tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/oil-sands-13009/articlesOil sands – The Conversation2023-05-07T12:38:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2035702023-05-07T12:38:08Z2023-05-07T12:38:08ZAs Alberta’s oilsands continue leaking toxic wastewater, aquatic wildlife face new risks<p>Three months ago, <a href="https://www1.aer.ca/compliancedashboard/enforcement/202302-02_Imperial%20Oil%20Resources%20Limited_Kearl_Order.pdf">5.3 million litres of industrial wastewater was reported to have overflowed from an Imperial Oil storage pond</a> into a muskeg and forested area. This industrial wastewater could have filled more than two Olympic-sized swimming pools, and is now one of the largest known spills of its kind in Alberta’s history. </p>
<p>Then came news of <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/imperial-oil-kearl-aer/">a separate incident</a> where an unknown amount of industrial wastewater has been leaking from an Imperial Oil tailings pond for the last 12 months. The leakage flows underground and then resurfaces to contaminate surface waters outside the Kearl Oil Sands Processing Plant and Mine. </p>
<p>These waters flow into the Athabasca River, which is part of an important waterway that supports communities in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. In addition to its significance to the Indigenous communities here, this waterway also provides crucial habitats for endangered wildlife species.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.imperialoil.ca/en-ca/company/operations/kearl/kearl-epo#:%7E:text=Imperial%20continues%20to%20work%20with,indication%20of%20impact%20to%20wildlife.">Imperial Oil</a> and <a href="https://www.aer.ca/providing-information/news-and-resources/news-and-announcements/announcements/announcement-february-07-2023">Alberta’s energy regulator</a> have reported no impacts on wildlife or waterways yet, the federal government believes the leaking waste is harmful to aquatic life, and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2023/03/ministers-provide-a-status-update-on-federal-action-to-address-ongoing-situation-at-kearl-oil-sands-mine.html">has ordered Imperial Oil</a> to take immediate action in preventing any further seepage of toxic water.</p>
<p>Scientists, including <a href="https://qe3research.ca/">our group at Queen’s University</a>, have been studying the chemicals in oilsand tailings ponds for decades to better understand their dangers and to protect wildlife from their effects.</p>
<h2>Fish struggle to survive in contaminated waters</h2>
<p>The mining and extraction of <a href="https://www.capp.ca/oil/what-are-the-oil-sands/">bitumen</a> — a heavy crude oil with the consistency of cold molasses — produces industrial wastewater with high concentrations of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2015-0060">several dangerous components</a>, including salts, dissolved organic compounds and heavy metals like cadmium and lead. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A fish in a hand" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521684/original/file-20230418-18-jg306z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wastewater chemicals are toxic to fathead minnows, an important prey species in the oilsands region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fathead_Minnow_(8741579480).jpg">(NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research and <a href="https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-energy-regulator-suncor-has-reported-dead-birds-at-oilsands-tailings-pond-1.6367072">real-world incidents</a> have found that oilsands wastewater is toxic to wildlife including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.06.024">mammals, fish, frogs and birds</a>.</p>
<p>A group of organic compounds, referred to as naphthenic acids, are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b02586">responsible for most of the toxicity</a> of wastewater. These compounds exist naturally in the region, but accumulate to harmful, unnatural levels in wastewater during the mining process. Despite this, environmental guidelines for “safe” naphthenic acid concentrations do not exist. </p>
<p>The concentrations of these acids in wastewater are studied to determine the extent of the threats to wildlife, and in particular to aquatic species, as their habitats are extremely susceptible to accumulating harmful pollutants.</p>
<p>Studies have found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2015.04.024">fathead minnow</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.08.022">walleye</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2005.07.009">yellow perch</a> experience increased mortality, physical deformities and reduced growth when exposed to naphthenic acids. These are all species commonly found in the oilsands region.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A researcher samples the content of tanks as a part of a field experiment" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524228/original/file-20230503-27-zpuo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524228/original/file-20230503-27-zpuo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524228/original/file-20230503-27-zpuo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524228/original/file-20230503-27-zpuo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524228/original/file-20230503-27-zpuo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524228/original/file-20230503-27-zpuo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524228/original/file-20230503-27-zpuo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A researcher samples tanks as a part of a field experiment testing the effects of oilsands wastewater on aquatic animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chloe Robinson)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one investigation, these chemicals <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2012.03.002">altered hormone levels and reduced spawning success in fish</a>. This effect could have population-level consequences in the wild. Meanwhile, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5314">in another study</a>, the fish showed reduced survival and abnormal swimming behaviours, even after being held in clean lake water for one month following a week-long exposure to sublethal levels of naphthenic acids.</p>
<p>The science clearly suggests that fish are negatively impacted by wastewater contaminants and even short-term contact can have lasting effects on animals in the affected area.</p>
<h2>Canada’s declining amphibians face new threats</h2>
<p>Amphibians are one of the most <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108022">rapidly disappearing groups of animals in Canada</a>, as their wetland habitats often face the threat of pollution, among other stressors. Research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15287394.2012.640092">wood frogs</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2012.04.002">Northern leopard frogs</a> has raised numerous concerns. </p>
<p>Like with fish, studies have found that exposure to wastewater and naphthenic acids can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15287394.2015.1074970">interfere with sexual development</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coac030">impair breeding</a> in adult frogs. Tadpoles exposed to these chemicals are more likely to die, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2023.106435">behave abnormally when escaping predators</a> and are less likely to develop into frogs.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120455">One of our studies</a> found that exposure to these chemicals can also cause developing frogs to develop striking malformations, including kinked spines and missing toes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Malformed tadpoles with missing toes and shorter limbs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521677/original/file-20230418-14-n1z16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tadpoles exposed to wastewater chemicals (right) show malformations not present in tadpoles raised in clean water (left) like shorter limbs, swollen bodies, and missing toes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chloe Robinson)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Science suggests that if pollutants reach dangerous levels due to spills, it could impair the survival and health of aquatic wildlife in affected areas. Over time, these impacts could cause wildlife population declines and even local species extinctions. Long-term monitoring will be crucial to determine the full impact of these spills.</p>
<h2>A need for transparent oilsands waste management</h2>
<p>In addition to wildlife, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-0059-6">industrial activities in the oilsands region have affected the Indigenous communities</a> over the years as well.</p>
<p>Indigenous Nations located downstream of recent oil spills in Alberta — including the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-first-nation-angry-at-imperial-s-silence-while-tailings-pond-leaked-for-9-months-1.6766007">Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation</a> and <a href="https://www.mikisewcree.ca/press-release-mcfn-sounds-alarm-bells-following-albertas-largest-oil-sands-seepage/">Mikisew Cree First Nation</a> — voiced their concern over this pollution and its impact on the plants and animals they harvest for food.</p>
<p>While these communities rely on the lands and waters near the spill, they <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/03/03/news/alberta-oilsands-spill-hidden-first-nation-act-environmental-racism">were only notified of the contamination</a> when the provincial regulator issued an <a href="https://www1.aer.ca/compliancedashboard/enforcement/202302-02_Imperial%20Oil%20Resources%20Limited_Kearl_Order.pdf">environmental protection order</a> in February.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1631392295265378304"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9601276/alberta-energy-regulator-emergency-response-kearl/">The lack of transparency and delayed responses</a> surrounding these current spills raises questions about how many undocumented incidents could be taking place every year.</p>
<p>In April, while Alberta continued to deal with the aftermath of these incidents, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/04/18/suncor-reports-release-of-water-from-sediment-pond-on-alberta-oilsands-mine.html">another 6 million litres of water</a> spilled from a Suncor settling pond into the Athabasca River. The current method of managing wastewater is neither safe nor sustainable. </p>
<p>Change is needed to ensure that economic activities do not jeopardize the environment further. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/first-nations-blast-alberta-energy-regulator-at-hearing-minister-promises-reform-1.6813307">As government, industry and Indigenous partners begin the process of building new management and monitoring plans,</a> which will likely include guidelines for <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bakx-oilsands-tailings-release-mining-effluent-regulations-1.6271537">treating and releasing oilsands wastewater back into waterways</a>, it is important that the science is not forgotten.</p>
<p>Evidence-informed policies, built on what we know about the toxic extent of wastewater, have the potential to make accidental spills, and the environmental and social injustices they perpetuate, a thing of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diane Orihel received funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada for her lab's research on the effects of oilsands contaminants on aquatic biota.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chloe Robinson received funding from Queen's University (Craigie Fellowship), and the Government of Ontario (Ontario Graduate Scholarship). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris K. Elvidge is affiliated with the Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory at Carleton University. </span></em></p>As toxic water continues to spill from tailings ponds across mining developments, decades of scientific research provides evidence of how wildlife will be affected.Diane Orihel, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology & School of Environmental Studies, Queen's University, OntarioChloe Robinson, Junior Research Associate, Experimental Ecology and Ecotoxicology Research Team, Queen's University, OntarioChris K. Elvidge, Postdoctoral Researcher in Freshwater Ecology, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2007232023-03-19T11:51:46Z2023-03-19T11:51:46ZHow images of the 2011 tsunami in Japan led me to examine connections with water in photography, sound and sculpture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515314/original/file-20230314-1506-csxvs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C134%2C2901%2C1738&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An earthquake-triggered tsunami sweeps shores along Iwanuma, Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan, March 11, 2011. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kyodo News via AP, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In everyday language when we describe something as “salient” we mean what’s most central. </p>
<p>In geography, a “salient” is a prominent feature in a landscape, like an iceberg breaking the surface of the sea. The word “salient” also has affinity with “saline”: both come from <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=saline&ref=searchbar_searchhint">the Latin word for salt</a>. </p>
<p><em>Salients</em> is also the title of an exhibit which is a <a href="https://museum.mcmaster.ca/exhibition/chris-myhr-salients/">retrospective of my artwork</a>. The exhibit brings together photography, sound and found objects from projects, developed over a decade, that revolve around our complex interrelationships with water. </p>
<p>The catalyst for this trajectory in my studio practice was the Tōhoku earthquake and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011/Aftermath-of-the-disaster">tsunami that struck the east coast of Japan in 2011</a>. </p>
<p>I lived and worked in Tokyo from 1998 to 2006, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2021/03/photos-10-years-great-east-japan-earthquake/618243">and witnessing the images of</a> what’s sometimes known as <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/01/30/national/science-health/japan-researchers-disaster-lessons/">the 3/11 disaster</a>, as well as the resulting global reverberations, led to a fundamental shift in my world view.</p>
<p>It also catalyzed a dedicated move in my research and art production toward issues surrounding water, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01969-y">complex interconnectivity</a> and the ways in which the ocean and its tributaries shape culture, industry and the collective imagination. </p>
<h2>Source of life, destruction</h2>
<p>Much of my work since Tōhoku has explored the contradiction or tension whereby
water acts not only as a constructive and generative influence — the source of all life on our planet, but also an agent of immense and unfathomable destructive power.</p>
<p>What struck me initially about images of the 3/11 tsunami was that it did not look as I had expected. Its form looked nothing <a href="https://www.katsushikahokusai.org/biography.html">like Katsushika Hokusai’s</a> iconic painting <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45434"><em>Under the Wave off Kanagawa</em></a>, also known as <em>The Great Wave</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a great wave moving toward the shore." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515310/original/file-20230314-21-bpxk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515310/original/file-20230314-21-bpxk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515310/original/file-20230314-21-bpxk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515310/original/file-20230314-21-bpxk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515310/original/file-20230314-21-bpxk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515310/original/file-20230314-21-bpxk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515310/original/file-20230314-21-bpxk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Images of the tsunami looked nothing like Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave.’</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nor did it look anything like depictions I had <a href="https://thecinemaholic.com/tsunami-movies/">seen in disaster films</a>. </p>
<p>There was no blue triangular shape, no white froth at the peak. Instead, the force of the earthquake manifested in a <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/tohoku-earthquake-and-tsunami">dark swell of water mixed with earth</a>
that advanced inland without acceleration or deceleration. </p>
<p>The wave swept across the landscape effortlessly, pulling with it crushed cars, uprooted trees and buildings, as well as unimaginable things dragged along beneath the surface.</p>
<h2>The sublime: awe, wonder, fear</h2>
<p>There was something in the affect and aesthetics of these images that positioned them for me within <a href="https://www.theartstory.org/definition/the-sublime-in-art/">the tradition of the sublime</a> — a term from Euro-western philosophical and artistic discourse that has <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime">been evolving and morphing</a> since at <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/burkes-a-philosophical-enquiry-into-the-origin-of-our-ideas-of-the-sublime-and-beautiful">least the 17th century</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=sublime">etymological roots</a> of “sublime” come from the Latin <em>sublimis</em> meaning “high up” or lofty. In the western history of visual art, the sublime is most frequently associated with the work of Romantic-era painters <a href="https://www.thecollector.com/sublime-landscape-paintings/">like Joseph Turner and Caspar Friedrich</a>. Western curators sometimes also <a href="http://www.laurencemillergallery.com/exhibitions/pursuing-the-sublime">include Hokusai when exploring the sublime</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boats surrounded by water and sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515308/original/file-20230314-21-tg7btu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515308/original/file-20230314-21-tg7btu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515308/original/file-20230314-21-tg7btu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515308/original/file-20230314-21-tg7btu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515308/original/file-20230314-21-tg7btu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515308/original/file-20230314-21-tg7btu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515308/original/file-20230314-21-tg7btu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Watercolour by Joseph Mallord William Turner, c. 1840.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Trustees of the British Museum)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These artists attempted to articulate the visceral sense of awe and wonder — slightly tinged with fear — that one experiences when gazing upon the vastness of a starry sky, or a body of water stretching from horizon to horizon. </p>
<p>The sublime points toward certain modes of aesthetic, sensory and existential experience <a href="https://www.artforum.com/print/198204/presenting-the-unpresentable-the-sublime-35606">that exceed human thought and understanding</a>.</p>
<h2>Boundless networks of co-existence</h2>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262513913/the-sublime">Contemporary theory</a> around the sublime extends the term to include machines and technology, vast networks of global communications and the internet. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gods-in-the-machine-the-rise-of-artificial-intelligence-may-result-in-new-religions-201068">Gods in the machine? The rise of artificial intelligence may result in new religions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In this sense, there is also something sublime about the ways in which the medium of water interconnects all things: it flows across borders and blurs delineations between local/global, micro/macro and human/non-human. </p>
<p>I am particularly invested in the work <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780190221911-0016">of contemporary philosophers</a> such as <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/vibrant-matter">Jane Bennett</a> and <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674064225">Timothy Morton</a> whose work challenges us to rethink the place of humans within these boundless networks of coexistence. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two images seen hanging on a white wall of rusty and calcified-looking pipes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515293/original/file-20230314-3238-9ls37o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pipes dating back to the 17th century recovered from the sea floor by historian and master diver Bob Chaulk off the coast of Nova Scotia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Myhr)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pipes, glass vessels, algae, contaminants</h2>
<p>The projects in <em>Salients</em> feature subject matter collected from four major Canadian water systems: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.chrismyhr.com/work#/vessels-between-teeth-20162018/">mariners’ pipes</a> and <a href="https://www.chrismyhr.com/work#/vessels-undertone-20162018/">glass vessels</a> dating back to the 17th century recovered <a href="https://haligonia.ca/treasure-hunter-4266/">from the sea floor</a> off the coast of Nova Scotia; </p></li>
<li><p>evaporated samples of <a href="https://www.chrismyhr.com/work#/suspensions-2018/">toxic blue-green algae</a> taken <a href="https://environment.geog.ubc.ca/algal-blooms-in-the-great-lakes-consequences-governance-and-solutions/">from blooms</a> in Lake Ontario;</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.chrismyhr.com/work#/absolutes-athabasca-river-2020-2021/">hydrocarbon sediment</a> from filtered samples of snow <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/corporate/transparency/priorities-management/evaluations/evaluation-water-quality-aquatic-ecosystems-health-program/background.html">collected by scientists</a> along the banks <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Fort-McMurray">of the Athabasca River</a> as it flows through <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/oil-sands-facts-and-statistics.aspx">the oil sands region</a> of northern Alberta;</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.chrismyhr.com/work#/absolutes-lake-erie-2020-2021/">similar contaminants</a> washing up <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Point-Pelee-National-Park">on the western shoreline of Point Pelee</a> peninsula in Lake Erie, Ont.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Seen on the wall, photographic images of circles, and a platform with a mound of lump-like black matter, and on the floor a black disc is seen sitting on a pedestal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516045/original/file-20230317-24-5ztntp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On the right, ‘Ab-Solutes: Athabasca River’ images. From a speaker on a pedestal, on the floor, can be heard underwater soundscape from beneath Lake Ontario at Hamilton Harbour, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Myhr)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nine pictures hang on a wall, some of faint blob-like images, some of dark circles; a glob-like black object seen on a platform on the wall and a black circular object is seen on a pedestal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516046/original/file-20230317-3709-yrmo5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photographs of evaporated samples of toxic algae taken from blooms in Lake Ontario, on the left, and found object sculpture consisting of ‘tar glob’ hydrocarbon sediment collected along the shoreline of Point Pelee peninsula, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Myhr)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Irreducibility of matter</h2>
<p>There are no direct representations of water in the <em>Salients</em> exhibition.
