Wilkinson says Canada should not scrap climate policies to appease oil and gas executives

By John Woodside, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The fossil fuel industry’s call to roll back environmental policy at a time of economic crisis will hurt Canadians in the long run, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told the executives of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies Thursday.

“It is disappointing to see the CEOs of major Canadian energy companies  seemingly looking to profit from actions being taken south of the border  — to the long-term detriment of your shareholders and Canadians  generally,” Wilkinson wrote in an open letter. 

Wilkinson was responding to a letter sent to leaders  of federal parties earlier in the week from 14 executives calling for  Ottawa to declare a national energy crisis, the way president Donald  Trump has done south of the border, to fast-track major new fossil fuel  infrastructure that would push global emissions higher. 

Specifically,  the executives want to see major projects approved within six months of  filing an application, a commitment from the federal government to  abandon industrial carbon pricing and its promised cap on oil and gas  pollution, and for Ottawa to increase the amount of loans it is willing  to backstop for Indigenous groups who want to invest in new oil and gas  projects.

Wilkinson wrote it was “truly disappointing” to see the companies’ about-face on environmental issues.

“After  spending millions of dollars over the past few years speaking to your  sector’s commitment to environmental sustainability — you arrive here,”  he wrote.

The  companies Wilkinson was responding to include pipeline giants Enbridge,  TC Energy, South Bow and Pembina Pipeline as well as major oil and gas  producers like Imperial Oil, Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources, MEG  Energy, Cenovus Energy, Tourmaline Oil, Strathcona Resources, Arc  Resources, Veren and Whitecap Resources. 

In  the letter, Wilkinson notes that some of the executives who now want to  repeal industrial carbon pricing publicly supported the policy less  than a year ago. In June, Suncor CEO Rich Kruger said he supports a  price on carbon because “I believe that will drive the innovation, the  economic incentives on all of our part to continue to improve our  business.” 

“In the past, there were some  who questioned the sincerity of you and other oil and gas sector  executives when they said they were truly committed to addressing carbon  emissions,” Wilkinson wrote. “These observers will be emboldened today  as a result of your letter’s call to eliminate the industrial carbon  price.”

The measures the oil and gas  industry wants to see are nearly identical to a list of demands shared  by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with Prime Minister Mark Carney this  week. But Smith went a step further, saying her demands must be met  within the first six months of the next government’s term or risk an  “unprecedented national unity crisis.” 

Smith’s “specific list of demands”  includes measures that benefit the oil and gas industry by removing  rules designed to lower emissions and build a more sustainable economy.  Her demands include:

• Guaranteeing Alberta is able to export oil and gas to the north, east and west;
• Repealing federal environmental assessment laws;
• Lifting a ban on tankers of a certain size off British Columbia’s coast;
• Abandoning the oil and gas emissions cap, which she falsely insisted “is a production cap”;
• Scrapping clean electricity rules;
• Ending a ban on single use plastic products;
• Ending sales mandates for electric vehicles;
• Removing the federal industrial carbon price;
• Ditching anti-greenwashing rules

Carney’s  office did not return a request for comment about his meeting with  Smith. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre called the demands  “very reasonable” at a campaign announcement Friday.

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi  said Smith’s threat of a national unity crisis is “childish” and  “juvenile” and will fail to win concessions from the federal government.

If  the premier wants to keep threatening a national unity crisis, she  should call a referendum on Alberta separation and resign if it fails,  he said.

Janetta McKenzie, oil and gas  program director at the Pembina Institute clean energy think tank, said  the executives’ letter is based on the premise that “doubling down on  oil and gas is the thing that can meet this moment.”

She  said it doesn’t recognize that trading partners like the European Union  and United Kingdom have placed emissions standards on their oil and gas  imports. She added oil and gas demand is likely to peak in the 2030s. 

“This  moment absolutely calls for decisive action, but we need to be  strategic and responsible about which projects and industries are  developed,” she said. 

Only three of the  world’s biggest economies don’t have a national price on carbon: the  United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia, McKenzie said. 

“Do we want to follow the United States in a race to the bottom when it comes to environmental and climate regulation?”

-With files from the Canadian Press

John Woodside / Canada’s National Observer / Local Journalism InitiativeNews Value: 4Canada’s National Observer799 wordsMetadataSluglineLJI-ON-Wilkinson-Responds-Oil-ExecutivesSubjectOntarioAlbertaClimate/climate changeOil&GasPolitics