Even as fossil fuel corporations have record profits at their back, it is the federal government largely underwriting the expansion of oil and gas development, while removing barriers intended to protect the public interest and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, clean energy has landed as a viable, scalable alternative, suggesting Canada wants to become the wrong kind of energy superpower.
If anything, President Trump’s Iran war, and the vulnerability of supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, has also changed the calculus for Asian countries—upon whose purchases future Canadian oil and gas growth depends—to invest heavily in renewable technologies to become more self-reliant. Even before the Iran war, this overhang of uncertainty explains why no private sector proponent wants to build the pipeline given its massive price tag.
Canada shifting into full-blown petro state mode is painful to watch for those of us who’ve been working on clean energy and climate policy for (in my case, 17!) years. How much of the future must we sacrifice for the sake of the present? The real lost opportunity is that this massive fiscal effort could alternatively transition Canada to a fully renewable, circular economy, build housing for all and make other investments that would raise our collective standard of living.