Returning to the idea of “saline,” what is seen in the exhibition is not so much the “solution” but the “salt” — stubborn matter that has refused to dissolve within the water system from which it was recovered.</p>
<p>Euro-western thinking tends to delineate between matter and energy. Yet — like energy — matter cannot be created nor destroyed. Instead, it moves and shifts from one form to another; from one location to another; <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253222404/bodily-natures/">from one body to another</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515825/original/file-20230316-22-zldz2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zeroing in on visual traces of evaporated toxic algae poses deeper questions about our relationship to the chains of events intertwining humans, nonhumans and our shared environments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Myhr)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although <em>Salients</em> images have been rendered through advanced digital imaging technologies, they ruminate not on ephemeral things like data or pixels but rather <a href="https://philosophyofmovementblog.com/2020/08/20/what-is-object-oriented-ontology-what-is-actor-network-theory-what-is-the-philosophy-of-movement">the sheer irreducibility of matter</a>. </p>
<p>Our material legacies <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/hyperobjects">will certainly outlive</a> our digital footprints. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Images hang on a wall on the left of shiny, bubble-like colour swirls, on the right, very dark images." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515316/original/file-20230314-2882-73vaqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photographs of the surfaces of glass vessels recovered from the Atlantic seafloor marked and coloured over long passages of time, and images of tar-like hydrocarbon sediment collected along the shoreline of Lake Erie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Myhr)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sublime environmental challenges</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An assymetrical black form seen surrounded by murky water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515337/original/file-20230314-2882-icqgqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Digital photograph, ‘Ab-Solutes: Lake Erie’ (Untitled C2b).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Myhr)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bitumen falling from the sky in Fort McMurray, tar globs embedded in the sand along Lake Erie and microbial <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-01/algae-blooms-visible-from-space-increased-as-climate-warmed#">algae blooms visible from space</a> gesture toward complicated and messy environmental challenges <a href="https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-09-19/humanity-and-nature-are-not-separate-we-must-see-them-as-one-to-fix-the-climate-crisis/">that will not dissolve smoothly within conventional frameworks of Euro-Western thinking</a>. </p>
<p>There is no singular cause to these effects, and there will be no silver bullet solution to these problems. </p>
<p>It will take <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276116/how-forests-think">different frameworks</a> of thinking: <a href="http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/art-in-the-anthropocene/">creative</a>, <a href="https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass">inclusive</a> and <a href="https://www.allwecansave.earth/">interdisciplinary</a> thinking to deal with these issues which — in their vertiginous complexity and sheer magnitude — most certainly border on the sublime.</p>
<p><em>‘Salients’ runs until March 24 at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ont.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The artworks in “Salients” were produced with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.</span></em></p>Images of the 2011 tsunami did not look as I had expected, and pointed to the sublime, when experience exceeds our frameworks of understanding. My exhibit ‘Salients’ treats this theme.Chris Myhr, Associate Professor, Communication Studies & Media Arts, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1828442022-05-31T13:59:20Z2022-05-31T13:59:20ZCalls for ‘ethical oil’ are pushing Canada to become a petro-state<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466100/original/file-20220530-24-egh3ab.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C5%2C3976%2C2239&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pumpjacks draw oil in a canola field near Olds, Alta. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/calls-for--ethical-oil--are-pushing-canada-to-become-a-petro-state" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has brought fossil fuels and geopolitics to the forefront of public discussion. In an effort to evade economic sanctions, Russia has weaponized its energy exports. </p>
<p>In March, President Vladimir Putin said he expects <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-putin-rubles-gas-payments-1.6403911">“unfriendly” countries — those that have imposed sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine — to pay for gas sales in rubles</a>. In May, Russia <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61237519">halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria</a> after they refused to pay in rubles. The European Union buys a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61497315">significant portion of its natural gas (40 per cent) and imported oil (27 per cent) from Russia</a>. Some analysts have said <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-energy-ministers-hold-crisis-talks-after-russian-gas-cuts-2022-05-02/">a few countries, like Germany, could see a recession if gas from Russia were completely cut off</a>. </p>
<p>The escalating energy crisis has reignited calls to increase the production and export of Canadian oil and gas to diversify Europe’s energy supply. Pro-bitumen think tanks such as <a href="https://www.canadianenergycentre.ca/yager-will-ukraines-crisis-finally-force-canada-to-rethink-its-energy-policies/">the Canadian Energy Centre</a> and <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/christian-leuprecht-canada-enables-russia-by-opposing-pipelines-and-protecting-money-launderers">the Macdonald-Laurier Institute</a> have made similar arguments accusing opposition to pipelines as dooming western countries’ energy security. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A map showing LNG terminals and pipelines in Europe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466099/original/file-20220530-26-egh3ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466099/original/file-20220530-26-egh3ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466099/original/file-20220530-26-egh3ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466099/original/file-20220530-26-egh3ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466099/original/file-20220530-26-egh3ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466099/original/file-20220530-26-egh3ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466099/original/file-20220530-26-egh3ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Imports of natural gas into Europe from both pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Associated Press)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In essence, these arguments repackage <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/ottawa-playbook/2022/03/01/the-new-ethical-oil-debate-00012659">the ethical oil rhetoric</a> that frames investment in bitumen as morally superior to oil from non-democratic regimes. But the significant expansion of bitumen infrastructure <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/03/26/jason-kenney-believes-albertas-ethical-oil-is-a-solution-to-current-crises-others-are-skeptical">comes with economic uncertainties and contradicts Canada’s COP26 commitment to decarbonization</a>. Moreover, it diverts public attention away from the inconvenient reality that Canada and Russia are petro-states that share numerous similarities in energy policy making.</p>
<h2>Oil booms and petro-states</h2>
<p>Political scientist Terry Lynn Karl introduced the idea of a petro-state in her 1997 book, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/paradox-of-plenty-oil-booms-and-petro-states/oclc/42855014"><em>The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States</em></a>. She developed the petro-state thesis to explain the inability of oil-exporting nations such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria to convert their petroleum revenues into more stable and self-sustaining economies. </p>
<p>Karl’s main insight was that a nation’s reliance on oil exports leads to economic and political problems such as weak economic growth in manufacturing sectors, vulnerability to price shocks, widespread social inequality, authoritarianism, corruption and so on.</p>
<p>Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, soaring oil prices substantially altered <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2014/10/04/oil-and-trouble">the global energy demand and supply landscape</a>. This trend considerably bolstered the oil and gas industry in countries like Canada, Norway and Russia. In response, scholars began to debate whether the petro-state thesis should <a href="https://www.cato.org/commentary/petrostates-changing-world">include them</a>, given their increasing dependence on fossil fuel revenues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a black suit speaks via microphone in front of several brightly coloured flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466101/original/file-20220530-24-i3r1j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466101/original/file-20220530-24-i3r1j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466101/original/file-20220530-24-i3r1j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466101/original/file-20220530-24-i3r1j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466101/original/file-20220530-24-i3r1j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466101/original/file-20220530-24-i3r1j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466101/original/file-20220530-24-i3r1j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Moscow on May 16, 2022, shortly before halting gas supplies to Finland, after the country refused to pay in rubles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, scholars noted that Russia is compelled to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2016.1170372">prioritize the energy sector over other economic sectors</a> due to the influence of natural gas in generating export revenues and in sustaining its geopolitical influence in Europe. This results in an economic structure that is vulnerable to energy market volatility. In 2020, record-low oil prices imposed a hefty cost on Russia, contributing to <a href="https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/gepl/files/2021/03/GEPL_Russia_2021-5.pdf">a dramatic currency depreciation and negative GDP growth for the whole year</a>.</p>
<h2>Overcome the petro-state curse</h2>
<p>Scholars have debated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07078552.2018.1536369">the extent to which Canada can be classified as a petro-state</a>. After all, energy products only account for <a href="https://energy-information.canada.ca/en/subjects/energy-and-economy">8.3 per cent of national GDP</a>, which is notably lower than typical petro-states. Nonetheless, the Canadian economy and well-known petro-state economies exhibit comparable structural vulnerabilities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A multi-level oil platform with rocky shoreline behind it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466098/original/file-20220530-14-djs6qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466098/original/file-20220530-14-djs6qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466098/original/file-20220530-14-djs6qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466098/original/file-20220530-14-djs6qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466098/original/file-20220530-14-djs6qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466098/original/file-20220530-14-djs6qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466098/original/file-20220530-14-djs6qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hebron Platform, anchored in Trinity Bay, N.L., in April 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Canada’s energy sector has struggled from declining demand, as a result of the pandemic. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador rely heavily on the energy sector, and have been hit <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2021002-eng.htm">especially hard</a>. </p>
<p>The resurgence of “ethical oil” narratives that moralize bitumen extraction and demonize critics aim to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/jcs.2019-0033">frame resource dependence as part of Canadian identity</a>. Put differently, the bitumen industry and its allies are pushing for “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.802757">petro-nationalism</a>,” which symbolically celebrates bitumen while obfuscating the unequal distributions of bitumen’s economic benefits and its environmental costs.</p>
<h2>In search of a path to net-zero</h2>
<p>Days after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tweeted, “Now if Canada really wants to help defang Putin, then let’s get some pipelines built!”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1498082201568616448"}"></div></p>
<p>However, building more pipelines to increase the Canadian economy’s reliance on fossil fuels is not the only option. Norway, whose economy is currently reliant on the oil and gas industry, is a shining example of how to overcome the petro-state curse. </p>
<p>As policy analyst Bruce Campbell has written, instead of the denial, delay and division that characterizes current Canadian climate policy, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/norway-wealth-fund-push-firms-have-net-zero-targets-government-says-2022-04-01/">Norway’s path to net-zero</a> is built on climate action, close collaboration with labour unions and NGOs and strong government leadership in collecting and redistributing energy revenues. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-norway-leads-and-canada-lags-on-climate-action-153179">5 ways Norway leads and Canada lags on climate action</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If Canada is truly concerned about becoming a moral energy producer, then our public conversations need to focus on exploring immediate policy actions aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector and planning for its phaseout.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sibo Chen receives funding from Toronto Metropolitan University and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Calls to export Canadian oil and gas to Europe are repackaging ethical oil rhetoric. But Canada and Russia share similarities in energy policy making.Sibo Chen, Assistant Professor, School of Professional Communication, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1617292021-07-20T12:15:12Z2021-07-20T12:15:12ZEnergy pipelines are controversial now, but one of the first big ones helped win World War II<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411565/original/file-20210715-23-j920co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2568%2C1902&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The "Big Inch" oil pipeline at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, around 1943. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/phoenixville-pa-a-congressional-committee-was-told-that-news-photo/515185136">Betttman via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Oil and gas pipelines have become flashpoints in discussions of climate change. From the <a href="https://atlanticcoastpipeline.com/">Atlantic coast</a> to the <a href="https://www.daplpipelinefacts.com/">Dakotas</a>, pipelines that would deliver fossil fuels to customers have sparked protests and legal challenges. The <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1004908006/developer-abandons-keystone-xl-pipeline-project-ending-decade-long-battle">Keystone XL pipeline</a>, which was designed to carry oil from Alberta tar sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55773243">roiled U.S.-Canadian relations for a decade</a> before it was finally canceled in 2021. </p>
<p>Amid these debates, it’s easy to forget how heavily the U.S. economy relies on existing energy pipelines. In 2020 some 84,000 miles (135,000 kilometers) of <a href="https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/annual-report-mileage-hazardous-liquid-or-carbon-dioxide-systems">long-distance pipelines</a> carried crude oil, while another 64,000 miles (103,000 kilometers) of pipe moved refined products, including gasoline and jet fuel. </p>
<p>These systems typically draw attention only when they <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-30/30-years-of-oil-and-gas-pipeline-spills-mapped?sref=Hjm5biAW">leak</a> or are damaged. For example, in May 2021 <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22428774/ransomeware-pipeline-colonial-darkside-gas-prices">the Colonial Pipeline</a> made headlines when a cyberattack shut it down, interrupting gasoline supplies along the East Coast.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="vintage poster depicts World War II fighter pilots and urges Americans to conserve fuel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411566/original/file-20210715-32735-1jwuuf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">World War II poster produced by the Petroleum Industry War Council.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/world-war-ii-era-poster-features-a-bomber-crew-in-flight-news-photo/120207965">Photo Quest via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ironically, this network originated as the solution to a pressing energy problem and was initiated over objections from the oil industry. In 1942 Germany’s U-boats <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/ed-offley/the-burning-shore/9780465029617/">brought World War II to the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts</a>, sinking dozens of merchant ships, including oil tankers. That damage spurred construction of the first large U.S. pipelines, which fueled the Allied war effort.</p>
<h2>Tankers at risk</h2>
<p>Petroleum currently supplies <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/">about one-third of U.S. energy consumption</a>. Much of it is delivered by pipeline. It would take at least <a href="https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/faqs/general-pipeline-faqs">750 tanker trucks per day</a>, loading up and moving out every two minutes, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to carry as much oil as even a modest pipeline. </p>
<p>In the 1800s much U.S.-produced oil came from wells in Pennsylvania and Ohio. However, when prospectors struck oil in <a href="https://www.lamar.edu/spindletop-gladys-city/spindletop-history.html">Spindletop, Texas, in 1901</a>, the industry shifted to the Lone Star State. </p>
<p>These fields produced much of the gasoline that fueled the automobile revolution, using <a href="https://www.kunc.org/business/2014-08-05/the-strange-history-of-the-american-pipeline">narrow-bore</a> pipes to move crude over distances of a few miles from wells to refineries or railroads. To get oil to big refineries in the Northeast, Texas companies relied on tankers that sailed through the Gulf of Mexico and up the Atlantic coast. By the late 1930s these ships transported <a href="https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/big-inch-fueling-americas-wwii-war-effort">95% of American petroleum products</a>. </p>
<p>Nazi strategists knew that sinking ships directly off the coast would terrify many Americans. Immediately after the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941, U-boats launched attacks on American coastal shipping. In February 1942 alone, <a href="https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/big-inch-fueling-americas-wwii-war-effort">Nazi subs sank 12 tankers off the East Coast</a>.</p>
<p>To avoid the U-boats, oil companies tried moving crude by rail and barge. This limited delivery to 140,000 barrels a day, less than half of the 300,000 barrels needed to meet wartime demand at East coast refineries.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m0fyIvLhe54?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">German submarines sank more than 50 U.S. ships in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II, seeking to disrupt shipments to Allied nations in Europe.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Piping replaces shipping</h2>
<p>In the spring of 1942, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes proposed <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/tx/tx0900/tx0944/data/tx0944data.pdf">constructing a large-diameter war emergency pipeline</a>. The oil industry balked: It cost 16 cents a barrel to send oil by sea from Texas to New York, and executives argued that building pipelines would <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1941/07/23/archives/oil-pipeline-now-is-urged-by-ickes-70000000-system-to-bring-250000.html?searchResultPosition=1">double the cost</a>. When industrial and military needs for petroleum grew desperate, the companies relented, partnering with the government to build the new pipeline.</p>
<p>Engineers designed a giant conduit capable of supplying oil needed for the war effort, far larger than existing 8-inch lines. Workers dubbed the 24-inch-diameter pipeline the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Inch#cite_note-Klein_2013_499-25">Big Inch</a>.” </p>
<p>Construction began in June 1942. Government officials chose an inland route, avoiding coastal states that might be vulnerable to enemy air attacks. The Big Inch was constructed in two sections: one north from Texas to Illinois and another from Indiana eastward. A second, 20-inch-diameter line, the “Little Big Inch,” was added in 1943.</p>
<p>These became the world’s longest pipelines, snaking across 1,340 miles (2,150 kilometers). The US$146 million project was <a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,779839,00.html">one of the most expensive initiatives</a> underwritten by the federal government during World War II. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411336/original/file-20210714-15-a6k834.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ralph K. Davies, George Hull, W. Alton Jones and Burt Hull at the Big Inch opening, Feb. 19, 1943. All four men were oil industry executives who took on roles with the federal government during World War II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:“Big_Inch”_opening.jpg#/media/File:“Big_Inch”_opening.jpg">Petroleum Administration for War</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oil began flowing in August 1943. Over the next two years, these two lines delivered 300,000 gallons of oil per day to refineries in New Jersey and Philadelphia, which was then shipped overseas. The U.S. ultimately supplied <a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/339">6 billion of the 7 billion barrels of oil</a> used by Allied forces during the war. In 1945 Ickes called the Big Inch one of the country’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1945/01/27/archives/little-big-inch-one-year-old.html?searchResultPosition=1">most potent weapons of war</a>.”</p>
