DEMIAN NEWMAN Are you OKAY with the crushing blow to the Canadian economy, because your heartfelt belief is that the Canadian oil and gas industry is so environmentally bad for the planet. You are the person I desperately want to have a conversation with
Dear fellow Canadians,
I’m writing this as an open letter to every
Canadian who has protested the Canadian oil and gas industry. I’m writing this
to ask – what if you win? What if you succeed and completely shut down Canada’s
oil and gas industry? What happens next?
Obviously, if you’ve ever marched, protested
or argued against Canadian pipelines or oilsands, you must believe that you are
financially insulated from the hundreds of billions this industry puts into the
Canadian economy. Or you are OK with the crushing blow to the Canadian economy,
because your heartfelt belief is that the Canadian oil and gas industry is
so environmentally bad for the planet.
These are the people I desperately want to
have a conversation with.
I write this letter, not as a Calgarian,
Albertan, or even as a Canadian. But I write this as a human being. A human
being with two young children, and one who doesn’t go a day without being
concerned about how we’re leaving this planet.
So, let’s say that all the anti-Canadian
pipeline and oilsands campaigns finally crippled this industry, to a point it
can’t rebound. Which feels like a real possibility these days. But what is
not just a possibility, but a reality, is that Canadians without their own oil
and gas industry would still consume the same amount of energy.
And as Canadians continue to consume 1.5
million barrels of oil per day, the amount we need to import from foreign
countries would rise from the current 56%, to 100%. And as completely confused
as I already am that we currently import 850,000+ barrels of oil per day, while
having the 4th largest reserves in the world. I have absolutely no idea how
anyone can think importing an additional 650,000 barrels a day is better
for Canada or the environment?
Let’s start with where it’s coming from, with
Canada importing 61% from the US, 12% from Saudi Arabia, 6% from
Azerbaijan, 5% from Norway, and 4% from Nigeria. I’m going to skip past each of
these countries environmental, safety, employee and human rights track records,
as there’s no point defacing them when Canada’s oil and gas industry is the
world leader in all of these. And I’ll expand on this later, but I thought for
arguments sake, we can pretend all these countries have the same standards as
Canada.
How could it possibly be more environmentally
positive to drill oil in the Middle East, pipeline it to their ports, tanker it
10,000+kms across the ocean, and then deliver it to Canada? Remembering that we
have it right here.
So, you’ve won, and there’s no more of
what you believe is “dirty oil”. And now we’re importing an additional 650,000
barrels a day into Canada. Let’s not forget, that the 5% of the world’s
oil production which Canada currently produces daily, would need to be
replaced, or prices would inflate and everyone across the globe would have to
pay more at the pumps. And more for the 1,000’s of items manufactured from oil.
But don’t worry about the extra cost, as no
other country has an anti oil industry campaign against them, that has stopped
or slowed them down like Canada has. And with technology getting better every
day, Canada’s 5% worldwide production amounts will be easily replaced.
And let’s go full circle to the Canadian’s
protesting new Canadian pipeline projects. If we eliminate our own industry,
and we’re importing 650,000 extra barrels of oil daily, we’ll have no other
choice but to build new pipelines and facilities to bring this additional oil
from the US pipelines and foreign tankers.
So, wouldn’t that be an ironic punch in the
face. Where Canadians protesting Canadian owned and operated pipelines, end up
shutting down all the investment it takes to move Canadian resources through
Canadian pipelines. Just so we are forced to build pipelines and facilities to
move more foreign oil into Canada.
How they’ve done it, by spending hundreds of millions on PR campaigns to smear Canada’s industry, and pitting us against each other, is beyond is infuriating
And I mentioned that we’d pretend all countries
have the same environmental requirements and standards when exploring and
developing their natural resources. But it isn’t even close.
You can Google articles with examples of
Canada’s environmental standards in this industry, versus any other country.
But instead, do yourself a favor and ask someone who’s worked in Canada’s oil-patch, and around the world. Every one of them has countless stories of
horrendous environmental issues abroad, which haven’t been allowed in Canada in
30+years (or ever).
So, let’s look at what Canada’s environmental
standards are for this industry. And by that, I mean you should go look it up.
Don’t take my word for it, but find some reputable publications and factual
documents, and not someone’s rambling blog.
Look it up, and please let me know if I’m
wrong. Because as much as I needed to write this letter, to get a few things
off my chest. I also wrote it, as I believe everyone needs to do better at
having a conversation about climate change, the environment, and our responsibility
to all do better.
So, I welcome the opposing opinion, as I
don’t know why this topic has become a name calling divisive shouting match,
where no one will listen to the other side.
But while I have you here, I did want to
throw out a couple specific projects, and how protesting them doesn’t make any
environmental sense to me. One is Energy East, and the other is BC LNG.
The first one is dead, but my fingers are crossed that it can be revived. The
second is still approved, for now.
If you look at a map of Canadian pipelines,
there is no major pipeline going from Alberta to the east coast of Canada. This
means that almost every drop of gas in every vehicle east of Winnipeg is from
refined foreign oil. The amount of oil that would’ve traveled on the Energy
East pipeline is almost the same amount of oil that we import from Saudi Arabia
every day (roughly 100,000 barrels a day).
