<div dir='auto'><div dir="auto">I can't speak to the details of the piece but
the tone is, in my view, accurate. <div dir="auto">First,
governments that last four years or less do not have a sense of
transition. Ok, so burning petroleum, a limited resource, may not be the
most sustainable plan. Given the climate changing it may not even be
smart. However, society cannot change direction that quickly.
The real issue is not if we should move to a sustainable energy mix but
how and when we get there-- with realistic understanding of the challenges and
the time it takes to solve those challenges. Ultimately we need hydrocarbons
for manufacturing so there will always be a market and the energy
"solution" will likely be a mix of technologies.</div><div dir="auto">Second,
we are painting ourselves into a cultural corner. We are becoming a
society in which single or small groups of individuals are allowed to stop
almost any action. When the St. Lawrence Seaway was created a number of
towns along the old shoreline were flooded and the people re-located. Not
pleasant for them, but ultimately a major economic driver for many decades
now. Could that happen today? I don't think so. No longer " for the
greater good" we have the social intimidation media, the grade three level
sound bite and what appears to be socially acceptable aggression and
violence. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div
dir="auto">...Jim</div></div><div><br><div class="elided-text">On Jun. 27, 2022
3:09 p.m., Peter Aylen <peter.aylen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:<br
type="attribution"><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 0.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc
solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div>
<p>I wondered what others opinion is on this.</p>
<p> </p>
<div>
<p> <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">The
West’s own myopia led us to this energy crisis</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">Konrad
Yakabuski, Globe and Mail. June 24.22</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p> <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">The Group
of Seven summit that begins Sunday in Germany will be all about fossil fuels
amid a global energy crisis unseen in nearly five decades. The G7 leaders will
talk
a lot about the need to ramp up production of oil and gas in order to address
energy shortages, and rates of inflation, that are making the 2020s look a lot
like the 1970s.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">Once
again, war has served as the catalyst for a crisis whose underlying causes have
to do with the complacency of Western governments in the face of shifting
geopolitical
dynamics. The Arab oil embargo against countries that supported Israel during
the 1973 Yom Kippur War caught the world flat-footed. Unfortunately, the
painful lessons of that era had been forgotten or dismissed in favour of the
West’s “clean-energy” orthodoxy
by the time Russia invaded Ukraine in February.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">In the
years leading up to the invasion, Western European politicians allowed their
countries to become increasingly dependent on Russian natural gas because they
considered
it the lesser of two evils. The alternative was importing North American
liquefied natural gas (LNG) derived from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Besides, they insisted, it was only a matter of time before abundant wind and
solar power, and electric cars,
would eliminate the need for all fossil fuels.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif">Policy-makers in Canada made much the same call. At one time, more than
a dozen proposals for LNG export terminals were on the drawing board in this
country. Instead of
incentivizing their construction in the name of exporting LNG to favour a
transition away from much-dirtier coal in China and Europe, and reducing energy
dependence on authoritarian and undemocratic regimes, Ottawa erected additional
barriers to their realization.
The result is that only one such project is now under construction, and it
still faces major hurdles before it is up and running.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">Well,
guess what? Europe’s scramble to displace Russian gas has led U.S. LNG
producers to divert their limited supplies from China to Europe. Beijing has
responded by replacing
gas with coal, ordering the country’s coal mines to ramp up production of the
fossil fuel that already supplied 60 per cent of China’s electricity before the
invasion of Ukraine. China has also moved to import more low-quality coal from
Indonesia and Mongolia,
meaning it needs to burn more of the stuff just to produce the same amount of
electricity that came from using higher-quality thermal coal.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">Germany,
meanwhile, is poised to ration power and restart idled coal plants as Russia
cuts off its supply of natural gas. Russia blames the 60-per-cent reduction in
gas
flowing to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Western sanctions that
prevent the return of a turbine under repair by the Canadian unit of Siemens
Energy. But German economy minister Robert Habeck rejects that excuse, saying
Russia is squeezing its gas
supply “as a weapon against Germany.”</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">U.S.
President Joe Biden, who as a White House candidate vowed to make Saudi Arabia
a “pariah” state, is set to visit that country next month to appeal to leaders
there
to increase oil production to help drive down crude prices that have sent the
cost of gasoline to more than US$5 a gallon at the pump. Such grovelling might
have been partially avoided had former president Barack Obama, under whom Mr.
Biden served as vice-president,
not vetoed the Keystone pipeline in 2015.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">This
week, Mr. Biden’s Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, pooh-poohed the idea of
resuscitating Keystone in case, you know, this energy crisis goes on for a
while. “I don’t
see it as a short-term measure to address the current situation,” she said
after meeting in Toronto with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who insisted
she had raised the matter privately with her U.S. counterpart. “And longer
term, we remain committed to
our climate-change objectives.”</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">Except
that, in focusing too narrowly on those objectives, the West has allowed Mr.
Putin and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to wield too much
power over
the global energy market.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">It would
be a mistake to assume this current crisis is a temporary setback in the midst
of a transition to non-carbon-emitting energy sources that is already under way.
Rather, it may be a taste of what’s to come unless the West puts energy
security on an equal footing with global warming. Allowing thugs and autocrats
to hold the West hostage should not be the price to pay for cutting global
carbon emissions.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">Surging
fossil fuel prices have filled Russia’s coffers, allowing President Vladimir
Putin to claim that sanctions against his country have backfired. “Gloomy
predictions
about Russia’s economy didn’t come true,” he said last week. “European
countries dealt a blow to their own economy all on their own.”</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' , serif">That
comment is only partly true. But that it has any truth at all is a testament to
the West’s energy myopia.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p> <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'times new roman' ,
serif"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
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</div>
</blockquote></div><br></div></div>