<p>The Big Inch was featured in <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/tx/tx0900/tx0944/data/tx0944data.pdf">newsreel shorts</a> with titles such as “Pipe Dream Comes True – Oil!” and “Oil is Blood.” But although it demonstrated that large volumes of oil could be moved cross-country, it didn’t capture the public imagination like the atomic bomb, radar or penicillin. </p>
<p>In 1947 the federal government sold the pipeline to the Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation. It <a href="https://www.kunc.org/business/2014-08-05/the-strange-history-of-the-american-pipeline">still carries natural gas</a> from Texas to the Northeast.</p>
<p>Long-distance pipeline construction <a href="https://www.api.org/%7E/media/files/oil-and-natural-gas/ppts/other-files/decadefinal.pdf?la=en">accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s</a> as the technology improved and oil demand grew. More than half the existing U.S. fuel pipeline network was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/aging-pipelines-raise-concerns-1478128942">built before 1970</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing pipelines from Texas to mid-Atlantic coast." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411337/original/file-20210714-19-oq39nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Big Inch and Little Inch pipelines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/tx/tx0900/tx0944/data/tx0944data.pdf">Historic American Engineering Record/National Park Service</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Climate change, the next target</h2>
<p>Today the enemy is climate change, and pipelines are in the crosshairs as part of the fossil fuel production and delivery system. Pipeline projects also are more controversial because they now are subject to <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-proposal-to-weaken-project-reviews-threatens-the-magna-carta-of-environmental-law-93258">environmental impact assessments</a>. These reviews analyze how building the pipelines could affect local water supplies, wildlife, nearby historic sites nearby and other facets of the communities they pass through. </p>
<p>Debate over the Keystone XL pipeline shows how the framework for considering pipeline projects has expanded. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1004908006/developer-abandons-keystone-xl-pipeline-project-ending-decade-long-battle">Opposition</a> to the $8 billion, 1,200-mile pipeline focused on safety concerns, its route across Indigenous lands, destruction of boreal forest and the large carbon footprint of oil from tar sands. </p>
<p>The latest controversial project is the <a href="https://www.enbridge.com/projects-and-infrastructure/public-awareness/minnesota-projects/line-3-replacement-project">Enbridge Pipeline 3 replacement</a>, which would replace 337 miles of an existing pipeline running through Minnesota. Opponents argue that the project, which would double the old line’s capacity to carry tar sands oil from Alberta to the U.S., threatens Minnesota wetlands, violates the treaty rights of Indigenous people in its path and will help <a href="https://www.stopline3.org/#intro">perpetuate tar sand extraction.</a></p>
<p>The Big Inch and its successors were 20th-century technological accomplishments, but addressing climate change means turning America’s engineering talents to equally ambitious renewable energy projects. As a <a href="https://engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/w-bernard-carlson">historian of technology</a>, I look forward to seeing new solutions emerge. What equivalents of the Big Inch will help win the war against climate change?</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161729/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>W. Bernard Carlson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Proposals for new oil and gas pipelines can generate intense debate today, but during World War II the US built an oil pipeline more than 1,300 miles long in less than a year.W. Bernard Carlson, Professor of Humanities and Chair of the Department of Engineering and Society, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1578402021-05-02T12:41:31Z2021-05-02T12:41:31ZFrom making wine to managing mine waste, clay is important for many industries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397445/original/file-20210427-21-1jamobb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3008%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The unique properties of clays make them suitable for a wide variety of applications.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The discovery and use of clays dates back to <a href="https://ceramics.org/about/what-are-engineered-ceramics-and-glass/brief-history-of-ceramics-and-glass">30,000 years ago</a>, making clays one of the oldest materials used in society. Clays are naturally occurring materials that were first used to make pottery and are now used abundantly in the manufacturing of goods, including ceramics, cosmetics and building materials. Clays also play <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-019-02454-y">an important role in the “terroir,” the features a wine develops based on where the grapes are grown</a>.</p>
<p>Clay has unique properties that are useful in industries ranging from manufacturing to construction. But these properties can also pose a challenge in managing mine waste.</p>
<p>Clays and clay minerals are tiny particles with a unique <a href="https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/ja_barton002.pdf">plate-like structure less than two microns</a> in size (for comparison, the average thickness of a strand of human hair is about 70 microns). The small size of clay minerals and their distinct structure give them unique properties, and different types of clay minerals can exhibit diverse characteristics. </p>
<h2>Properties of clays</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24749508.2017.1361128">four main groups of clay mineral</a>: kaolinite, illite, vermiculite and smectite. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration of the molecular structure of kaolinite clay" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397447/original/file-20210427-19-1sscsbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clay minerals are classified based on the arrangement of their molecules and layers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Smectite clays for example, have the greatest ability to swell, often expanding several times their initial volume. Bentonite clay, a smectite, can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2011.10.003">swell up to 18 times its initial volume</a> by taking water into its interlayer, the distance between two layers of clays. This property makes it useful as a spill absorbent, but also means that it is very difficult to remove water from clay in dewatering processes, as in the case of mine waste management.</p>
<p>In contrast, kaolin, or china clay, does not swell and has low permeability, making it preferable for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/1745823414Y.0000000008">producing porcelain</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-1317(91)90015-2">improving the printability of paper</a>. </p>
<p>Clays also develop plasticity when wet, giving them the ability to stretch without breaking or tearing — a critical property for pottery sculpting. The <a href="http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.10554.70086">drying and firing processes</a> cause the water molecules to escape from between the clay sheets, and irreversibly changing the chemical structure of the clays, turning the piece into a hard and long-lasting pottery piece.</p>
<h2>Clay and wine</h2>
<p>Vineyard owners use their knowledge of clay content in the soil to help them make decisions about planting and irrigation so that they can improve the quality of the wine they produce. The soil composition in vineyards influences the drainage levels and the uptake of minerals and nutrients for the roots. Sandy soils are great for drainage, and clays, which have a net negative charge, help <a href="http://www.soilquality.org.au/factsheets/cation-exchange-capacity">retain positively charged nutrients including calcium, magnesium and potassium</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Vineyards with red clay soil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397755/original/file-20210429-17-1esa900.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The composition of the soil and clays that grapes are grown in can affect the taste of the wine. Vineyard owners can use this knowledge to produce specific notes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clays also hold water quite well, which can be helpful in dry climates to keep the soil cooler and wetter. Certain vine varieties produce the best results in a particular soil type. For example, clay soils tend to produce <a href="https://sommelierschoiceawards.com/en/blog/insights-1/soil-types-that-matter-for-grape-growing-164.htm">bold and muscular red wines like sangiovese and merlot</a> and <a href="https://www.winc.com/blog/how-soil-type-affects-your-wine">white wines like chardonnay</a>.</p>
<h2>Clay in mine waste</h2>
<p>While clays can be valuable materials in certain industrial processes, they can also cause problems in mine waste management. For example, <a href="https://www.capp.ca/explore/tailings-ponds/">oilsands tailings</a> — produced from the surface mining of oilsands — consist of a mixture of water, sand, fine particles, clays and residual bitumen. </p>
<p>These tailings are stored in ponds, where the heavier sands settle quickly to the bottom and the fine particles and clays remain suspended. The water-loving nature of clays means that a lot of water is trapped in the tailings, making consolidation and subsequent reclamation very challenging. </p>
<p>As of 2018, there are <a href="https://static.aer.ca/prd/documents/oilsands/2018-State-Fluid-Tailings-Management-Mineable-OilSands.pdf">more than 1.2 trillion litres of fluid tailings</a> accumulated in these ponds in Alberta. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Alternating stripes of bitumen, water, sand and grass at a mine's tailings pond" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398129/original/file-20210430-21-e9zkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bitumen, water, sand and grass at a mine’s tailings pond, where the fine particles and clays gradually settle. Oilsands tailings are waste materials produced from extracting bitumen from the Alberta oilsands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This fluid tailings problem is not exclusive to oilsands as all forms of mining — such as copper, potash and diamond — produce tailings. As the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/05/11/mineral-production-to-soar-as-demand-for-clean-energy-increases">global production of minerals and metals continue to rise</a>, so does the production of tailings. </p>
<p>Clay measurement methods will become increasingly important to monitor and optimize tailings management strategies.</p>
<h2>Treatment methods</h2>
<p>Many tailings treatment solutions modify clay properties to accelerate dewatering and consolidation, and so understanding the clays present is critical for any treatment methods to work. </p>
<p>Clays can be characterized based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24749508.2017.1361128">particle size, mineral type, surface area, cation exchange capacity, plasticity and flow behaviour</a>. In a laboratory setting <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282662304_DEMYSTIFYING_THE_METHYLENE_BLUE_INDEX">used in the oilsands industry for decades</a>, methylene blue dye can help determine some of these important properties.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397161/original/file-20210426-21-1xn4rfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NAIT researchers are integrating robotics, sensors and optical systems to automate the methylene blue index laboratory method.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author provided)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and its partners are developing an <a href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/funding-partnerships/funding-opportunities/current-investments/development-line-active-clay-analyzer-canadian-mining-industry/22904">automated clay analyzer</a> based on the <a href="https://www.astm.org/Standards/C837.htm">methylene blue index method</a> that would make it possible for in-field clay measurement. This would optimize treatment processes, translating to cost savings and faster reclamation of the tailings ponds.</p>
<p>From helping to create reclaimable tailings to producing a bottle of quality wine, advances in clay measurement can bring many economic and environmental benefits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Ng receives funding from Natural Resources Canada's Clean Growth Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Institute for Oil Sands Innovation (IOSI).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Sedgwick receives funding from Natural Resources Canada"s Clean Growth Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Alberta Innovates, Alberta Jobs, Economy and Innovation and the Institute for Oil Sands Innovation (IOSI).</span></em></p>Throughout human history, clay has played a role in many different industries. Its unique properties make it suited for a wide applications in widely ranging industries.Jason Ng, Research Associate, Oil Sands Sustainability, Northern Alberta Institute of TechnologyAndrea Sedgwick, Applied Research Chair, Oil Sands Sustainability, Northern Alberta Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1552762021-03-10T17:32:11Z2021-03-10T17:32:11Z‘Blockadia’ helped cancel the Keystone XL pipeline — and could change mainstream environmentalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388831/original/file-20210310-14-xe73jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=251%2C99%2C3631%2C1757&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The direct confrontational tactics adopted by environmental activists over the past decade have transformed the global climate movement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent comment that Canada and the United States <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-meet-the-press-vaccines-saudi-arabia-keystone-1.5931364">will move forward after the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project</a>, the public debate on the fate of Alberta’s troubled bitumen sector still burns. </p>
<p>Back on Jan. 20, U.S. President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/">reversed the approval of the project</a>, fulfilling one of his election promises. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called the decision a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/27/alberta-leader-says-bidens-move-to-cancel-keystone-pipeline-a-gut-punch">gut punch</a>.”</p>
<p>For environmental groups, the cancellation of Keystone XL reset American climate policy that had been hit hard by the Trump administration. More crucially, it was a “<a href="https://350.org/press-release/biden-to-stop-keystone-xl/">people-powered victory</a>” following more than 10 years of grassroots action that drew on economic and legal means to stop the pipeline. </p>
<p>Their <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/environmental-groups-keep-fighting-kxl-despite-biden-s-promise-to-block-pipeline-1.5221397">sustained political pressure</a> was a notable contributing factor to Biden’s decision. Many members of the coalition against Keystone XL opted for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-015-9289-0">direct confrontational tactics, such as marches, mass arrests, lockdowns and blockades</a> that went beyond the strategies typically used by environmental groups. </p>
<p>Known as “blockadia,” these tactics have transformed the global climate movement in substantive ways — and it may surge once again after COVID-19 lockdowns are relaxed and lifted. </p>
<h2>The rise of blockadia</h2>
<p>Naomi Klein popularized the term “blockadia” in her book <a href="https://naomiklein.org/this-changes-everything/"><em>This Changes Everything</em></a>. She writes that blockadia is the “roving transnational conflict zone […] where ‘regular’ people […] are trying to stop this era of extreme extraction with their bodies or in the courts.” </p>
<p>Beginning with a series of small direct actions that put emphasis on social justice to the environmental movement, <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2013/01/12/welcome-to-blockadia-enbridge-transcanada-tar-sands/">Blockadia was a “web of campaigns” local activists launched against oilsands pipelines, including Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway</a> in the early 2010s. </p>
<p>At the time, other social movements such as <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2013/01/11/idle-no-more-rises-to-defend-ancestral-lands-and-fight-climate-change-bill-mckibben/">Idle No More</a> were also using confrontational tactics to stop the flow of fossil fuels and disrupt the business-as-usual mode preferred by many big corporations. The movement established a new paradigm in mainstream North American environmentalism. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large group of people gather in the snow holding the flags of Indigenous nations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388825/original/file-20210310-19-1qb4gxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388825/original/file-20210310-19-1qb4gxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388825/original/file-20210310-19-1qb4gxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388825/original/file-20210310-19-1qb4gxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388825/original/file-20210310-19-1qb4gxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388825/original/file-20210310-19-1qb4gxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388825/original/file-20210310-19-1qb4gxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Military veterans and Indigenous elders stop for a ceremonial prayer during a march to a spot near the Dakota Access oil pipeline site in Cannon Ball, N.D., in December 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/David Goldman)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conventional environmental campaigns are marked by eye-catching celebrity environmentalism, advocacy activities targeting law makers and “not in my backyard” movements motivated by local concerns. Although blockadia has incorporated these strategies, the spread and success of it indicates three major developments. </p>
<p>First, participants of blockadia think more in terms of <a href="https://eeb.org/blockadia-map-reveals-global-rise-of-anti-fossil-fuel-blockades/">what is legitimate than what is legal</a>. Consequently, confrontational tactics and civil disobedience actions are legitimized by an “us versus them” framing. Blockadia is mobilized by a sense of planetary emergency, further radicalizing environmentalism.</p>
<p>Second, blockadia strives to combine environmental and social justice concerns. This is arguably why movements under this umbrella term have led to the formation of unexpected political coalitions. Consider, for instance, the <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/cowboy-indian-solidarity-challenges-the-keystone-xl/">alliance of ranchers and Indigenous communities formed during the fight against Keystone XL</a>, as well as the solidarity with the Idle No More movement <a href="https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2015v40n4a2958">non-Indigenous peoples have expressed on social media</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fridaysforfuture-when-youth-push-the-environmental-movement-towards-climate-justice-115694">#Fridaysforfuture: When youth push the environmental movement towards climate justice</a>
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<p>Third, blockadia is decentralized. Despite outspoken activists like Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben, small local organizations brought together by shared environmental concerns drive the success of blockadia. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2015.1105177">Social media</a> played a crucial role in coalition-building among these organizations. </p>
<p>In the case of transnational resistance to Keystone XL, organizations such as <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/groups/nokxl-promise-to-protect">the Promise to Protect coalition</a> are fighting together for globally minded local concerns. Their opposition is motivated by a range of things, from the threat of potential spills or the risk to local waterways, but they are all aware of the global implications of their local actions. In the words of environmental researcher <a href="https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/8982818">Meike Vedder</a>, the rise of blockadia indicates a shift from “not in my backyard” to “not on my planet.” </p>
<h2>The future of environmental activism</h2>
<p>The collective efforts of diverse groups have not only contributed to the delays and cancellations of high-profile pipeline projects like Keystone XL and Northern Gateway, they have been growing around the globe as well. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/ca/podcasts">Click here to listen to Don’t Call Me Resilient</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://ejatlas.org/">The Environmental Justice Atlas project</a>, launched in 2015, has documented over 3,000 environmental conflicts around the globe. Many of them echo blockadia’s populist, pro-democractic push for fossil fuel divestment and a “just transition.” </p>
<p>Whether blockadia is able to fundamentally shift the dynamics of mainstream environmentalism remains uncertain. It will depend on the ability of blockadia-inspired actions to transform local concerns into broader quests for environmental and social justice. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-support-for-ambitious-climate-action-in-4-steps-155636">How to build support for ambitious climate action in 4 steps</a>
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<p>The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18922-7">temporarily decreased global carbon dioxide emissions</a> and prompted ongoing public conversations on “<a href="https://www.resilientrecovery.ca/">resilient recovery</a>.” Blockadia could bounce back when lockdown measures are lifted. </p>
<p>The key lesson offered by the Keystone XL cancellation to Canadian energy politics is: if policies won’t address populist demands for radical departure from subsidizing the oil and gas sector, the public anger on climate inaction will carry on. Although blockadia began as an anti-Keystone XL campaign, it is likely to continue to disrupt the established policy discussions on Canada’s commitment to taking action on climate change. </p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/65e610f9-842e-4091-b314-c985dc941f17?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321534/original/file-20200319-22606-q84y3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=182&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a>