But what if we didn’t protest Energy East,
and instead told the Premier of Quebec that he cannot block a national
pipeline. Eastern Canadians would’ve paid (at a minimum) $10-$15 less per
barrel than they are currently paying for Canadian oil versus foreign oil. But
there were also the billions (not millions, but billions) in revenue that each
province would receive from this pipeline running oil through their province.
And I know we’re focusing on the environment,
and not the financial benefits of Canada’s oil and gas industry. But, the trick
with clean energy and technology, is that it takes money to develop and get to
market. So, I could be wrong, but I’m almost certain that not one oil company
would’ve been upset if Quebec hadn’t killed this pipeline, but instead, took
their multi billions a year in revenue from it, and invested all of it into new
clean energy technology.
Another thing I encourage you to Google, is
the amount of new clean energy technology that has been developed by, and for,
Canada’s oil and gas industry.
So, Energy East would’ve taken the amount of
Canadian oil, which they are already buying from foreign countries, while
generating a ton of money for Canada, and Canadians. And then that money could’ve
been invested into renewable green energy development. But Climate Change is a world-wide
problem, not just a Canadian one. So, as crazy as this might sound, I do believe
that BC building facilities to ship Canadian liquid natural gas (LNG) to the
world, could have an incredibly positive carbon emissions net benefit.
Currently, China alone has over 700 super
coal plants. Just one of them emitting almost as much CO2 as the entire
Canadian oil-sands (this is easy to look up). So, what if we could help China
get their energy from Natural Gas instead of Coal, as it’s WAY better for the
environment. (Side note – also look up Natural Gas and its carbon footprint, as
I find very few people realize that it has been unfairly lumped in as a dirty
fossil fuel).
And very quickly, I would like to address how
we got here in the first place. Why is the perception of Canada’s oil and gas
industry so bad across the rest of Canada?
The industry really must start by looking
inward, as it has done a very poor job of promoting itself and the strides it’s
made over the years. And it can still improve. As can all of us individually.
Because who outside of the industry knows
that the oil-sands greenhouse gas emissions have dropped 29% since 2000. Or that
a barrel of oil sent from the oil-sands to a refinery on the US Golf Coast has a
smaller carbon foot print than a barrel of oil traveling from an oil well in
California (it’s small difference, but it’s still better).
And to understand why it’s tough for this
industry to promote itself – it is Canadian after all, which explains a lot
about its uncomfortable feelings towards self-promotion. And I’ve met a ton of
extremely intelligent and thoughtful engineers, geologists, accountants, and
tradespeople in this industry, but I’ve never met a Public Relations person –
and if there is one, they are very underfunded.
Who is not underfunded, are the groups who
make an extraordinary amount of money from Canada not being able to get its
natural resources to other customers -- the US is our biggest customer at 99%,
which is a percentage no business can survive with. And you can’t blame these
people for making money off Canada’s inability to build pipelines. But how they’ve
done it, by spending hundreds of millions on PR campaigns to smear Canada’s
industry, and pitting us against each other, is beyond is infuriating.
If you only look up one item, please do some research on how openly organizations have been about making donations in the name of the environment, which only target one country’s oil industry. This has made a lot of headlines lately, but I’ve read national Canadian media articles investigating this as far back as 2010.
In conclusion, I would like to point out that
I tried my best to use as few statistics as possible, as I’ve seen arguments
get derailed with debates on stats. As if the $80 million that Canada losses
every day due to no pipeline capacity, is any different if its $40 million or
$100 million. It’s a lot of millions, that have turned into billions. And it’s
costing hundreds of thousands of good hardworking Canadians financial hardship.
And if it saves the environment, and the
planet, then there certainly is an argument for it. But if it’s not helping at
all, and potentially harming the planet. Then everyone needs to get educated on
all the facts and start to talk to each other about a real solution. And get
our industries, politicians, and every Canadian on board with a solution that
works.
And please, please, please, don’t take your
information from this subject off some rogue website, that’s for or against my
stance. Take the time to get your facts from vetted and fact checked
publications.
No one should get their facts from a nameless
person shouting on the internet. So, my name is Demian Newman, and the two kids
I’m leaving this planet to are Olivia and Liam. And both of them need to grow
up in a country which is thriving as a world leader, both economically and
environmentally – as anything less would be un-Canadian.
Sincerely,
Demian Newman
P.S. If you don’t have time to look up
information on everything I’ve mentioned above. Here are a few links:
This first one is on personal energy use and
personal accountability. Fun fact: If each of us does a better job to minimize
our individual carbon footprint, the industries selling it won’t need to
produce as much. Scary fact: literally every economist has said we will use
more energy each and every year. This article does a good job expanding on
that…
- https://www.c2cjournal.ca/2018/12/03/we-have-met-the-carbon-enemy-and-he-is-us/
- https://energyminute.ca/
- https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/oil-sands/18091
- http://www.ethicaloil.org/news/myth-busting-are-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-the-oilsands-ruining-the-atmosphere/
- https://www.aboutpipelines.com/en/blog/what-you-know-about-pipelines-and-the-environment-might-be-wrong/?
- https://ipolitics.ca/2014/07/18/how-clean-is-our-dirty-oil-youd-be-surprised/
- http://www.stockhouse.com/opinion/independent-reports/2018/04/02/following-big-us-money-behind-canadian-pipeline-protests
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