The Trans Mountain Pipeline and the Great Distraction

I haven't written much about pipelines because quite frankly I got pipelined out during the Harper years.

And also because I have always considered the fuss over the Trans Mountain pipeline to be just a distraction from the real war on climate change.

But now that a court has halted that project.

I just want to say that I couldn't be more delighted for the following reasons.



(1) It's a victory for some First Nations and can restore their faith in the law, which is vitally important in a country like ours.

(2) Now that the pipeline has been taken off the front burner, and will probably linger in the courts again for years, we can get serious about climate change, stop blaming governments and hopefully take a harder look at our own behaviour.

For while I'm personally opposed to any new pipelines, and wish the oil sands could be magically closed down tomorrow, people need to understand that in the grand scheme of things they are only part of the problem.

As even the leader of the BC Greens once admitted. 

Before Andrew Weaver became leader of the B.C. Greens, when he was a University of Victoria climate scientist, he crunched the numbers and found that burning all of Alberta’s oil sands “would be almost undetectable” on a global scale.

But while that's a problem that will soon take care of itself as the demand for oil falls steadily all over the world, what we need to do is concentrate on a far greater problem, our failure to green our economy.

In a country where political leaders have managed to make the essential tool for doing that, a carbon tax, a bad word. 

And the greed of Canadians allows them to get away with it.

You know, when I was in Scotland a couple of months ago I took this picture from a roadside restaurant on the way to Aberdeen...



And there are thousands of those giant turbines all over the highlands, and out at sea.

They don't ruin the beauty of the countryside as you can see from this view from my village.



For even though there are at least a dozen on the mountain ridge in the distance, you can hardly see them.

And that's not all, there are also underwater turbines, hydro power dams, solar power farms, and new wave and tidal power projects like this one.

Which together have placed Scotland within striking distance of powering the country entirely with green power, even though the country has oil.

Meanwhile in Canada, politicians like Doug Ford are tearing down wind farms and scrapping hundreds of renewable energy projects.

And although gas prices are about one third the price they are in Scotland, the owners of Canada's 25-million cars wail like babies if their cheap gas goes up five cents a litre.

And when the Mayor of Toronto tried to put a two-dollar toll on this highway leading into Toronto...



They screamed so loudly the Premier of the province squashed the idea.

As for our public transportation networks, they are practically third world because nobody wants to pay for improvements.

So in a country groaning with greed, it's so much easier to blame governments for pipelines instead of taking a hard look at our own behaviour.

Even though our failure to green our economy is the biggest threat to our future.

(3) While all of the above is incredibly depressing, the political effects of today's pipeline decision will have some positive effects.

For although it almost certainly means the end of Rachel Notley and her NDP, sadly she's now part of the problem. 

Justin Trudeau stuck his neck out to help her, and if that is how she repays him she deserves what she gets.

And while her replacement Jason Kenney will no doubt stomp his tiny feet and rage like a rabid ground hog when he becomes Premier, he will find it hard to use a court decision to take Alberta out of Canada.  

He will have to content himself with making life miserable, or more expensive, for people who live in B.C., and the rest of us should be able to ignore him.

But most importantly, by taking the pipeline issue off the front burner today's decision will make it a lot easier for Justin Trudeau and his Liberals.

For it's important to remember that Trudeau's position, is one that is favoured by most Canadians.



And that a great number of them, even in B.C., have no strong views one way or the other.



And that while activists on both sides may make a lot of noise, most Canadians are pragmatic.

They increasingly want governments to do more to tackle climate change. They see logic in pricing carbon. But the same folks also see value in continuing to gain economic benefit from the carbon resources we have, including building infrastructure to move the product to markets that need it.

So once the protests have died down, and more Canadians understand that the government bought a revenue generating pipeline not a white elephant, the issue should fade from the news.

It will then be easier to educate people about the need for a carbon tax without having to worry about that great distraction.

And since Trudeau is the only leader aggressively pushing a carbon tax, the probability of another Liberal majority will become even greater...



Only in Canada eh?

Oil may be a curse, we're all heading for a rude awakening.

But one day a pipeline decision is a problem.

The next day it's a winner...