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321535/original/file-20200319-22606-1l4copl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sibo Chen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A web of local environmental action campaigns launched against oilsands pipelines a decade ago helped bring an end to Keystone XL.Sibo Chen, Assistant Professor, School of Professional Communication, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1531792021-02-09T16:17:20Z2021-02-09T16:17:20Z5 ways Norway leads and Canada lags on climate action<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383095/original/file-20210208-19-1scbjxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=144%2C89%2C2931%2C2613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg greets Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 leaders summit in La Malbaie, Que., in June 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As major oil and gas producers and exporters, Norway and Canada <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2020.1763900">share a particular</a> responsibility for confronting the planet’s existential climate threat. However, their different political, economic and cultural features have resulted in major differences in their climate policy track records.</p>
<p>Overall, Norway is a leader on climate change performance and Canada is a laggard. The 2021 <a href="https://germanwatch.org/en/19686">Climate Change Performance Index</a> ranks 61 countries on their progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, renewable energies and climate policy. Norway ranked eighth overall, while Canada was near the bottom in 58th place.</p>
<p>Both countries face epic challenges in weaning themselves from petroleum dependence — and putting an end to exporting carbon emissions. Canada is a long way from winding down the oil and gas industry and implementing a green and inclusive recovery. </p>
<p>One of the advantages Norway holds is the high degree of equality and inclusivity in the policy process, which translates into a healthier democracy than Canada’s. This is something Canada can learn from and improve upon.</p>
<h2>Our way or the Norway</h2>
<p>Canada produces <a href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/data-analysis/energy-data-analysis/energy-facts/crude-oil-facts/20064#L2">4.7 million barrels</a> of oil per day — 80 per cent of it from Alberta — and <a href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/data-analysis/energy-data-analysis/energy-facts/crude-oil-facts/20064">exports 79 per cent to the United States</a>. The carbon emissions from the consumption of those <a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/canadas-fossil-fuel-exports-threat-global-climate-study">fossil fuel exports are almost four times greater than the emissions produced in their extraction and processing</a>. These emissions aren’t attributed to Canada, even though it’s responsible for making them available. </p>
<p>Norway produces <a href="https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/production-and-exports/exports-of-oil-and-gas/">1.7 million barrels of oil daily</a> and, since the country runs mainly on hydroelectricity, <a href="https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/production-and-exports/exports-of-oil-and-gas/">exports almost all of it</a>, largely to Western Europe. Norway <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2017/08/09/the-skys-limit-norway-why-norway-should-lead-the-way-in-a-managed-decline-of-oil-and-gas-extraction/">exports 10 times more emissions</a> than it produces domestically. </p>
<p>Norway’s exit ramp from oil dependence is bumpy. Despite some contradictory climate actions, Norway’s progress exceeds that of virtually all petro-states, with Canada trailing behind.</p>
<p>Norway has committed to <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/Norway%20First/Norway_updatedNDC_2020%20(Updated%20submission).pdf">reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50-55 per cent compared to 1990s levels by 2030</a>, largely through domestic actions. Norway is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/electric-cars-record-market-share-norway">world leader in electric vehicle sales</a>; by 2025, all new cars sold will be zero-emission vehicles. Only <a href="https://electricautonomy.ca/2020/08/26/canadian-ev-sales-data-q2-2020/">3.3 per cent of passenger vehicles sold in Canada</a> during the first half of 2020 were electric. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A satirical GM Super Bowl commercial recognizes Norway’s leadership in electric vehicle sales.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Norway participates in the European Union’s <a href="https://www.oecd.org/environment/tools-evaluation/emissiontradingsystems.htm">Emissions Trading System</a>, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ets_en">the world’s largest carbon market</a>, and has spent billions on international offsets in developing countries through its <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/Norad-Factsheet-interactive-final.pdf">REDD+ program</a> to maintain and expand their forests as carbon sinks.</p>
<p>Canada recently <a href="https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/bill/C-12/first-reading">introduced legislation</a> to meet or exceed a 30 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 compared to 2005, in part by boosting its carbon tax, but continues to heavily <a href="https://www.energypolicytracker.org/country/canada">subsidize fossil fuel production</a>. Since early 2020, Canada has allocated US$14.6 billion to support fossil fuel energy and an equivalent amount on clean energy.</p>
<p>Norway also spends a lot on its fossil fuel industry — at least <a href="https://www.energypolicytracker.org/country/norway">US$11.76 billion since 2020</a>. And with an economy that runs largely on renewable energy, it allocated only US$382 million to renewables.</p>
<h2>The good, the bad and the ugly</h2>
<p>Neither Canada nor Norway has achieved absolute emissions reductions. Industry in both countries downplays this reality, choosing to focus instead on their progress in reducing carbon intensity — emissions per barrel of oil. </p>
<p>Neither country has committed to a production endgame either. Denmark is the first major oil-producing country to commit to terminating state-approved oil exploration in the North Sea and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/denmark-phaseout-oil-production/2020/12/04/c5559eb4-35b0-11eb-9699-00d311f13d2d_story.html">ending all oil extraction by 2050</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A chart ranking countries by their performance on addressing climate change, with Canada near the bottom of the list." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383130/original/file-20210208-17-xirrdx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Climate change performance index (2021). The first three positions are blank because no country scores high enough. Canada is ranked among the worst performing countries and fell three spots in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ccpi.org/ranking/">(Germanwatch 2020)</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/greenhouse-gas-emissions.html">Canadian carbon emissions</a> increased 20.9 per cent between 1990 and 2018, mostly driven in turn by a five-fold expansion of oilsands emissions. <a href="https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/canada-energy-future/2020/canada-energy-futures-2020.pdf">Canada’s energy regulator</a> predicts oil production overall will grow 41 per cent from 2018 to 2040. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/22242455513549449fe30c2a835da953/t-1569e.pdf">Norway’s emissions increased three per cent</a> between 1990 and 2018, and it <a href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/2019/11/un-warning-norway-growing-oil-production-inconsistent-climate-efforts">continues to sell oil leases for offshore drilling</a> including in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Canada has imposed a moratorium on Arctic offshore drilling.</p>
<h2>Divergent paths</h2>
<p>Canada and Norway’s paths to carbon zero have, for the most part, diverged, with Canada falling behind badly.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In Norway, the <a href="https://www.equinor.com/en/how-and-why/sustainability.html">state-controlled company, Equinor</a>, and the government jointly determine climate policy. In Canada, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/621948/the-new-corporation-by-joel-bakan/9780735238848">petroleum corporations have more leverage on climate policy because they control their production and investment decisions at home and abroad</a>, and are accountable only to their shareholders. </p></li>
<li><p>Norway is a unitary state giving the government <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/101303">uncontested jurisdictional authority over climate policy</a>. As a federal state with divided jurisdictions, the Canadian federal government is in a much weaker policy-making position.</p></li>
<li><p>There is a high degree of <a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/petro-path-not-taken">political stability on climate action</a> in Norway. Even the right-wing Progress Party acknowledges the climate threat and supports the government’s climate plan. In Canada, wide swings on climate policy over the past 40 years have thwarted sustained advances. While a majority of Canadians now support decisive action on climate change, there are <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/011121_ht.pdf">splits along party lines</a> and geography, with most Conservative provincial governments opposing a carbon tax. </p></li>
<li><p>In Canada, especially under Conservative governments, there has been very little consultation with labour unions and NGOs on climate policy, whereas in Norway these <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/101303">consultations are viewed as essential</a> in shaping policy, regardless of the government in power. Additionally, Norway’s <a href="https://www.e-ir.info/2016/12/10/how-inequality-undermines-democracy/">lower levels of economic inequality and stronger social safety net</a> reinforce its robust democracy.</p></li>
<li><p>Alberta squandered its oil wealth on low provincial taxes and corporate giveaways. The province created the Alberta Heritage Fund in the 1970s, but it currently contains only US$12 billion. Norway on the other hand, created a sovereign wealth fund in 1996 to retain the bulk of economic rent from the oil and gas extraction. The <a href="https://www.swfinstitute.org/profile/598cdaa60124e9fd2d05b9af">fund now holds US$1.3 trillion in global investments</a>, which facilitates its climate transition. The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/27/norway-wealth-fund-earned-a-record-180-billion-in-2019.html">fund’s return on these investments</a> in 2019 was US$180 billion, and in 2020 it <a href="https://www.vox.com/22256192/norway-oil-gas-investments-fossil-fuel">sold the last of its money-losing investments in foreign fossil fuel companies</a>. The <a href="https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/economy/governments-revenues/">Norwegian government is still highly dependent on the petroleum sector</a>, but fiscal rules allow it to draw up to four per cent annually from the sovereign wealth fund returns if net petroleum transfers fall short of spending requirements. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Political leadership is crucial</h2>
<p>There is plenty of room for Canada to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations. It can also <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/central-banking-green-transition-climate-change-by-mariana-mazzucato-et-al-2020-12">strengthen its public investment banks and expand the Bank of Canada’s “quantitative easing” efforts</a>, namely holding government-issued debt to provide the necessary resources for an equitable and sustainable transition. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-throne-speech-must-blaze-a-bold-new-path-including-imposing-a-wealth-tax-145747">The throne speech must blaze a bold new path — including imposing a wealth tax</a>
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</em>
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<p>Governing the decentralized Canadian federation is complex. This puts more weight on political leadership in all parties, in all regions, to acknowledge the truth about the climate crisis and build the necessary consensus to meet the challenge. </p>
<p>Political leadership is the art of persuasion: learning from the past, building coalitions, taking bold action. As a major carbon emitter, Canada must fulfil its global responsibility in helping to stop this <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-2004-cbc-massey-lectures-a-short-history-of-progress-1.2946872">runaway train</a>. </p>
<p>Denial, delay and division are no longer an option. Leadership that fails avoid a cataclysmic future will be judged harshly by our descendents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Campbell a volunteer board member with the Rideau Institute for International Affairs and the Group of 78; and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Steering Committee. He is a research collaborator on the SSHRC Grant, York University, Adapting Work and Workplaces to Climate Change.
</span></em></p>Canada and Norway face epic challenges in weaning themselves from petroleum dependence.Bruce Campbell, Adjunct professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1368292020-04-21T01:02:36Z2020-04-21T01:02:36ZOil crash explained: How are negative oil prices even possible?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329282/original/file-20200420-152602-11ywvfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2400%2C1641&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pumpjacks pump crude oil near Halkirk, Alta., more than a decade ago. Oil prices have plunged into negative territory due to the glut created by the COVID-19 global economic shutdown.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Larry MacDougall</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s hard to believe that the price of any commodity, let alone oil, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/oil-price-monday-1.5538048">can dip into negative territory</a>. But that’s just what’s happened to oil prices. </p>
<p>COVID-19 <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/photo-galleries/the-world-under-covid-19-lockdown-1.4879378">has prompted lockdowns</a>, shuttered factories and stopped people from travelling. The global economy is contracting. </p>
<p>The pandemic has also <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/15/834868805/oil-prices-keep-slipping-as-demand-drops-by-record-amounts">reduced global demand for oil</a> by about 29 million barrels a day from about 100 million a year ago. OPEC and other producers agreed to cut production by 9.7 million barrels a day, far less than the decrease in demand, leaving a huge surplus of oil on the market and no buyers.</p>
<p>Storage capacity on land <a href="https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/the-worlds-on-the-brink-of-running-out-of-places-to-put-oil">has filled up quickly</a>. Many oil-importing countries have stored large quantities of oil, taking advantage of cheap prices that may not last. </p>
<p>Some oil producers, hoping to maintain their market share, have taken to storing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/19/supertankers-drafted-in-to-store-glut-of-crude-oil-coronavirus">their excess oil at sea</a>, leasing tankers at high costs. Some are believed to be paying in excess of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/global-oil-floatingstorage/saudi-arabia-tanker-power-play-could-backfire-as-oil-demand-shrinks-idUSL8N2BC7LA">US$100,000 per day for each tanker</a>.</p>
<h2>Oil prices will come back up</h2>
<p>So how have Alberta oil prices and even future prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slipped into negative territory?</p>
<p>It starts with the futures’ contracts for WTI — oil to be delivered in a few months at today’s price. It lost US$6 a barrel on Monday, fetching US$11.66, but <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/oil-price-monday-1.5538048">ended the day at -US$37 as holders of future contracts tried to dump their contracts before oil is actually delivered with nowhere to store it</a>. </p>
<p>But Alberta oil, primarily derived from oilsands (referred to as Western Select), typically sells at US$10 to US$15 below the price of WTI, because it has to be extracted from deep rocky terrain. That makes it harder to refine, and it also has to be transported thousands of kilometres to American refineries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329281/original/file-20200420-152597-1do0kue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329281/original/file-20200420-152597-1do0kue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329281/original/file-20200420-152597-1do0kue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329281/original/file-20200420-152597-1do0kue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329281/original/file-20200420-152597-1do0kue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329281/original/file-20200420-152597-1do0kue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329281/original/file-20200420-152597-1do0kue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An oil refinery is seen in Kansas. Oil from Alberta’s oilsands is processed at American refineries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Charlie Riedel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And so Alberta oil prices have become negative in the sense that the benchmark price is now lower than the cost of production, transport and storage.</p>
<p>This state of affairs cannot be expected to last for long. Producers, in the short term, may accept prices below their variable cost as long as they are able to pay some of the costs they will incur even if oil production shuts down. </p>
<p>As time passes, more and more rigs will stop operating (technically, a few will be kept operational in order to avoid being compromised) and a new balance between supply and demand will be established at prices that exceed total average cost. But this doesn’t bode well for either Alberta or the United States. </p>
<h2>Collateral damage</h2>
<p>Alberta oil is now the collateral damage of the oil war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, with COVID-19 launching an additional attack. Either of these two factors could have disrupted Alberta’s oil production. But the Saudi-Russia hostilities combined with the global pandemic have proven to be catastrophic for Canada, and could have a similar outcome for the U.S. energy industry.</p>
<p>Russia and Saudi Arabia depend heavily on their oil revenues to sustain their economies. Of course, Saudi Arabia’s economy is less diversified <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/russia-economy-facts-2019-4-1028116037">than the Russian economy</a>, but both share a similar distortion, where oil revenues represent a very high share of their GDPs (<a href="https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/169.htm">Saudi Arabia about 50 per cent</a>, Russia 38.9 per cent), budgets (<a href="https://www.forbes.com/places/saudi-arabia/">Saudi Arabia 87 per cent</a> and Russia 68 per cent) and exports (Saudi Arabia 90 per cent and <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/030315/how-does-price-oil-affect-russias-economy.asp">Russia 59 per cent</a>. It’s difficult to believe that either country can do with such low prices. </p>
<p>Russia needs a price of US$60 a barrel to balance its government budget and even a higher price to balance its current account, meaning exports of goods and services minus imports of goods and services, plus net short-term capital transfers.</p>
<h2>Saudis also need a much higher oil price</h2>
<p>Saudi Arabia, which remains the lowest-cost oil producer in the world, can make money when the price per barrel exceeds US$20, and Russia can at a price of US$40. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329288/original/file-20200420-51986-1oplvqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, leads a recent virtual summit of the G20 energy ministers at his office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Saudi Energy Ministry via AP)</span></span>
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<p>But making a profit when prices are higher than cost is not sufficient. Saudi Arabia <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/02/coronavirus-oil-crash-will-saudi-arabias-big-oil-gamble-pay-off.html">needs an US$80-per-barrel price to balance its budget</a>, realize its plans to diversify its economy and sustain a heavily subsidized economy. In the balance is the stability of both the Russian and Saudi Arabian political systems and current regimes.</p>
<p>The longer the COVID-19 pandemic lasts, the greater the damage oil producers will endure. It’s hard to tell now how high oil prices will rise once the pandemic subsides. They will likely go higher as marginal producers are eliminated, but not for long. Using oil and other fossil fuels is no longer consistent with avoiding the expected disasters of climate change. Oil is increasingly <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/07dcd8d7-9492-4dfc-a54f-10c4b62cd558">becoming a stranded asset</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Atif Kubursi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Alberta oil is the collateral damage of the oil war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, with COVID-19 launching an additional attack. The province’s oil industry will struggle to recover.Atif Kubursi, Professor Emeritus of Economics, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1017222018-08-22T22:38:56Z2018-08-22T22:38:56ZPolicies on petroleum and pipelines move us closer to a ‘Hothouse Canada’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232967/original/file-20180821-149493-1abz1hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Record-shattering heatwaves and exceptional wildfires have occurred throughout the northern hemisphere this summer. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">U.S. Department of Agriculture</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is another hot, hot summer in the Northern Hemisphere. </p>
<p>Sweden is having trouble <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/30/the-swedish-town-on-the-frontline-of-the-arctic-wildfires">fighting wildfires north of the Arctic Circle</a>. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45030082">Greece has seen its worst wildfires in years</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/02/weatherwatch-wildfires-uk-peatland-carbon-moors-moorland">even Britain has been scorched</a>. </p>
<p>In Canada, British Columbia has, once again, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-declares-state-of-emergency-as-hundreds-of-wildfires-burn-across-province-1.4785983">declared a state of emergency</a>, and <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/air-quality-deemed-high-risk-in-calgary-as-wildfires-burn">Calgary has air quality problems</a> because of the smoke. As researchers who watch these things know, all of this is <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/how-climate-change-is-making-b-c-s-wildfire-season-hotter-longer-dryer/">being made worse by climate change</a>.</p>
