• 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
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Bay du Nord Won’t Help Europe, Guilbeault Says, as NDP Questions Offshore Oil Project

March 25, 2022
Reading time: 4 minutes
Full Story: The Canadian Press @CdnPressNews
Primary Author: Sarah Smellie @SarahSmellie

Swinsto101/Wikimedia Commons

Swinsto101/Wikimedia Commons

6
SHARES
 

The controversial Bay du Nord exploration project off the coast of Newfoundland is running into new headwinds in Ottawa, with Environment and Climate Minister Steven Guilbeault busting the myth that new oil and gas wells can help Europe free itself from Russian supplies and the NDP questioning how any new fossil project can align with the government’s climate promises.

On Thursday, Guilbeault appeared before a Senate committee on energy and discussed the Bay du Nord project in the context of the war in Ukraine and helping Europeans reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas, The Canadian Press reports. He told Sen. Claude Carignan that oil is not a transition energy and the project proposed off Newfoundland’s east coast won’t solve Europe’s energy issues.

  • 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.
New!
Subscribe

“It must be understood that if the Bay du Nord project goes ahead, it could not produce oil before 2028, so I doubt that our European friends and colleagues will wait until 2028 for Canadian oil,” the minister said.

The NDP’s views take on new significance, meanwhile, after the party’s dramatic pledge Tuesday to support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government through to 2025. In exchange, the Liberals have agreed to work with the New Democrats on several priorities, including fighting climate change.

On Wednesday, federal NDP environment critic Laurel Collins said she struggled to see how the Liberals could approve Bay du Nord and have it align with national commitments to limit a rise in global temperatures to 1.5°C.

“The NDP believes we need a concrete and immediate plan to move toward a green and sustainable economy, so the province is not continuously caught in a boom-bust cycle while the rest of the world moves away from non-renewable resources like oil and gas,” Collins told CP in an email.

The provincial Progressive Conservatives have said the deal between the two parties—and the influence it may give to the NDP—could signal the end of Bay du Nord.

Meanwhile, CP says Ottawa has put the brakes on a new call for bids on Newfoundland and Labrador offshore exploration licences. Provincial Energy Minister Andrew Parsons announced Wednesday the federal government has asked for a delay of up to 90 days, saying it needed more time for review.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson explained Thursday his department requested the time because some of the areas up for bid overlap with marine protected areas, “and the intentions around marine protected areas.”

Wilkinson told reporters there’s no reason to read anything into the delay, adding they are not unusual. However, a spokesperson for the province’s offshore oil regulator said Thursday this is the first time Ottawa has suspended a call for bids.

But Parsons said he’s unfazed by the New Democrats’ comments, adding that he expected some opposition in Ottawa—especially from the NDP—to Bay du Nord, a massive development that would see Norwegian state fossil Equinor open a new oilfield about 500 kilometres off Newfoundland’s east coast.

“I haven’t had any conversation with the feds per se on this, nor have we been given any indication that the agreement will have any effect on the decision,” he told CP yesterday. “I know we do have federal support, and I know there are obviously people in the federal scene that are against the project. That’s nothing new.”

It will ultimately fall to Guilbeault to arrive at a twice-delayed ruling on the project, determining whether Bay du Nord’s environmental impacts will be “minimal” enough for its development to proceed, CP writes. The minister first asked for more time last December to make his decision, then again in March. His ruling is now expected next month.

Alex Marland, a political science professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, said the delays with Bay du Nord indicate Ottawa is having a “really hard time with this particular issue.”

“Every political party has its kryptonite—something that splits it apart,” Marland said in an interview Thursday. For the Liberals, Marland said, their kryptonite is climate change and their desire to make meaningful headway to combat it, while facing pressure to support oil and gas.

As for the federal NDP’s power to influence the Liberals’ call on Bay du Nord, Marland noted the parties do not have a coalition government, merely an agreement. The New Democrats, he said, are not sitting around the cabinet table.

Marland said the real indication of where the federal Liberals fall on Bay du Nord can be found in their campaign promises.

“They didn’t campaign saying, ‘We are going to support the oil and gas industry,”’ he said. “They campaigned saying they were going to do something about climate change.”

The original version of this report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2022.



in Canada, Energy Politics, International Security & War, Legal & Regulatory, Oceans, Oil & Gas, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
322
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

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

RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k
Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
322
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196

Recent Posts

CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
121
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
341
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
313
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
323
Next Post
Wikimedia Commons

Fossils Must Pull Their Weight, Cut Emissions 45% This Decade, Analysts Say

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}