• 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
Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA June 4, 2023
Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest June 4, 2023
Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing June 4, 2023
2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season June 4, 2023
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Next
Prev

56,000 Demand Retraining for Oil and Gas Workers, Funding for Renewables, as Fossils Push for Bailout

April 5, 2020
Reading time: 6 minutes
Primary Author: Mitchell Beer @mitchellbeer

Twitter

Twitter

123
SHARES
 

With the Canadian government still tight-lipped at week’s end on the bailout package it’s crafting for the country’s pandemic-ravaged fossil sector, 56,000 online petitioners demanded the government invest in the oil and gas work force, not shareholders, while new analyses showed how the right investments could position the country for a stronger, greener recovery.

On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government was looking for a way to help the sector, The Canadian Press reports. But “Trudeau’s promise came nine days after Finance Minister Bill Morneau said an aid package for the oil sector was ‘hours, potentially days’ away,” the news agency adds. “Morneau’s office would not say Friday how many hours Morneau actually meant.”

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

Noting that “doing it right is more complicated than doing it fast,” Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart said the delay might be good news. “It would be a lot easier and faster to pump out a bailout of loans and aid to companies than it would be to find innovative ways to fund workers through a transition to greener pastures,” the news agency says, citing Stewart. “He is hopeful any direct aid to companies will be tied to their willingness to show business plans in line with Canada’s climate targets. Anything else should help workers who need to know they can pay their mortgages and put food on the table while they retrain for new jobs in clean energy or environmental remediation.”

That line of thought received a powerful virtual boost Friday when a group of youth climate strikers, environment organizations, and democracy groups held an online rally “calling on Canada’s federal government to prioritize relief for workers and impacted communities rather than oil and gas companies,” Stand.earth reports. The release lists three MPs—one each from the Liberal, New Democratic and Green parties—who logged on “to accept more than 56,000 petition signatures from Canadians opposed to a bailout of the oil and gas industry.”

“We need to support oil and gas workers—as we do all workers who are trying to survive this economic storm,” said Dogwood spokesperson Alexandra Woodsworth. “But Canadians will not accept a sweetheart deal for oil company execs and shareholders to protect Big Oil’s bottom line, and prop up a sunset industry. We need every single public dollar available to save lives, support communities, and rebuild a cleaner, more resilient future.”

“There seems to be a government push to rely on Big Oil and dirty fossil fuel oil and gas,” said Chief Kukpi7 Judy Wilson of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. “Pipelines continue to come through our territory. Construction is ongoing, telling us where the investment really is.” And “we also don’t want man camps in our territories. There is already evidence that shows us that they lead to further violence against our women and our girls, and have devastating effects on our people, especially our most vulnerable.”

“We desperately need responses from our decision-makers that address the most vulnerable and address these inequalities,” said Stand.earth International Program Director Tzeporah Berman. “At this rare moment in history—as we design stimulus packages—we have an opportunity to direct funds and efforts to rebuild and restructure so that our systems, our infrastructure is more resilient, addresses the multiple crises that we face, and leaves no one behind.”

As the days ticked by and the pressure on Ottawa mounted, there was no shortage of specifics on how the sector stimulus money should be spent.

On Thursday, fossil executives were praising the federal government’s response so far and laying out the form they thought a bailout should take…as long as no one actually calls it a bailout.

“The oilpatch doesn’t want a handout or bailout from Ottawa,” CBC writes, citing Whitecap Resources CEO Grant Fagerheim. “Instead, industry leaders want the federal and provincial governments to look at ways to reduce expenses for the industry. such as providing funding for debt and lowering royalties.”

“Then you are not picking winners and losers,: Fagerheim explained. “You’re actually doing it overall for the energy space to help drive down their costs to make it more competitive with other places around the world.”

“At a time like this, the number one thing is liquidity. The first three things are liquidity,” added NuVista Energy CEO John Wright.

“The last thing you want to see is, for example, your bank line shrink at a time like this, even though you’re a strong company,” he added. “Where the government can step in is ensuring they are providing liquidity and encouragement to the banks such that we don’t get an undue compression of liquidity for strong companies.”