<p>The remarkably hot summer and surge of wildfires coincides with the publication of a <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/115/33/8252">recent essay about “Hothouse Earth” by Will Steffen, Johan Rockström</a> and their colleagues. The essay bluntly asks whether the Earth is heading towards a state it last experienced many million years ago when global temperatures were much higher and the world didn’t have polar icecaps. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hothouse-earth-our-planet-has-been-here-before-heres-what-it-looked-like-101413">Hothouse Earth: our planet has been here before – here's what it looked like</a>
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<p>Much of the media coverage of the paper says that we are, in fact, heading towards a hothouse Earth. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/hothouse-earth-heres-what-the-science-actually-does-and-doesnt-say-101341">the research points to a much more important conclusion</a>: if we take the risks seriously there is room for a more benign future. </p>
<p>Having worked on matters of security, political economy and environment for the past three decades, it’s clear to me that human actions — and how we use <a href="https://www.e-ir.info/2018/03/01/firepower-and-environmental-security-in-the-anthropocene/">combustion as a tool in particular</a> — are shaping the future of the planet. </p>
<h2>‘The Human Planet’</h2>
<p><em>The Human Planet</em>, a new book by scientists Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin, provides <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/298037/the-human-planet/">the background for the hothouse Earth research</a>. Their title says it all. Earth system science has documented the case that human actions — or at least those of the rich and powerful among us — are profoundly changing how the world works. </p>
<p>There are enough of us now, using all sorts of technologies and living in ways that use huge amounts of resources, to dramatically alter how the Earth works. We are part of the world, not a separate species who just happens to be on Earth. Our actions are now shaping the planet’s future. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/hothouse-earth-heres-what-the-science-actually-does-and-doesnt-say-101341">Hothouse Earth: here's what the science actually does – and doesn't – say</a>
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<p>It may become the hothouse Earth that Steffen, Rockström and their colleagues warn is a dangerous possibility. Or, it may not, if sensible policies such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting and enhancing ecosystems that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere prevail, and economies move rapidly beyond the use of fossil fuels. </p>
<p>But if we are to avert a hothouse Earth, policies, like the sciences, need to connect things that are often considered separately. </p>
<h2>Energy policy</h2>
<p>Through much of the twentieth century Western governments have thought of energy security in terms of guaranteeing fossil fuel supplies at reasonable prices. Environmental matters were unrelated, or at best an after-thought, a matter of local pollution, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-energy-security-paradox-9780198820444?cc=gb&lang=en&#">not an Earth-changing matter</a>. </p>
<p>That mode of thought persists and as Earth system science has demonstrated, dangerously wrong. </p>
<p>In <em>The Human Planet</em>, Lewis and Maslin quote Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his remarks at a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trudeau-no-country-would-find-173-billion-barrels-of-oil-in-the-ground-and-leave-them-there-1.4019321">Houston petroleum conference in 2017</a>: </p>
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<p>“No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and just leave them there.”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232970/original/file-20180821-149481-15b4ppt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232970/original/file-20180821-149481-15b4ppt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232970/original/file-20180821-149481-15b4ppt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232970/original/file-20180821-149481-15b4ppt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232970/original/file-20180821-149481-15b4ppt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232970/original/file-20180821-149481-15b4ppt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232970/original/file-20180821-149481-15b4ppt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Protesters opposed to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline extension demonstrate outside Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s constituency office, in Vancouver, on June 4, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)</span></span>
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<p>Earth system science has shown precisely the opposite: most of those reserves must stay in the ground if we are to avoid a hothouse Earth. </p>
<p>If large supplies of petroleum continue to be made easily available, carbon taxes, cap and trade schemes and innovations with electric cars, batteries and storage systems, are very unlikely to be enough to tackle climate change. Turning off the tap and <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/4/3/17187606/fossil-fuel-supply">keeping expensive, difficult-to-extract fossil fuels in the ground is an essential, “supply side” complement to the “demand side” of taxes and fees</a>.</p>
<p>Adding to the infrastructure that supplies the world’s markets with more petroleum, as the twinned Kinder Morgan pipeline would do, makes constraining fossil fuel use more difficult down the line. And using taxpayer’s dollars to do all this, if in fact the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-study-predicts-trans-mountain-pipeline-buy-will-add-to-federal-deficit/">purchase of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline goes ahead</a> in coming months, adds insult to injury. The political pressures to use the pipeline and hence get a return on the investment would be intense and distract attention from building a post-fossil fuel economy. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-paris-pipeline-paradox-97636">Canada's Paris-pipeline paradox</a>
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<h2>Investing in the future</h2>
<p>The future configuration of the Earth’s climate is dependent on such investment decisions because they shape what is made in coming decades: solar panels or pipelines, carbon-neutral buildings or gas-guzzling automobiles. </p>
<p>This recognition is key to what needs to be done, and to the larger conversation we need to be having about how to live well together without burning large quantities of stuff to do so. We need to stop burning fossil fuels so that we can reduce the likelihood of burning even more forests, bogs and grasslands. </p>
<p>Joining up the dots is now ever more necessary. If we don’t start investing wisely in the new economy rather than propping up the old one, then the likelihood of a hothouse Earth looms large.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Dalby receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
I am a Senior Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation.</span></em></p>The Earth is on the edge of being pushed over a planetary threshold that could lead to a “Hothouse Earth.” But if we take the risks seriously there is room for a more benign future.Simon Dalby, CIGI Chair in the Political Economy of Climate Change, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/976362018-06-04T23:00:37Z2018-06-04T23:00:37ZCanada’s Paris-pipeline paradox<p>The Canadian government’s decision to purchase Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline project shortly after ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change creates an interesting paradox and a national challenge. </p>
<p>The environmental implications of pipeline development have already caused British Columbia and Alberta to feud, culminating in an <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-unveils-bill-that-could-wreak-havoc-on-b-c-gas-prices-in-trade-war-1.4622165">outright trade war between the two provinces</a>. Canadians are clearly divided on energy and climate politics. </p>
<p>The pipeline would increase current capacity by <a href="https://www.kindermorgan.com/pages/business/canada/tmep.aspx">590,000 barrels per day</a> to deliver oil and gas to national and international markets. The government, as well as many Canadian businesses and citizens, have argued that this is critical for economic growth and the nation’s near-term prosperity. </p>
<p>On the flip side, these decisions have a significant impact on the ability of Canada to meet its greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets and to move towards a “greener” economy. </p>
<p>The fundamental question that needs to be solved is: Can Canada move towards a green economy and meet the GHG reduction targets of the Paris agreement while simultaneously expanding the fossil fuel economy via public ownership of what was the Kinder Morgan pipeline?</p>
<h2>What are the risks?</h2>
<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used concerns about safety and the climate to justify the approval of the Kinder Morgan expansion project. When he signed off on the project in 2016, he said “<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-cabinet-trudeau-pipeline-decisions-1.3872828">if these projects aren’t built, diluted bitumen would be forced into more rail tanker cars for transport</a>.” </p>
<p>Pipelines are considered to be one of the greenest forms of cargo transport. GHG emission rates are lower by pipeline than by train, for example, and there’s a smaller risk of oil spills because there are fewer transfers.</p>
<p>Yet the environmental costs of a pipeline accident are considerably greater than they are for spills after a train derailment. Pipelines leak larger volumes of oil and it’s more <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/with-pipelines-under-attack-railways-lead-race-to-move-oil/article7264773/">difficult to respond to the spills in a timely manner</a>, particularly for underground pipelines and remote areas. </p>
<h2>Critical flaws, global implications</h2>
<p>Final approval of the Kinder Morgan project was based on Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) conclusion that it “<a href="https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/bts/nws/nr/2018/nr06-eng.html?=undefined&wbdisable=true">is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects</a>.” </p>
<p>The NEB analysis focused on the potential regional and local-scale environmental impacts from the construction and operation of the pipeline. It did not include any systemic emission-based impacts resulting from oil production, oil consumption or shipping and transportation activities. </p>
<p>The NEB’s focus on immediate and local implications at the exclusion of national and global-scale emissions is reflective of a common but critical flaw of our seemingly universal outlook on environmental issues around the world. That is, there’s a tendency to fail to consider a full evaluation of potential impacts. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kinder-morgan-pipeline-and-pacific-salmon-red-fish-black-gold-89520">The Kinder Morgan pipeline and Pacific salmon: Red fish, black gold</a>
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<p>An assessment conducted by Environment and Climate Change Canada estimated that the added 590,000 barrels per day in pipeline capacity would result in <a href="https://www.ceaa.gc.ca/050/documents/p80061/116524E.pdf">an annual increase in GHGs equivalent to 13 to 15 megatons of CO₂</a>. </p>
<p>In order to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 2°C — as per the Paris Agreement — an estimated 74 per cent of Canadian crude oil reserves must remain unexploited and <a href="https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/CarbonCaptureandStorageThesolutionfordeepemissionsreductions.pdf">advanced carbon capture and storage measures</a> would still be required. </p>
<h2>The path forward</h2>
<p>So how could Canada resolve the paradox between its Paris commitments and pipeline ownership? </p>
<p>As a start, all revenue that emerges from the pipeline should be put directly into an environmental fund. The fund would be used to support research and technology development as well as programs and infrastructure aimed at reducing the sources of GHGs and enhancing carbon sinks that store carbon dioxide.</p>
<p>In other words, the pipeline could fund emissions reduction strategies and initiatives that just might keep Canada on track with its Paris commitment. </p>
<p>Even if implemented effectively, using pipeline revenues to support GHG reduction strategies will not solve the country’s persistent ethical dilemmas or the mixed messages sent by the federal government on climate politics. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-complicated-history-of-building-pipelines-in-canada-97450">The complicated history of building pipelines in Canada</a>
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<p>The challenges are complex. They range from human health impacts to socio-economic benefits. They include concerns over access to markets and job creation. But also the cultural and trust issues associated with the pipeline’s impacts on Indigenous lands and local communities, and promises made by the Government of Canada in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. </p>
<p>There are no definite answers, but one thing is clear — the Paris-pipeline paradox is unlikely to be reconciled anytime soon.</p>
<p><em>Members of the College of the Royal Society of Canada’s Working Group on Healthy Environment & Society assisted in the writing of this piece.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Markus Hecker receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Genome Canada. He is a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackie Dawson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, MEOPAR, ArcticNet, Irving Shipbuilding, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Arctic College/Nunavut Research Institute, Clear Seas, and Nunavut General Monitoring Program. </span></em></p>Canada wants to move towards a green economy and meet its Paris Agreement targets, but it has also just taken ownership of a pipeline. How can the federal government deal with this paradox?Markus Hecker, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Predictive Aquatic Toxicology, University of SaskatchewanJackie Dawson, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/974502018-05-30T22:56:31Z2018-05-30T22:56:31ZThe complicated history of building pipelines in Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221050/original/file-20180530-120496-1l41tgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A aerial view of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain tank farm is pictured in Burnaby, B.C. The federal government is buying Trans Mountain and all of Kinder Morgan Canada's core assets. Opposition to pipeline construction in Canada has transformed over the decades, shifting from being a local issue to one of global concerns.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS Jonathan Hayward</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government’s <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/05/29/justin-trudeaus-45-billion-trans-mountain-pipeline-purchase-met-with-a-storm-of-criticism.html">$4.5 billion decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline</a> has set off a new debate about the controversial project.</p>
<p>Canada has a long history of building energy pipelines, but Canadian attitudes toward major energy pipeline projects have changed over time.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/betrayed-canadians-could-launch-unprecedented-protests-over-trans-mountain-activist-says-1.3951191">Unease over the environmental effects of pipeline construction</a> and operation have grown from primarily local concerns, led by communities of settlers and Indigenous peoples along pipeline routes, to global concerns about climate change and international environmental policy.</p>
<p>Oil companies have built pipelines in Canada to move petroleum since 1862. But the construction and operation of major long-distance oil and gas pipelines that cross interprovincial and international borders did not commence until the mid-20th century, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/leduc-oil-discovery-anniversary-oil-boom-history-1.3980331">following the discovery of enormous volumes of crude oil and natural gas near Leduc,</a> Alta., just south of Edmonton.</p>
<p>Within six years of Imperial Oil’s discoveries at Leduc, two major trunk oil pipelines were built, spanning the country.</p>
<p>The first was the <a href="https://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2010/10/canada%E2%80%99s-main-oil-transporter-marks-60-years-of-building-bridges/">Interprovincial pipeline</a>, opened in 1950, that connected Edmonton to refineries in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and parts of the northern U.S. The second was the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4239520/trans-mountain-pipeline-timeline/">Trans Mountain pipeline</a>, a western line that travelled from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C., and began shipping oil in 1953.</p>
<p>These two pipelines carried the overwhelming majority of Alberta’s crude oil to markets across Canada and parts of the United States. They fuelled Canada’s rapid transition to a high-energy, fossil-fuel economy and extraordinary economic growth and prosperity. </p>
<p>But pipeline construction in the past was not without controversy.</p>
<h2>Approved in days</h2>
<p>The construction of these first two long-distance oil pipelines occurred under the regulatory authority of the federal Board of Transport Commissioners. The board approved both pipelines following a few days of hearings with no public consultation or environmental assessments. </p>
<p>Some who lived along the paths of these pipelines worried about the potential for oil spills and other adverse environmental consequences.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-risky-gamble-on-the-trans-mountain-pipeline-97449">Justin Trudeau's risky gamble on the Trans Mountain pipeline</a>
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<p>For instance, in 1953, the chief and council for the Aamjiwnaang First Nation from the Sarnia Indian Reserve wrote to the Minister of Transport Lionel Chevrier. In the letter, he objected to the government’s granting of a right-of-way through the reserve to Interprovincial Pipe Line Company. <a href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/collectionsearch/Pages/record.aspx?app=cabcon&IdNumber=35978">The cabinet approved the right-of-way and ordered the company to compensate the First Nation.</a></p>
<p>Settler farmers also began raising concerns about the environmental effects of pipeline construction and oil spills on their land in the late 1950s and early 1960s.</p>
<p>Norman Richmond, a southern Ontario landowner from Pelham Township, was one such concerned citizen. He spoke before the National Energy Board in November 1961, warning of the need for careful environmental planning in pipeline construction. He argued that “future planning is so important that to be ruthless about it and not consider what our children and our children’s children are going to find would be a detriment to all concerned.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"988535935326449666"}"></div></p>
<p>Occasionally, pipeline politics rose to national prominence.</p>
<h2>The Great Pipeline Debate</h2>
<p>This first occurred in the mid-1950s during what was known as “<a href="https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:40000020">The Great Pipeline Debate</a>,” an acrimonious political debacle over the construction of the TransCanada pipeline, the country’s first long-distance interprovincial natural gas pipeline.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221053/original/file-20180530-120484-7oabez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221053/original/file-20180530-120484-7oabez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221053/original/file-20180530-120484-7oabez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221053/original/file-20180530-120484-7oabez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221053/original/file-20180530-120484-7oabez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221053/original/file-20180530-120484-7oabez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221053/original/file-20180530-120484-7oabez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photo from 1957 showing the construction of the TransCanada pipeline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Library and Archives Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A mixture of nationalist economic and energy policies influenced the decision to prioritize an “all-Canadian” route for the original line from Alberta to Ontario.</p>
<p>Shaky financing ultimately led to what amounted to a government bailout of the U.S. consortium that led the project. The Canadian and Ontario governments formed a joint Crown corporation to build the more difficult (and less profitable) segment of the pipeline through northern Ontario. </p>
<p>The federal opposition parties objected to the Liberal party’s approach to the TransCanada pipeline and the high-handed measures of the unusually powerful cabinet minister, C.D. Howe.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221059/original/file-20180530-120508-1vlsiwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221059/original/file-20180530-120508-1vlsiwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221059/original/file-20180530-120508-1vlsiwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221059/original/file-20180530-120508-1vlsiwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221059/original/file-20180530-120508-1vlsiwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221059/original/file-20180530-120508-1vlsiwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221059/original/file-20180530-120508-1vlsiwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crowds line up to watch pipeline debates in the House of Commons in June 1956.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Duncan Cameron/Library and Archives Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The result was the end of more than two decades of continuous Liberal rule in Canada and <a href="https://www.usask.ca/diefenbaker/virtual-exhibits/federal-elections-1957-1958.php">the election of John Diefenbaker</a> and the first Progressive Conservative government in Canadian history.</p>
<h2>Ordinary Canadians involved</h2>
<p>More and more ordinary Canadians started to raise concerns about oil and gas pipeline development in the 1970s.</p>
<p>Numerous, repeated oil spills along the Interprovincial pipeline in Western Canada led to calls for more environmental regulation of the industry and research into the effects of oil spills on soil quality.</p>
