin a grown-up conversation about the new reality taking place outside the province, one that is changing its future by the day.”



in Canada, Ending Emissions, Energy / Carbon Pricing & Economics, Energy Politics, Sub-National Governments, Tar Sands / Oil Sands

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr
Oil & Gas

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
64
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr
Community Climate Finance

U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

March 14, 2023
96
EcoAnalytics
Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
69

Comments 2

  1. Rene Ebacher says:
    4 years ago

    In the meantime, the Alberta government has approved Imperial’s Oil Ltd. $2.6 billion Aspen oilsands project that will add 75,000 bpd of bitumen production to the current output of about 300,000 bpd. Another larger project headed by Teck Resources, if approved, will produce more than 260,000 bpd. Teck Resources estimates the strip mine project will cost about $80,000 per flowing barrel of oil, which is much higher than the $40,000 to $50,000 estimated to build a new steam-driven thermal oilsands project.The total estimate cost could reach $20.6 billion and have a mine life of around 41 years.

    Reply
    • Mitchell Beer says:
      4 years ago

      …and yet Mason points out, as have various others, that a 41-year mine life really translates into a project going bankrupt within a decade.

      At one point, we were picking up suggestions that Teck never plans to build its mine. That based on the Kinder Morgan experience, they just want to get enough *public perception* of a viable project to qualify for a taxpayer bailout. As far as I know that was speculation, not based on anything more than inference. But the idea is out there…

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Behrat/Wikimedia Commons

Hawaii Firm Turns Home Water Heaters into Grid Batteries

March 14, 2023
287
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/flickr

$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’

March 14, 2023
134
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

March 14, 2023
96
Rebecca Bollwitt/flickr

Fossils Stay ‘Oily’, Gibsons Sues Big Oil, U.S. Clean Energy Booms, EU Pushes Fossil Phaseout, and Fukushima Disaster was ‘No Accident’

March 14, 2023
70
EcoAnalytics

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
69
U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
64

Recent Posts

Raysonho/wikimedia commons

Purolator Pledges $1B to Electrify Last-Mile Delivery

March 14, 2023
47
United Nations

UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’

March 10, 2023
89
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions

March 10, 2023
171
jasonwoodhead23/flickr

First Nation Scorches Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Over Toxic Leak

March 8, 2023
362
MarcusObal/wikimedia commons

No Climate Risk Targets for Banks, New Guides for Green Finance as 2 Federal Agencies Issue New Rules

March 8, 2023
233
FMSC/Flickr

Millions Face Food Insecurity as Horn of Africa Braces for Worst Drought Ever

March 8, 2023
241
Next Post
Butte County Sheriff's Office/UAS Task Force

California’s Camp Fire Finally Contained: 17 Days, 85 Dead, 249 Missing, 14,000 Homes Lost

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}