An analysis of how the fossil fuel industry shapes political movements in Alberta to resist climate action and carbon pricing. The piece examines the failure of federal appeasement strategies, including the costly Trans Mountain pipeline, and the rise of petro-populism. It explores the economic impact of global oil price shocks on Canadians and argues that corporate interests, often foreign-owned, drive the separatist narrative to protect windfall profits and avoid emissions regulations.
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The cycle here is clear. Federal governments try to trade carbon pricing concessions for regional stability, but the incentive for the oil lobby is to keep moving the goalposts. When the policy goal is emissions reduction, these deals usually just subsidize the status quo.
True, but the real risk is the infrastructure lock-in. Every billion spent on new bitumen pipelines is capital that does not go into grid modernization or storage. Does anyone have the actual projected capacity for the new pipeline mentioned?
Basically saying that throwing money at the oil industry to keep them quiet does not actually stop them from fighting climate policy. The Trans Mountain example is a pretty brutal reminder of what happens when taxpayers fund private industry risk.
Exactly. It is a bad trade. We lose the climate progress and we still get the political instability. The point about foreign ownership is the one that usually gets missed in these debates.