<p>Oil spills along the Trans Mountain pipeline in Jasper National Park and Merritt, B.C. in the early 1970s raised anxieties within affected communities about the environmental implications of oil pipelines and their further expansion. </p>
<p>When the federal government approved the extension of the Interprovincial pipeline system from Sarnia to Montreal in the mid-1970s, southern Ontario farmers organized to resist its construction, and called for better construction practices and environmental protections.</p>
<p>In the North, three competing gas pipeline proposals for the Mackenzie Valley alarmed the region’s Indigenous residents who feared the potential environmental harms that might come from pipeline construction and operation in delicate northern environments.</p>
<p>They were joined by environmental and conservation groups who saw the gas pipeline proposals as threats to wildlife. Indigenous peoples in the North were also concerned about the implications of pipeline development for unresolved land and resource claims. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221060/original/file-20180530-120484-vmg7dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221060/original/file-20180530-120484-vmg7dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221060/original/file-20180530-120484-vmg7dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221060/original/file-20180530-120484-vmg7dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221060/original/file-20180530-120484-vmg7dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221060/original/file-20180530-120484-vmg7dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221060/original/file-20180530-120484-vmg7dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mr. Justice Thomas Berger, chairman of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Commission, in 1977.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The federal government appointed Justice Thomas Berger to lead an inquiry into the gas pipeline proposals for the Mackenzie Valley. In 1977, after listening to numerous groups of northern peoples — including First Nations, Métis, and settler communities — <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/the-berger-report-is-released">Berger recommended the federal cabinet impose a 10-year moratorium on pipeline development in the Mackenzie Valley</a>. </p>
<p>Northern pipeline development quickly re-emerged in the early 1980s with a proposal from Interprovincial Pipe Line Co. (<a href="https://www.enbridge.com/about-us/our-history">the company that today is Enbridge</a>) to build an oil pipeline in the Mackenzie Valley from Norman Wells, N.W.T., to Zama, Alta., to deliver northern oil to southern markets.</p>
<h2>First Nation objections</h2>
<p>In spite of the recommendations of the Berger inquiry and the continued objections of First Nations, the National Energy Board and the federal cabinet approved the construction of the <a href="https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/nrg/ntgrtd/pplnprtl/pplnprfls/crdl/nbrdnrmwlls-eng.html">Norman Wells Pipeline</a>. </p>
<p>The local Dene were eventually persuaded to accede to the construction of the pipeline in exchange for additional environmental mitigation efforts, employment opportunities and protections against potential socio-economic effects of pipeline development. The company completed construction of the pipeline in 1985, but Dene objections to the pipeline and concerns over oil spills, disruptions to wildlife habitat and other adverse environmental effects persisted.</p>
<p>The pipeline debates today reflect some continuities with the past 70 years of oil and gas pipeline development, but there are some significant differences in contemporary pipeline politics.</p>
<p>The most significant difference is that opposition to new pipeline development is deeply implicated in global environmental politics concerning climate change. The issue of climate change has elevated the question of pipeline development in Canada from a local or even national concern to a global one. As a result, the political stakes have been raised to a degree not previously experienced in this country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97450/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Kheraj has received funding from a Petro Canada Young Innovator Award. </span></em></p>Canada has a long history of building energy pipelines against a backdrop of environmental uncertainty. Decades ago, the opposition came from local groups. Now it’s a global issue.Sean Kheraj, Associate Professor, Department of History, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/963222018-05-23T22:53:45Z2018-05-23T22:53:45ZDavid Suzuki backlash ignores his prize-worthy science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220200/original/file-20180523-51135-u2jqpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">David Suzuki is an environmental activist, broadcaster and globally recognized geneticist.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://davidsuzuki.org">David Suzuki Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the University of Alberta announced it would award David Suzuki an honorary doctor of science degree at its spring convocation, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/edmonton/2018/04/23/law-firm-pulls-donation-from-university-of-alberta-as-suzuki-backlash-continues.html">there was (and continues to be) a vocal backlash</a>. </p>
<p>Critics argue his stance against Alberta’s oil sands make him an unsuitable recipient. Although <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/why-ualberta/administration/chancellor-and-senate/honorary-degrees/current-honorary-degree-recipients">Suzuki is receiving the honour because of his efforts to boost science literacy and environmental awareness</a>, it’s important to remember that before he became a broadcaster and an activist, he was a globally recognized scientist.</p>
<p>Born in Vancouver in 1936, David Suzuki and his family (all Canadian-born citizens) were subjected to the unethical Japanese internment during the Second World War. The Canadian government sold the family’s dry cleaning business, <a href="http://learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/entries/david-suzuki-talks-about-his-familys-internment-in-wwii/">interned them and sent Suzuki’s father to a labour camp</a>.</p>
<p>Despite these setbacks, Suzuki embarked on a career in science with his first professorial appointment in the genetics department at the University of Alberta in 1962.</p>
<p>Today, as a dedicated scientist and communicator of science, Suzuki frequently presents the <a href="https://davidsuzuki.org/story/cant-close-eyes-climate-change/">scientific case for climate change and the effect of fossil fuels</a> to the public. No other scientist in Canada has been <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-april-26-2018-1.4636157/david-suzuki-should-not-be-celebrated-in-alberta-says-former-dragons-den-star-1.4636160">pilloried so strongly for simply presenting the data</a>.</p>
<h2>A Nobel nod</h2>
<p>While many may think of Suzuki as an activist or a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/">television presenter</a>, he also holds a legacy in genetics research that contributes to the foundation of knowledge and advances in the life sciences.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Hall, professor emeritus of biology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., was part of a trio of scientists <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2017/hall-facts.html">awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017</a> for their work on discovering the molecular mechanism behind circadian rhythms, the body’s internal clock. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cell.com/fulltext/S0960-9822(07)02369-X">In an interview prior to this recognition</a>, Hall was asked: “Do you have any other ‘heroes,’ as it were, among researchers in your field?” Hall identified Suzuki as one: “The genetic world reacted to Suzuki’s approach and accomplishments as if they were genuinely sensational.” </p>
<p>So what was this breakthrough made decades ago by Suzuki at the front lines of genetics research? </p>
<p>As a professor at the University of British Columbia, Suzuki wanted to understand how muscle worked and tried to uncover genes that would cause paralysis. He reasoned that such genes would be in common to all life forms with muscle. He selected the common fruit fly, <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>, for his experiments.</p>
<p>This was genius! </p>
<h2>Suzuki’s discovery</h2>
<p>It’s worth highlighting the beauty of Suzuki’s strategy because this legacy and approach has stood the test of time. </p>
<p>Until that time, research on fruit flies was considered esoteric and narrow. In Hall’s view, Suzuki’s “work was crucial to the resurrection of <em>Drosophila</em> from the ash heap of biological research.” </p>
<p>Suzuki’s experimental design was elegant and conclusive. He simply fed fruit flies a chemical known to cause random mutations. </p>
<p>In 1967, Suzuki was the first to use temperature to screen for genetic mutations in fruit flies. These temperature-sensitive mutants behaved normally when the flies were kept near room temperature (22°C). The effects of the mutation were only observed at a higher temperature (29°C), <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/170/3959/695.long">he later wrote in <em>Science</em></a> magazine.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220017/original/file-20180522-51121-1o3tfwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220017/original/file-20180522-51121-1o3tfwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220017/original/file-20180522-51121-1o3tfwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220017/original/file-20180522-51121-1o3tfwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220017/original/file-20180522-51121-1o3tfwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220017/original/file-20180522-51121-1o3tfwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220017/original/file-20180522-51121-1o3tfwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism used to understand the biology of other organisms, including humans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/drosophila-melanogaster-fruit-fly-extreme-close-322358456?src=tYx4Fzi1Y4PKJK12lsjXXA-1-7">(Shutterstock)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the high temperature, some of the flies became paralyzed and fell to the bottom of their container, while unaffected ones simply flew. When he changed the temperature to 22°C, a small number of the paralyzed fruit flies at the bottom of the container regained the ability to fly. </p>
<p>The flies’ recovery after the temperature change meant they harboured a mutation in a single gene. Suzuki named the gene “shibire,” the Japanese word for “paralyzed.”</p>
<h2>A dynamic outcome</h2>
<p>Other scientists determined the shibire gene codes for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/095943889580059X?via%3Dihub">a protein named dynamin that controls small structures found at the junction between nerve and muscle</a> that house the chemicals necessary for muscle contraction. A mutation in shibire prevents muscle contraction and results in paralysis. In humans, such mutations are linked to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ng0305-215">neurodegenerative diseases</a>, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. </p>
<p>Today, about 5,000 scientific publications on dynamin reveal a function common to all life forms with nuclei in their cells — that is all animals, plants, yeast, flies, etc. </p>
<p>Suzuki went on to show several examples of mutations in single genes. The second gene Suzuki discovered was named “stoned,” since the flies had unco-ordinated wing and leg movement. Today, we understand that <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/19/14/5847.long">this gene encodes for a protein that also affects the same fundamental machinery as dynamin</a>.</p>
<p>It was not long before the international community of discovery researchers followed Suzuki’s lead. He had correctly predicted that studying genetic mutations in fruit flies could help scientists identify genes involved in the development of human disease and other phenomena. </p>
<p>History will judge the outcome of Suzuki’s attempt to use observation and reason to <a href="https://www.folio.ca/commentary--energy-industry-must-not-be-allowed-to-bully-universities">“advance scientific literacy, appreciation of nature and knowledge of the ecological crises threatening life on the planet.”</a> </p>
<p>But it remains that Suzuki may be considered Canada’s pioneer in fundamental genetics research.</p>
<p><em>John Bergeron gratefully acknowledges Kathleen Dickson as co-author.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Bergeron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>David Suzuki may be best known as an environmental activist and the face of CBC’s ‘The Nature of Things,’ but he’s also a globally recognized scientist.John Bergeron, Emeritus Robert Reford Professor and Professor of Medicine at McGill, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/905862018-03-12T21:28:58Z2018-03-12T21:28:58ZHow to improve government’s use of science<p>Several prominent scientists have been brought into the government fold in recent years to strengthen decision-making at provincial and federal levels.</p>
<p>In 2017, Mona Nemer became Canada’s new chief science adviser, and Ontario appointed Molly Shoichet as its first-ever chief scientist. The previous year, Alberta Environment and Parks placed Fred Wrona in the role of chief scientist. </p>
<p>These researchers are poised to make important contributions to environmental policy and decision-making because they link scientists to deputy ministers and elected leadership. Despite the fanfare around their appointments, we still know little about how much influence they will have within government. </p>
<p>If these chief scientists are to be successful in strengthening the representation of science within government as promised, it’s worthwhile discussing what might hamper or assist them in their efforts. </p>
<p>This is especially true for some of the environmental challenges we face in Canada, due in part to the large volume of scientific evidence needed for implementing effective policies and decisions. </p>
<p>The outcome could be a more resilient environmental governance model that lends accountability to land-use and policy decisions, regardless of the political party in charge.</p>
<h2>Trust in science</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix125">Science is sending messages</a> that global threats such as climate change require urgent policy solutions and regulatory action. <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-a-water-crisis-looms-in-cape-town-could-it-happen-in-canada-90582">Canada is not immune</a> to these imminent threats. However, these messages are frequently unheard because science is often subject to political spin, skew, suppression and subjectivity.</p>
<p>Recent examples of worrisome events include the “<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100929/full/467501a.html">muzzling” of federal environmental scientists</a> (<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/half-canada-s-government-scientists-still-feel-muzzled">yet to be resolved</a>), the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14615517.2012.720417">degradation of federal environmental assessments</a> and the conflicts of interest that led to <a href="http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/er-2017-0083#.WqVKt-jwbIU">poorly planned studies</a> in Alberta’s oilsands. </p>
<p>Events like these lead to public mistrust of government and its ability to consider the available scientific evidence in its policy-making. It also casts doubt upon whether governments are able to deliver robust environmental monitoring programs.</p>
<p>The chief scientists aim to combat these types of credibility shortfalls. Understandably, they have <a href="http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2017/quick-wins-for-canadas-chief-science-advisor/">sparked optimism</a> and <a href="https://y2y.net/news/media-releases/albertas-new-chief-scientist-is-good-news-for-wildlife-and-water-says-y2y">hope for strengthening</a> defensible environmental governance in Canada. </p>
<p>The positions <a href="http://sciencepolicy.ca/news/chief-science-officer-or-advisor">serve a variety of functions</a>, such as providing scientific clarity to policy-makers or elected officials, ensuring scientific credibility within a department or ministry or promoting their jurisdiction’s scientific activities. </p>
<h2>A checkered past</h2>
<p>The common thread between these activities are the high expectations of a chief scientist to promote the strengths of nonpartisan, credible science. </p>
<p>However, science advisers have not always had influence. In the United States, a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11024-009-9117-3">number of factors</a> — including the personalities of individual leaders, staff and scientific authorities — have influenced to what extent (and to whose standards) they have been effective. How leadership solicits scientific advice also plays a role in their ability to leverage themselves and their important messages.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208741/original/file-20180303-65547-1ikd4f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208741/original/file-20180303-65547-1ikd4f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208741/original/file-20180303-65547-1ikd4f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208741/original/file-20180303-65547-1ikd4f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208741/original/file-20180303-65547-1ikd4f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208741/original/file-20180303-65547-1ikd4f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208741/original/file-20180303-65547-1ikd4f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seen here at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015, is one of a handful of global leaders with a strong background in science. She earned a doctorate in quantum chemistry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, because these roles often lack fixed terms, chief scientists can be <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2017/07/04/Alberta-Failing-Leaking-Oil-Gas-Wells-Risk/">dismissed without cause</a>. This led, for example, to the closing of the Office of the National Science Advisor by the Harper government in 2008.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/Media/Details/457/">deep societal issues</a>, including scientific illiteracy and distrust, working against the country’s scientific advisers.</p>
<p>These can be solved, in part, by <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/the-business-case-for-encouraging-students-to-pursue-a-stem-education/article34986218/">encouraging young Canadians to pursue education</a> in science and technology and <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/scientists-must-become-more-involved-in-the-political-process/">enhancing the role of scientists</a> in political processes.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="http://facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2017-0087#ttl11">adding more scientific advisers to government</a> could be construed as a hasty <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/more-science-please-but-hold-the-bureaucracy/article34658909/">bureaucratic fix</a>, which may only distract from investing in resolutions such as those mentioned above. </p>
<h2>No magic sword of science</h2>
<p>Canada’s science advisers don’t wield a magic sword of science. The idea that they are capable of slaying policy dragons developed in the absence of <a href="http://exquisitelife.researchresearch.com/exquisite_life/2012/03/chief-scientists-are-not-superheroes.html#more">evidence is misguided</a>. </p>
<p>This misplaced notion is partly due to the complexity and multiple dimensions of scientific knowledge in the context of environmental policy. In the past, environmental policy has broadly focused on “evidence,” which tolerates bias and is not subject to peer review, rather than “<a href="http://www.pmcsa.org.nz/blog/scientific-advice-in-a-troubled-world/">scientific evidence</a>” and “<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/braiding-science-together-with-indigenous-knowledge/">multiple lines of evidence</a>” more specifically.</p>
<p>Although the federal government has begun to show interest in <a href="https://www.wcel.org/blog/canadas-proposed-new-impact-assessment-act-good-afar-far-good">integrating scientific evidence into its environmental policies</a>, elected leadership at <em>all</em> levels must be in tune with these calls for change. </p>
<h2>Inciting rigour</h2>
<p>So how then can these science advisers make more effective contributions? In our experience as young environmental professionals, we have noticed a number of gaps that have yet to to be recognized in recent science-policy discussions.</p>
<p>First, there is only sporadic discussion of how evidence differs from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2014.05.010">reviews of scientific evidence</a> for policy and decision guidance. For example, a synthesis of all relevant studies on a particular question can provide more robust evidence than a single study on its own, a process called evidence synthesis or meta-analysis. </p>
<p>These exercises push disciplines towards building scientific consensus, which should be used to inform environmental policies. Chief scientists should shoulder these types of activities that are tailored to the needs of specific policies instead of passing along those duties to others who may be susceptible to political spin. </p>
<p>Additionally, the people and institutions spearheading environmental science should find ways to put their research findings into use by employing novel and existing methods <a href="https://theconversation.com/co-operative-research-revolution-could-answer-call-to-transform-science-and-society-81447">such as co-operative networks</a>. Networks are an important tool for <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/485301a">chief scientists</a>; however, science networks should also consciously <a href="http://akademiai.com/doi/abs/10.1007/s11192-012-0703-z">avoid insularity</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, chief scientists must build <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fred-wrona-alberta-environment-1.4294304">trusting relationships</a>. Trust in science is built, in part, through objective, critical and independent thought.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are few examples of trust-building actions by science advisers. For example, is it enough to allow <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/09/26/chief-science-advisor">federal scientists to speak freely</a> about their work, as mandated by the federal Chief Science Advisor? </p>
<p>Surely federal scientists should be encouraged to <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148867">make outreach a priority</a> for the purposes of building trust in science, rather than simply granting them the freedom to speak.</p>