“We need to allow the companies to have enough cash so they don’t get so much debt on their balance sheets that the creditors won’t continue to support them,” said World Petroleum Council of Canada Chair Richard Masson, an executive fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. “They need enough financial capacity that they can continue to pay all these operating costs, even if they’re losing money, and get through to the other side.”

On Thursday, as well, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets suggested “that an aid package could allow companies that shut in production to sell barrels of oil that they’re not producing to the federal government at a mutually agreed upon market price,” Bloomberg reports. “They will be free to actually produce that crude later on, when prices are better, and refund the government the revenue it paid them earlier, smoothing out the producers’ revenue and ‘leaving taxpayers whole’.”

“As a voluntary arrangement, Shut & Swap rests on market forces, and temporarily utilizes the balance sheet liquidity afforded by the Canadian government,” Greg Pardy wrote in a research note.

[Hey, what a plan! Next, Ottawa could pay 3M not to produce N95 masks for Canadian health care workers! Why not subsidize your neighbourhood Blockbuster store not to keep trying to compete with Netflix? What could possibly go wrong?—Ed.]

Thankfully, Ottawa had a menu of more sensible ideas to choose from. In Toronto, The Atmospheric Fund called for public funds to be spent for public benefit, “to spur job creation and benefit the whole economy, not executives and shareholders. We need those funds to clean up polluting industries and accelerate the low-carbon reality.”

TAF addressed the potential disconnect between fast economic stimulus and an effective green infrastructure program that could take months or years for planning and approvals. “While these [longer-term solutions] are under development, we can get a head start by focusing on the plentiful small and mid-size project opportunities like retrofits and distributed renewables, and taking advantage of existing funding programs that can be rapidly expanded,” wrote Bryan Purcell, the fund’s vice president of policy and programs. 

“Fortunately, the federal government has a multitude of climate funding programs which could be boosted to get money into the economy quickly and productively, while reducing carbon,” Purcell added, citing the federal Zero Emissions Vehicle Infrastructure Program, Climate Action Incentive Fund, and Accelerated Investment Incentive for qualifying renewable energy projects. [Disclosure: The Energy Mix publisher Mitchell Beer has worked on past contracts with TAF.]

The Pembina Institute and the International Council on Clean Transportation echoed the call to use electric vehicle production to boost the economy, and Pembina published a separate set of principles to guide the economic stimulus package. It said federal funding should prioritize:

  • Jobs that are resilient to future economic shocks and disruption;
  • Investments in producers of low- and zero-carbon goods and services;
  • Incentives for carbon reductions that go beyond current regulatory requirements;
  • Backstopping Canada’s ability to meet its climate commitments where possible.

Meanwhile, transit agencies across Canada are requesting an immediate C$1 billion in emergency funding, plus another $400 million per month to cover lost revenue during the pandemic. 

“Systems across the country are coping with an unprecedented ridership drop that’s caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Canadian Urban Transit Association President Marco D’Angelo told the Globe and Mail last week. “We’re asking the federal government to find a way to help systems access funds to make sure that essential transit can keep running.”



in Buildings, Canada, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Community Climate Finance, Energy Politics, Energy Subsidies, First Peoples, Health & Safety, Jobs & Training, Oil & Gas, Pipelines / Rail Transport, Sub-National Governments, Tar Sands / Oil Sands, Transit

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

sunrise windmill
International Agencies & Studies

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
177
Pixabay
Solar

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
151
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr
Cities & Communities

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
97

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

/MaxPixels

‘Substantial Damage’, No Injuries as Freight Train Hits Wind Turbine Blade

May 25, 2022
14.7k
Natural Resources Canada

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
242
sunrise windmill

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
177
Pixabay

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
151
Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
901
Clairewych/Pixabay

Demand Surges for Giant Heat Pumps as Europe Turns to District Heating

June 4, 2023
113

Recent Posts

Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
97
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
42
moerschy / Pixabay

Federal Climate Plans Must Embrace Community-Driven Resilience

June 4, 2023
67
debannja/Pixabay

Austin, Texas Council Committee Backs Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 4, 2023
101
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
81
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
103
Next Post

Fossil fuels add to world’s marine dead zones

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}