A Free-Market Energy Blog

Energy Warring in Canada: Free Market Capitalism, Anyone?

By Dave Harbour -- March 14, 2016

“Those rejecting just and reasonable (i.e. ‘rule of law’) fossil-fuel decision-making in the name of ‘climate change, global warming, an ‘”abundance of caution'” or other alibis’, are either ignorant of the realities laid out above or treacherously aware of their effort to undermine the public interest in pursuit of their own accumulation of power.”

In a recent Calgary Herald editorial, Chris Nelson takes on the Quebec hypocrites and enviroactivists stonewalling TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Project, a 2,858-mile pipeline that would carry 1.1-million barrels/day of crude oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Eastern Canada. Part of the project converts TransCanada’s underutilized natural gas facilities to oil.

Here we stand: the powers out of Quebec have decided to block a market-supported oil pipeline to Alberta, and Edmonton could retaliate by banning Alberta from buying British Columbia’s excess electricity until the national government reverses its pipeline obstructionism.

“We’re dealing with political poker playing experts,” explains Nelson, “and they’ve just tossed another bunch of chips into the pot while we play Go Fish at a separate table, despite our economy being in play.”

Post-Keystone XL Politics

We Americans saw the environmental lobbies on both sides of the North American border team up with a politically motivated U.S. Administration to destroy TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline project — along with hundreds of thousands of jobs. This is the tip of the iceberg, even tossing in activist success against Shell’s Alaska OCS exploration.

Who can deny that the wolves are becoming increasingly successful at breaching the ramparts to destroy fossil energy projects and capitalism itself? Yes, the rampaging, fundraising, grant seeking wolves of environmental imperialism are circling North American wealth producing, private enterprises … for a reason.

As those well-coordinated community organizers succeed, they reduce free enterprise opposition to their control.  Capitalism is under assault, being dismantled little by little without notice by an unaware, too trusting populace.

Eliminating traditional free enterprise opposition further fortifies captains of the enviro-industrial-governmental cabalsustaining:

1) Their power.

2) The bureaucratic growth of entitled hordes that vote for them.

3) The steady march toward total socialist control over the means, allocation, marketing and distribution of wealth.

Freedom and Prosperity, Anyone?

The very foundation of North American wealth is fossil fuel energy exploration, development, transportation and marketing.  It is superior to all other economic endeavors, being critical to commercial fishing, timber industries, coal and hard rock mining, manufacturing, education, construction, transportation, retailing, tourism and national defense … and, even government enterprises.

Remember, too, that alternate energy schemes depend on fossil fuel to sustain their own operations when the wind doesn’t blow and the skies are dark.

Take wind generation; it depends on commodities mined from the ground, and is transported, erected and maintained with fossil energy; and hydro-energy requires dams and manufactured generation derived from mining the ground with fossil energy; and solar energy depends on mining, manufacturing, transportation and installation of its complex apparatus — courtesy of fossil fuels.

Please: Do not allow our less studied friends to believe that electric cars obtain energy from electric batteries or a garage wall plug; for, the electricity source is dependent — along with every component of the car — on fossil fuel energy and/or petrochemical support, even if part of it comes from fossil enabled nuclear or geothermal sources.

And never forget the essential role fossil energy plays in supporting consumer interests: maintaining 24-hour security of power generation and space heating/cooling supplies, at the lowest costs.

Virtually all of the high-cost energy alternatives at some point in their life spans require consumer and fossil fuel taxes to subsidize or otherwise protect their development and/or monopoly markets.  Come on.  Is that fair, just, reasonable — or intelligent?

Conclusion

Those rejecting just and reasonable (i.e. “rule of law”) fossil fuel decision making in the name of “climate change, global warming, an ‘abundance of caution’ or other alibis”, are either ignorant of the realities laid out above or treacherously aware of their effort to undermine the public interest in pursuit of their own accumulation of power.

To not embrace the logic and reality of these facts is to support the destruction of North America’s way of life and freedom itself.

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