<p>Despite these recommendations, many provincial and territorial environmental agencies have ministers and deputy ministers <a href="http://facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2017-0087#ttl11">without scientific qualifications</a> such as degrees in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. </p>
<p>This is worrying. Until ministries have leaders who are committed to science and meaningfully engage with scientific communities, their environmental policies and decisions will <a href="https://albertaviews.ca/facts-dont-matter/">likely come up short</a>. Further, few scientists have been <a href="https://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/why-dont-americans-elect-scientists/">elected and appointed to positions of power</a>, seemingly a global phenomenon with few exceptions.</p>
<p>Science advisers undoubtedly provide a critical voice for environmental science within government. But we must continue to find new ways to embed science into the political arenas of decision-making and policy development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josh Cronmiller receives funding from Natural Resources and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelechi Nwanekezie receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canada</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magali F. Nehemy receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) - CREATE for Water Security</span></em></p>Science advisers can make important contributions to environmental policy and decision making by government. But we should expect even more.Josh Cronmiller, M.Sc. Environmental Management, University of SaskatchewanKelechi Nwanekezie, PhD Candidate, Environmental Assessment & Policy, University of SaskatchewanMagali F. Nehemy, PhD Candidate, School of Environment and Sustainability, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/853602017-10-15T22:34:00Z2017-10-15T22:34:00ZRegulations alone didn’t sink the Energy East pipeline<p>Did regulation kill Energy East? </p>
<p>Conservative leader <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewscheer/status/915944313309286400">Andrew Scheer thinks it did</a>. So does <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3787809/brad-wall-federal-government-justin-trudeau-cancellation-energy-east-pipeline-equalization-payments/">Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan</a>. TransCanada, the project’s proponent, has been circumspect, merely announcing that “changed circumstances” led them to <a href="http://www.energyeastpipeline.com/">terminate the project</a> earlier this month.</p>
<p>Energy East would have carried 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta to New Brunswick using repurposed existing natural gas pipelines for much of its length. At more than 4,500 kilometres, this project would have been the longest pipeline in the country. </p>
<p>It would have required co-operation among <a href="https://canadians.org/pipelines/will-your-community-be-affected-energy-east-pipeline">the federal government, six provinces, 75 municipalities and more than 50 First Nations</a>. In many ways, this mega-project would have been the most ambitious infrastructure build ever undertaken in Canada, surpassing the political difficulties associated with the construction of the national railways at the end of 19th century.</p>
<p>All energy mega-projects are subject to review by the <a href="https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/index-eng.html">National Energy Board</a>, the regulatory body that is responsible for overseeing energy projects, pipelines and trade in Canada. The review incorporates extensive public consultation and an assessment of the project’s environmental impacts. </p>
<p>The Liberals made election promises in 2015 to review and improve the environmental assessment process related to energy projects. It set out <a href="http://www.projectlawblog.com/2016/01/27/federal-government-releases-guiding-principles-for-project-review/">five principles</a> to guide these improvements, including more time for consultations, greater consultation with Indigenous peoples and the consideration of upstream and downstream emissions generated by the project. </p>
<h2>New reviews and delays</h2>
<p>At the beginning of 2016, the Liberal government announced it would extend the reviews of two pipeline projects, Energy East and Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline to Burnaby, B.C., to improve the consultation process.</p>
<p>This posed a challenge for TransCanada and added cost to the process. Then, in August 2016, the entire consultation <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/nebs-missteps-make-energy-east-a-political-problem-for-trudeau/article31601223/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">process was derailed</a> due to <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/08/04/news/canada-pipeline-panel-apologizes-releases-records-meeting-charest">conflict-of-interest issues</a>. It was restarted from scratch in early 2017 — a delay that exposed the Energy East project to more regulatory uncertainty.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/themes/environment/conservation/environmental-reviews/building-common-ground/building-common-ground.pdf">report outlining a new vision</a> for environmental assessment, which included the five proposed principles, was delivered to the environment and climate change minister at the end of March 2017. The Liberal government is <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/conservation/assessments/environmental-reviews/environmental-assessment-processes.html">currently considering the implications</a> of the proposed changes. </p>
<p>This undoubtedly led to the National Energy Board’s decision in August 2017 <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/08/23/energy-east-pipeline-to-review-upstream-downstream-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html">to include the upstream and downstream emissions</a> associated with new oil production and consumption when it considered the environmental implications of the Energy East project.</p>
<p>TransCanada put Energy East on hold in September 2017 and finally cancelled it a month later. The company announced it will write down an <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/transcanada-terminates-plan-for-energy-east-pipeline">estimated $1 billion in costs</a> associated with the terminated project.</p>
<p>So, did regulation kill Energy East? Many other factors also hurt its chances of getting the green light. </p>
<h2>The future of energy mega-projects</h2>
<p>President Trump’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/23/politics/keystone-xl-pipeline-trump-approve/index.html">restart of Keystone XL</a> (TransCanada’s other megaproject), as well as an <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/oil-prices-slump-over-1-percent-on-rise-in-us-output.html">ongoing slump in oil prices</a> and a <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/oilsands-production-to-rise-by-500000-bpd-over-next-two-years-exceeded-only-by-u-s-shale-ihs">slowdown in Alberta oilsands production growth</a> all likely had much more impact on the decision to terminate the project. They may well have led to the project’s end even without the regulatory shifts. </p>
<p>But it’s also clear that changing the way the Energy East project would be evaluated during the active assessment period complicated the issue unnecessarily.</p>
<p>Canada will see more proposals for new energy mega-projects in the future. If these types of projects are to succeed, the regulatory landscape related to environmental assessment must be predictable and consistent. </p>
<p>Energy projects face a great deal of market uncertainty, and it’s appropriate for companies to take on the associated business risk. But it’s the job of government to reduce the policy risk by providing a transparent and stable regulatory environment.</p>
<p>Project proponents face significant challenges if the rules are changed in the middle of an assessment. This was particularly true in the case of Energy East, where the extended timeline exposed the project to extreme shifts on the regulatory side. Future projects should be assessed under consistent rules from start to finish.</p>
<p>This is not to say that regulation is undesirable. It’s not unreasonable for Canada to set aggressive rules regarding environmental assessment, particularly when these rules help us meet goals that are broadly supported by Canadians.</p>
<p>Increased consultation with Indigenous peoples and a reduced national greenhouse gas emissions footprint are both worth the effort – and these changes will increase the confidence that Canadians have in future energy mega-projects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85360/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Warren Mabee receives funding from NSERC and SSHRC, which support his research into energy portfolios and the impacts of energy development in Canada. </span></em></p>With TransCanada’s decision to cancel the Energy East pipeline project Canada’s energy policies are under attack.Warren Mabee, Director, Queen's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/725622017-02-16T03:20:34Z2017-02-16T03:20:34ZAre fossil fuel companies telling investors enough about the risks of climate change?<p>Prior to President Donald Trump taking office, <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2016.10.26_ny_v._pwc_and_exxon_decision_and_order.pdf">there was a push</a> to require oil and gas companies to inform their investors about the risks of climate change. As governments step up efforts to regulate carbon emissions, the thinking goes, fossil fuel companies’ assets could depreciate in value over time. </p>
<p>The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-investigating-exxon-on-valuing-of-assets-accounting-practices-1474393593">was probing</a> how ExxonMobil discloses the impact of that risk on the value of its reserves. And <a href="http://www.sasb.org/investors-sec-sustainability-disclosure/">disclosure advocates</a> <a href="http://www.cdsb.net/news">have been pressing</a> the agency to <a href="https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/3558720/investors-endowments-and-foundations/michael-bloomberg-pushes-companies-to-reveal-climate-risk.html">take more decisive action</a>. </p>
<p>Now that Republicans control Congress and the White House, will the SEC reverse course? And should it? </p>
<p>The Trump administration’s apparent skepticism regarding climate change may portend such a change in direction. And Congress’ <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/31/politics/oil-industry-regulations/">decision to roll back transparency rules for U.S. energy companies</a> in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-are-poised-to-roll-out-their-roll-back-of-dodd-frank-law-1486315341">Dodd-Frank Act</a> suggests transparency policy more broadly is being loosened. </p>
<p>The terms of this debate, however, remain premised on the notion that investors don’t have enough information to accurately assess the impact of climate change on company value. A growing body of academic research, including our own, suggests they already do and that a compromise path that improves the terms and conditions for voluntary disclosure might be optimal.</p>
<h2>‘Stranded’ assets</h2>
<p>Such a change in direction would be good news for ExxonMobil in its fight with the SEC over climate change disclosure. </p>
<p>Last year, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/29/business/energy-environment/exxon-concedes-it-may-need-to-declare-lower-value-for-oil-in-ground.html">ExxonMobil announced</a> that 4.6 billion barrels of oil and gas assets – 20 percent of its current inventory of future prospects – may be too expensive to tap. That would be the largest asset write-down in its history. So far, the company <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-results-idUSKBN15F1JR">has written down</a> US$2 billion in expensive, above-market cost natural gas assets. More write-downs – this time possibly oil sands – may be forthcoming.</p>
<p>It’s not clear how much of that are tied to the risks of climate change, but some took it <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1d719e1e-9f41-11e6-86d5-4e36b35c3550">as evidence</a> that the fossil fuel industry is not doing enough to inform investors about those risks.</p>
<p>Disclosure advocates in the United States and Europe have been urging oil and gas companies to say more about the potential for their booked assets to become “stranded” over time. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/03/bank-of-england-warns-of-financial-risk-from-fossil-fuel-investments">Stranded assets</a> are mainly oil and gas reserves that might have to stay in the ground as a result of a combination of new efficiency technologies and policy actions that seek to limit greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/01/15/decline-us-coal-industry/">collapse in coal equities last year</a> highlighted that concern. Intensifying price competition from cleaner energy sources such as natural gas and solar energy and the increasing cost of developing cleaner coal overwhelmed the industry’s already declining revenue.</p>
<p>Whatever policy direction the SEC takes on climate risk, it is unlikely to deter those investors who believe the present system of voluntary and mandatory disclosure has failed to provide them with sufficient information on the risks of climate change. And some market participants, such as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/09/30/mark-carney-climate-change_n_8222008.html">Bank of England Governor Mark Carney</a>, worry that the underreporting of climate change information is creating a big risk for financial markets – a carbon bubble – that could lead to a major market failure.</p>
<p>Currently, the SEC requires mandatory disclosure of all “<a href="http://irwebreport.com/20110121/when-information-is-material/">material</a>” information, while everything else is voluntary. This system has created a <a href="https://www.pagriffin.com/papers/GHGpaper_march_2016_final.pdf">vast amount</a> of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2013.02.002">publicly available information</a> on the costs and risks of climate change. </p>
<p>But as the recent ExxonMobil revelations highlight, the market clearly does not have all information. There are good reasons for this. For competitive reasons and business survival, certain company information is kept confidential and private. </p>
<p>The courts and the SEC have always acknowledged a company’s right to privacy regarding certain information. Companies, moreover, argue it could be harmful to shareholders if disclosed prematurely. An appropriate balance is required.</p>
<h2>Costs of carbon</h2>
<p>Our own research confirms that financial markets already price climate risk into oil and gas company stocks based on company reports and <a href="https://ir.citi.com/E8%2B83ZXr1vd%2Fqyim0DizLrUxw2FvuAQ2jOlmkGzr4ffw4YJCK8s0q2W58AkV%2FypGoKD74zHfji8%3D">other data available</a> from public and proprietary sources. These data allow investors to estimate reasonably accurately the effects of climate change on companies, including the expectation of write-downs.</p>
<p>For example, our work suggests that investors first began pricing in this kind of data as early as 2009, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988315002546">when the scientific climate change evidence</a> about stranded assets first became known. Our <a href="http://www.pagriffin.com/papers/GHGpaper_march_2016_final.pdf">latest research</a>, soon to be published in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1911-3846">Contemporary Accounting Research</a>, shows that the share price of the median company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 reflects a penalty of about $79 per ton of carbon emissions (based on data through 2012). This penalty considers all S&P 500 companies, not just oil and gas firms. Importantly, this research also shows that investors are able to assess this penalty from company disclosures and the noncompany information available on climate change risk.</p>
<p>This penalty comprises the expected cost of carbon mitigation and the <a href="https://www.pagriffin.com/papers/GHGpaper_march_2016_final.pdf">possible loss of revenue</a> from cheaper energy sources.</p>
<p>Exxon, for its part, says <a href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/10/19/exxon-ceo-world-needs-oil-of-five-saudi-arabias-by-2040/">it prices the cost of long-term carbon</a> internally at $80 a ton, matching our market model. </p>
<h2>The right mix</h2>
<p>All this begs the question of what level of additional mandatory disclosure is needed to improve the “total mix of information available” for investors on which to base decisions. </p>
<p>With climate change a pressing concern, investors certainly have a right to demand more disclosure, and we agree with that. But at what cost? </p>
<p>Indeed, the cost of disclosure can be significant, and it’s not just the direct out-of-pocket costs that policymakers should consider when drawing up <a href="https://wagner.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/wagner-regulatory-reform-bill-passes-us-house">new regulations</a>. Indirect costs, such as forcing oil and gas companies to disclose vital confidential information to rivals, could be particularly burdensome to particular companies. And society could pay a heavy price if new rules lead companies to make unwise operating or investment decisions or postpone investment unnecessarily. Energy costs could increase or supplies decrease because of miscalculations. </p>
<p>Additionally, the private sector is trying to fill the gap on its own. Moody’s Investor Service, for example, <a href="https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-to-use-greenhouse-gas-emission-reduction-scenario-consistent-with--PR_351269">announced</a> in June that it will now independently assess carbon transition risk as part of its credit rating for companies in 13 sectors, including oil and gas.</p>
<h2>SEC voluntary disclosure program</h2>
<p>Given these and other factors, rather than mandate any new disclosures now, we urge the SEC to first implement a voluntary program along the lines of <a href="https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/sec-report-questionable-illegal-corporate-payments-practices-1976.pdf">its successful 1976 program</a> for the disclosure of sensitive foreign payments (like bribes). The <a href="http://3197d6d14b5f19f2f440-5e13d29c4c016cf96cbbfd197c579b45.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/collection/papers/1970/1977_1103_AdvisoryDisclosure.pdf">SEC’s report</a> on this program showed no harm to the stock prices of participants after they disclosed payments. </p>
<p>In fact, it is often the lack of participation that invites a negative stock price response, as markets often view nondisclosing businesses as those with something to hide.</p>
<p>This voluntary program also helped pave the way for the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/foreign-corrupt-practices-act">Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977</a>, which <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/blog/criminal-division-launches-new-fcpa-pilot-program">formalized</a> the accounting requirements for bribery payments to foreign officials. </p>
<p>We would hope that a voluntary disclosure program for climate change would achieve a similar goal: that is, formal SEC disclosure requirements that consider the interests of all parties. </p>
<p>Such a program could initially target a defined group, such as the 50 largest SEC-registered oil and gas firms. That would give the SEC and private organizations like Moody’s the additional hard data and experience needed to examine the costs, benefits and financial market impacts of climate change risk disclosures.</p>
<p>Doing this would pave the way for more permanent rule-making to better serve the needs of investors, companies and, ultimately, the public.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-oil-companies-like-exxon-be-forced-to-disclose-climate-change-risks-66961">article originally published</a> on Nov. 2, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Myers Jaffe also serves as a senior advisor for energy and sustainability for Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California. She recently published a study on methodologies for 2 degree scenario analysis for Ceres, an NGO that advocates for sustainability leadership. Her research at the University of California Davis is funded by grants from California government agencies, the Sloan Foundation and an industry consortium including automobile and oil and gas companies.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Griffin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Trump administration may reverse a recent push to require oil companies to disclose more information about climate change risks to investors. Is that a good thing?Paul Griffin, Professor of Management, University of California, DavisAmy Myers Jaffe, Executive Director for Energy and Sustainability, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/669612016-11-03T02:06:58Z2016-11-03T02:06:58ZShould oil companies like Exxon be forced to disclose climate change risks?<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/29/business/energy-environment/exxon-concedes-it-may-need-to-declare-lower-value-for-oil-in-ground.html">Exxon Mobil announced</a> on Oct. 28 that it may have to take the largest asset write-down in its history. The company said that 4.6 billion barrels of oil and gas assets – 20 percent of its current inventory of future prospects – may be too expensive to tap. </p>
<p>Some took Exxon’s statement <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1d719e1e-9f41-11e6-86d5-4e36b35c3550">as evidence</a> that the fossil fuel industry is not doing enough to inform investors about climate change risk. As governments step up efforts to regulate carbon emissions, the thinking goes, fossil fuel companies’ assets are worth less. </p>
<p>It follows the opening of a <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-investigating-exxon-on-valuing-of-assets-accounting-practices-1474393593">Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation</a> into how Exxon discloses the impact of that risk on the value of its reserves. That probe and <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2016.10.26_ny_v._pwc_and_exxon_decision_and_order.pdf">others</a> build on the claim that the present system of voluntary and mandatory disclosure has failed investors by not providing enough information on the risks of climate change. <a href="http://www.sasb.org/investors-sec-sustainability-disclosure/">Disclosure advocates</a> <a href="http://www.cdsb.net/news">are pressing</a> the SEC to <a href="https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/3558720/investors-endowments-and-foundations/michael-bloomberg-pushes-companies-to-reveal-climate-risk.html">take more decisive action</a>. </p>
<p>But what’s the proper policy that balances the need for disclosure with its costs and impact on confidentiality? </p>
<p>This debate matters not only to investors but to the public as well. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/09/30/mark-carney-climate-change_n_8222008.html">Bank of England Governor Mark Carney</a> and others worry that the underreporting of climate change information is creating a big risk for financial markets – a carbon “bubble” – that could lead to a major market failure. Some, like Carney, are worried about a financial crisis similar to 2008-2009.</p>
