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There is an alternative to trying to pipeline our way out of Trump’s crisis
Workers lay pipe during construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. (File Photo: Trans Mountain @TransMtn/X)
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The leaders of three major federal political parties have raised the prospect of resurrecting failed pipeline projects such as Energy East and Northern Gateway, which were once intended to carry oil from the Alberta oilsands to our two coasts.
Pierre Poilievre has outright committed to building a pipeline from Alberta to New Brunswick. Mark Carney has put both pipelines on the table and Jagmeet Singh says they could be acceptable under certain circumstances.
In the context of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war, it makes sense for Canada to reassess our energy needs and plan for energy independence. But it makes zero sense to expand oil and gas infrastructure in the midst of growing worldwide climate chaos, especially when we have clean, affordable, job-creating alternatives.
We must use the current crisis to wean ourselves off fossil fuels.
The next federal government should invest in green infrastructure, energy and transportation, as well as health care and other social services, while providing relief for workers hit hard by the trade war. This will both help people today and build a sustainable future.
Whatever reasoning politicians and industry officials use to whip up pro-pipeline sentiment – such as meeting domestic needs or exporting to international markets – none stand up to scrutiny.
We’re already on a green path
Domestically, we won’t need to be flooded with oil and gas in the near future because we’re already on a green trajectory and can smoothly complete the transition with readily available technologies. As well, it would take 10 years to build these pipelines – too late to address current needs.
Rather than using oil for gasoline and diesel fuel, we can further embrace electric vehicles (EVs) and invest in extensive green public transportation systems, such as an east-west high-speed rail link which would take cars off the road.
In the place of burning gas or oil to heat the air and water in our buildings, we can hasten the switch to clean alternatives such as electric heat pumps.
To power all of these alternatives, we can replace all gas-fired power plants with renewable sources such as wind and solar, pairing them with existing battery storage technologies that allow the energy to be used anytime. These clean solutions are ready to be deployed today.
They are better economically too. Wind and solar are now the lowest-cost new source of electricity generation. The cost of using renewable energy on the consumer side is lower than the fossil fuel options. The price of EVs is now almost on a par with gasoline-powered versions while the cost to run them is lower than their gas-guzzling counterparts.
It’s a similar story for heat pumps, which are falling in price and cost much less to operate than gas or oil furnaces. All of these more modern technologies also provide stable prices, whereas natural gas and gasoline prices are volatile in response to geopolitical events.
Eliminating the use of gas for building heating and electricity generation would go a long way in decreasing our use of the fuel. Getting off of gasoline and diesel for transportation would do the same for our consumption of oil.
We can also decrease the industrial use of gas, which represents more than half of its use in Canada. The largest gas-consuming province is Alberta and the biggest chunk of its use there is for powering oil extraction in the oilsands. Decrease oilsands production and you’ve significantly diminished the need for gas. Other industries can do a lot to reduce fossil fuel reliance as well.
By making smart commitments now, we won’t need a large amount of fossil fuels in the future and we certainly don’t need to dig more out of the ground just to send overseas.
Currently, almost all of our crude oil exports go to the U.S. and a big chunk of natural gas does too. This is clearly an export-oriented enterprise.
Global demand for oil is already waning
With the current trade war uncertainty, fossil fuel producers are now looking for international markets other than the United States. But global demand for oil is thought to be on the decrease and is already waning in China and Europe, which are the supposed export targets for the pipelines in question.
The world is rightly moving towards clean energy. So, the only beneficiaries of fossil fuel extraction and export are industry executives and wealthy investors. In 2023, the net income of Canada’s oil and gas companies was $37 billion. These companies are largely foreign-owned, particularly by American entities.
Pipeline construction creates relatively few and only temporary jobs. Jobs in the extractive process are also limited and mostly in the construction phase. We can generate many more good jobs in the green sector.
Oil and gas projects also often undermine Indigenous rights and sovereignty while harming traditional lands.
Oilsands projects, for example, destroy vast swaths of ecosystems and poison people who live nearby. As well, the pipelines that transport the fuels that are produced are prone to spills, fires and explosions with adverse environmental impacts on communities across the country.
Fossil fuel extraction also has detrimental effects on our climate goals. Oil and gas production is responsible for the largest portion – one-third – of Canada’s overall emissions. The oilsands are the single biggest contributor.
Now, fossil fuel companies are trying to use the tariff crisis to open the door to even more extraction and more pipelines, resulting in additional pollution and destruction.
Enbridge says it could be open to revisiting the Northern Gateway project if the federal government were to scrap the oil and gas emissions cap, environmental assessments and the industrial carbon price.
But some scholars and experts have shown that the pipeline projects are not economically viable under any circumstances. Perhaps that is why industry backers are calling for the federal government to step in once more with taxpayers’ money to build the pipelines.
We should not again go down the path of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which cost an eye-watering $34 billion of taxpayers’ money. New pipelines could also end up being stranded assets, which would result in wasted and possibly additional costs from public coffers.
Instead of temporarily propping up fossil fuel profits, public funds should go toward developing important infrastructure and creating more jobs. This includes building a green manufacturing sector, training people to enter it, constructing affordable green housing, investing in public and electric transportation, and building east-west electricity transmission lines.
Investing in health care and other social services would also create new jobs while ensuring people are getting the support they need in these turbulent times. Most urgently, we need to allocate public funds to provide relief to workers who are being impacted by the tariff war.
Rather than reviving unnecessary pipelines, let’s use this moment as a wakeup call to get ready for the future and build a sustainable, resilient and just society.
This article first appeared on Policy Options and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