<p>All this is premised, however, on the notion that investors don’t already have enough information to accurately price in the impact of climate change. A growing body of academic research, including our own, however, suggests markets have access to substantial climate risk information, and that the SEC and others would be wise to tread carefully.</p>
<h2>The problem of stranded assets</h2>
<p>Regulators in both the United States and Europe have been urging oil and gas companies to say more about the potential for their booked assets to become “stranded” over time. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/03/bank-of-england-warns-of-financial-risk-from-fossil-fuel-investments">Stranded assets</a> are mainly oil and gas reserves that might have to stay in the ground as a result of policy actions that seek to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Those limits hinge on keeping global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels, although some have warned that even warming of 2 degrees is <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-matter-of-degrees-why-2c-warming-is-officially-unsafe-42308">unsafe.</a></p>
<p>The <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/01/15/decline-us-coal-industry/">collapse in coal equities</a> last year highlighted that concern. Intensifying price competition from cleaner energy sources such as natural gas and solar energy and the increasing cost of developing “clean coal” to satisfy government criteria overwhelmed the industry’s already declining revenue.</p>
<p>In the U.S., the SEC and the New York attorney general are pressing Exxon hard to disclose more of this information in its financial statements. Both inquiries raise the fundamental issue of whether the current system has, in fact, <a href="https://www.sec.gov/rules/interp/2010/33-9106.pdf">failed investors</a> and the public at large.</p>
<h2>Full disclosure</h2>
<p>Currently, the SEC requires full disclosure of all information deemed “<a href="http://irwebreport.com/20110121/when-information-is-material/">material</a>” for investors in companies’ regulatory filings, while everything else is voluntary. </p>
<p>It is far from obvious how much the current system is failing to price risks accurately. As Exxon’s disclosure shows, the market already has a lot of information. And new details are quickly absorbed. </p>
<p>Exxon’s share price fell 2.5 percent after the write-down, but that was <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1d719e1e-9f41-11e6-86d5-4e36b35c3550">more likely a reaction to the sharp drop</a> in third-quarter profit from a year earlier. It was hardly an extreme reaction that suggested investors were taken aback by the asset disclosure.</p>
<p>While that gave investors more clarity about how Exxon is valuing its oil sands assets, information on the risks of that investment had already been widely available from a <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29092016/exxon-mobil-change-change-investigation-oil-sands-tar-sands-alberta-canada-sec">variety of sources</a>. And regardless of what Exxon says, its share price will partially reflect the disclosures of rival companies. Chevron and Chesapeake, for example, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-16/n-y-said-to-be-probing-exxon-s-valuation-of-oil-reserves">have already cut the value of their oil and gas reserves</a> by billions of dollars, while Total, <a href="http://www.statoil.com/en/NewsAndMedia/News/2016/Pages/17aug-ncs2030.aspx">Statoil</a> and <a href="http://www.conocophillips.com/sustainable-development/environment/climate-change/Pages/default.aspx">ConocoPhillips</a> have volunteered information on how they incorporate climate change risk into their strategies. </p>
<p>A growing body of academic research also supports this view, concluding that, in general, investors are already pricing stocks based on the <a href="https://www.pagriffin.com/papers/GHGpaper_march_2016_final.pdf">vast amount</a> of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2013.02.002">publicly available information</a> on the costs and risks of climate change. </p>
<p>As the Exxon revelation highlights, however, the market clearly does not have all information. There are good reasons for this. For competitive reasons and business survival, certain company information is kept confidential and private. Companies argue it could be harmful to shareholders if disclosed prematurely. </p>
<p>But the fact that Exxon’s stock did not collapse when it volunteered its write-down news is also evidence that it knew what the markets already knew: namely, that its oil sands operations were risky and expensive. </p>
<h2>Costs of carbon</h2>
<p>The stock market reaction to Exxon’s possible write-down is also an indication that the climate-related market crisis <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/01/bank-of-england-investigating-risk-of-carbon-bubble">that some fear</a> is not around the corner. </p>
<p>Our research confirms that financial markets already price much of this climate risk into oil and gas company stocks based on company reports and a vast array of data from public and proprietary sources. These data allow investors to estimate reasonably accurately the effects of climate change on companies, including the expectation of write-downs.</p>
<p>For example, our work suggests that investors first began pricing in this kind of data as early as 2009, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988315002546">when the scientific climate change evidence</a> about stranded assets first became known. <a href="http://www.pagriffin.com/papers/GHGpaper_march_2016_final.pdf">Our latest research shows</a> that the share price of the median company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 reflects a penalty of about US$79 per ton of carbon emissions (based on data through 2012). This penalty considers all S&P 500 companies, not just oil and gas firms. </p>
<p>This penalty comprises the expected cost of carbon mitigation and the <a href="https://www.pagriffin.com/papers/GHGpaper_march_2016_final.pdf">possible loss of revenue</a> from cheaper energy sources.</p>
<p>Exxon, for its part, says <a href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/10/19/exxon-ceo-world-needs-oil-of-five-saudi-arabias-by-2040/">it prices the cost of long-term carbon</a> internally at $80 a ton, matching our market model. </p>
<h2>The right mix</h2>
<p>All this begs the question of what level of additional mandatory disclosure is needed to improve the “total mix of information available” for investors on which to base decisions. </p>
<p>With climate change a pressing concern, investors certainly have a right to demand more disclosure, and we agree with that. But at what cost? </p>
<p>Indeed, the cost of disclosure can be significant, and it’s not just the direct out-of-pocket costs that policymakers should consider when drawing up <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5429">new regulations</a>. Indirect costs, such as forcing oil and gas companies to disclose vital confidential information to rivals, could be particularly burdensome to particular companies. And society could pay a heavy price if new rules lead companies to make unwise operating or investment decisions or postpone investment unnecessarily. Energy costs could increase or supplies decrease because of miscalculations. </p>
<p>Additionally, the private sector is trying to fill the gap on its own. Moody’s Investor Service, for example, <a href="https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-to-use-greenhouse-gas-emission-reduction-scenario-consistent-with--PR_351269">announced</a> in June that it will now independently assess carbon transition risk as part of its credit rating for companies in 13 sectors, including oil and gas.</p>
<p>Given these and other factors, rather than mandate any new disclosures now, we urge the SEC to first implement a voluntary program along the lines of <a href="https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/sec-report-questionable-illegal-corporate-payments-practices-1976.pdf">its successful 1976 program</a> for the disclosure of sensitive foreign payments (like bribes). The <a href="http://3197d6d14b5f19f2f440-5e13d29c4c016cf96cbbfd197c579b45.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/collection/papers/1970/1977_1103_AdvisoryDisclosure.pdf">SEC’s report</a> on this program showed no harm to the stock prices of participants after they disclosed payments. </p>
<p>In fact, it is often the lack of participation that invites a negative stock price response, as markets often view nondisclosing businesses as those with something to hide.</p>
<p>This voluntary program also helped pave the way for the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/foreign-corrupt-practices-act">Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977</a>, which <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/blog/criminal-division-launches-new-fcpa-pilot-program">formalized</a> the accounting requirements for bribery payments to foreign officials. </p>
<p>We would hope that a voluntary disclosure program for climate change would achieve a similar goal. That is, formal disclosure requirements that consider the interests of all parties. </p>
<p>Such a program could initially target a defined group, such as the 50 largest SEC-registered oil and gas firms. That would give the SEC and private organizations like Moody’s the hard data and experience needed to examine the costs, benefits and financial market impacts of climate change risk disclosures.</p>
<p>Doing this would pave the way for more permanent rule-making to better serve the needs of investors, companies and, ultimately, the public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66961/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Myers Jaffe also serves as a senior advisor for energy and sustainability for Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California. She recently published a study on methodologies for 2 degree scenario analysis for Ceres, an NGO that advocates for sustainability leadership. Her research at the University of California Davis is funded by grants from California government agencies, the Sloan Foundation and an industry consortium including automobile and oil and gas companies. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Griffin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The SEC and others are pressing Exxon to disclose more climate change risks to investors. But new research suggests shareholders are already pricing in those costs on their own.Paul Griffin, Professor of Management, University of California, DavisAmy Myers Jaffe, Executive Director for Energy and Sustainability, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421672015-05-26T01:54:15Z2015-05-26T01:54:15ZCanada’s climate target is a smokescreen and full of loopholes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82814/original/image-20150525-32572-1fvomea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Increasing emissions from Canada's oil and gas sector will make Canada's post-2020 pledge very difficult to achieve. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/6855367701/">kris krüg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month Canada’s federal government revealed the contribution that Canada intends to make towards a new global climate deal – 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. </p>
<p>On first glance, the target appears to be stronger than most observers of Canadian climate policy would have expected. Prime Minister Stephen Harper had earlier declared that Canada’s contribution would be “<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harper-says-canada-s-emission-targets-unlikely-to-be-exactly-the-same-as-u-s-1.3047002">of similar levels of ambition to other major industrialised countries</a>”.</p>
<p>However, closer scrutiny reveals that the target has major flaws. It is very unlikely that Canada will see a 30% reduction of domestic greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the pledge. </p>
<h2>What’s in the target</h2>
<p>Compared to 2005, the target would reduce emissions by 220 million tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub>-equivalent by 2030. </p>
<p>Canada <a href="http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/Canada/1/INDC%20-%20Canada%20-%20English.pdf">plans to do this</a> through fuel efficiency regulations, regulating hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs; less than 1% of Canadian emissions), limiting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector and addressing non-CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from natural gas-fired power plants. All of these are important steps.</p>
<p>The cover note of the pledge also points to the fact that, in a federation such as Canada, every level of government has to play its part. Indeed, as we will see, there is a strong expectation on the part of the federal government that it is in fact the provincial governments that will achieve most of these promised reductions. </p>
<h2>Creative accounting</h2>
<p>Canada’s submission also specifies a new method of accounting for emissions from forestry and land use, which decreases the reduction Canada needs to make.</p>
<p>In previous years, the stated intention was to use a so-called reference level approach (which I discussed <a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/grahamsaul/2012/08/creative-accounting-not-climate-progress-behind-kent%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cprogress%E2%80%9D-">here</a>) to calculate the sector’s contribution to the Copenhagen target. This was last estimated to result in <a href="http://ec.gc.ca/Publications/E998D465-B89F-4E0F-8327-01D5B0D66885/ETR_E-2014.pdf">19 million tonnes worth of credits</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the new approach is estimated to yield a much higher credit, <a href="http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/canada.html">around 63 million tonnes</a>, without any change in climate policy. </p>
<p>Further, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rising-carbon-emissions-from-oilsands-a-unique-challenge-federal-cabinet-told-1.3079444">a secret internal briefing memo</a> prepared for the federal cabinet and seen by this author, estimates that the current oil price slump and the associated slow down in economic activity in some sectors, especially oil and gas, will result in a 30-million-tonne reduction in 2030 emissions, again without any actual federal climate policy. </p>
<p>Finally, the indication to use international offsets is a fundamental shift in the Harper government’s approach – Harper himself <a href="http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature7.cfm?REF=308">called international offsets “hot air”</a>. When Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-pulls-out-of-kyoto-protocol-1.999072">it was hinted</a> that the reluctance of the government to meet its targets by purchasing international credits was a main reason for the decision. </p>
<p>In the previously-mentioned cabinet memo, the envisioned volume of offset purchases in 2030 is pegged at 33 million tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub>-equivalent – again without any changes in Canada’s domestic emissions profile. It is important to remember that international cooperation on climate change mitigation – and offset projects can represent such cooperation – is a crucial component of the overall response to climate change. </p>
<p>However, most of this cooperation must be realized in addition to, and not instead of, stringent domestic mitigation. </p>
<p>In total, of the 220 million tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub>-equivalent of emission reductions implied by the 30% target, up to 126 million tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub>-equivalent can therefore already be achieved without any actual changes to domestic climate policy.</p>
<h2>Leaving provinces to go it alone</h2>
<p>The current Canadian government has elected to pursue a sector-by-sector regulatory approach to climate policy, rather than, for example a market-based economy-wide one. </p>
<p>In practice, however, the only sectors regulated so far are <a href="http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/Canada/1/INDC%20-%20Canada%20-%20English.pdf">vehicle fuel efficiency</a> and coal-fired power generation, with a standard that will <a href="http://www.pembina.org/blog/647">not be fully implemented until 2062</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, the Province of Ontario has already <a href="http://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2013/11/ontario---first-place-in-north-america-to-end-coal-fired-power.html">completely phased out coal fired generation</a>, from a share of <a href="http://eco.climatenetwork.org/cop19-eco10-2/">27% of electricity generation</a> in the early 2000s, highlighting a disconnect between federal and provincial policy approaches to climate change. </p>
<p>Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, a part of the office of Canada’s Auditor General, <a href="http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/oss_20141202_e_40004.html">concluded</a> that there is strong evidence that Canada will fail to meet its 2020 target because of the federal government’s failure so far to “have an overall plan that maps out how Canada will achieve this target … or to provide the necessary coordination so that all levels of government … can achieve the national target”. </p>
<p>Instead of providing such coordinating role, the Canadian federal government is instead heavily leaning on the provincial governments to implement effective climate policy of their own. </p>
<p>In fact, in their briefing note to cabinet, federal bureaucrats estimated that as much as 89 million tonnes of the total 220-million-tonne Canadian reduction target could come from provincial efforts. </p>
<p>However, the most striking example of the sector-by-sector approach’s limitations is the fact that the federal government has repeatedly announced its intention (see <a href="http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2008/03/11/canadian-government-delivers-details-of-greenhouse-gas-regulatory-framework">here</a>, <a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/rss/Prentice+tells+sands+clean/2509815/story.html">here</a>, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/oil-and-gas-industry-emission-rules-still-not-ready-from-ottawa-1.1343855">here</a> and <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/environment-minister-aglukkaq-vows-to-fulfill-2020-carbon-promise/article15483071/">here</a>) to regulate the oil and gas sector since 2006 and has now dropped any plans for policies to address greenhouse gas emissions from this sector.</p>
<p>Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq highlighted these intentions <a href="https://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=FFE36B6D-1&news=E691AE65-00D0-4DF2-9245-DA3AD224E2CE">in her speech</a> at the 2013 United Nations climate summit in Warsaw, but during <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/leona-aglukkaq-s-un-climate-speech-doesn-t-mention-oil-and-gas-emissions-1.2775407?cmp=rss">her speech</a> at the UN climate talks the following year, any references to her government’s intentions with regards to oil and gas were absent.</p>
<h2>Oil sands missing in action</h2>
<p>This brings us to the third major flaw in Canada’s INDC, the failure to address the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, the oil sands. </p>
<p>Oil sands emissions are expected to increase fourfold between 2005 and 2030 (by about 102 million tonnes), but there are no plans to regulate the sector. </p>
<p>As the fastest growing source of emissions, the oil sands represent an important test of the sincerity of the government’s intentions with regards to climate policy. </p>
<p>It is implausible to assume an emissions trajectory for Canada which is in line with global emissions pathways that are compatible with holding warming to 2C or less in which oil sands emissions are not addressed. </p>
<p>In fact, in recent years emissions growth in the oil and gas sector more than cancelled out any emissions reductions undertaken in other sectors of the economy. This included Ontario’s coal phase-out which is routinely characterized as <a href="http://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2013/11/ontario---first-place-in-north-america-to-end-coal-fired-power.html">“the single largest greenhouse gas reduction initiative in North America”</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82752/original/image-20150523-32575-1onq4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82752/original/image-20150523-32575-1onq4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82752/original/image-20150523-32575-1onq4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82752/original/image-20150523-32575-1onq4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82752/original/image-20150523-32575-1onq4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82752/original/image-20150523-32575-1onq4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82752/original/image-20150523-32575-1onq4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Projected Changes in Canadian Greenhouse Gas Emissions through 2030. (Data Sources: Environment Canada: Emissions Trends 2014 and First Biennial Report)
Note: some of the expected growth of the oilsands sector is masked by an expected decline of conventional oil and gas extraction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stopping free-riders</h2>
<p>In aggregate, these observations suggest the Canadian pledge will result in much fewer real emissions reductions and long term climate and energy policy intervention than a quick glance at the top-level figure of 30% would suggest. </p>
<p>It is consistent with the track record of the current Canadian government whose stated approach to climate policy has been <a href="http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/oss_20141202_e_40004.html">characterized by the Auditor General’s office</a> as failing to meet the current reduction target for 2020. </p>
<p>In a federation, the minimum role of a federal government is to ensure fairness between its subnational entities and overall ambition of the country by restricting free-riding by parts of the country or sectors of the economy and by providing a common framework of minimal standards. </p>
<p>Judging from Canada’s pledge and the plans and considerations associated with it, this is not the approach of Canada’s federal government. Instead it appears intent to erect a smokescreen to shield the view from its unwillingness to address emissions from the largest growing source of emissions, the oil sands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian Holz receives funding from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He is the former Executive Director and a current member of the board of directors of Climate Action Network Canada - Résau action climat Canada and advises the organization on international climate policy.</span></em></p>This month Canada revealed its post-2020 climate target as 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. But current policies make it unlikely Canada will achieve the target within the country.Christian Holz, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Political Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/329292014-10-22T09:42:12Z2014-10-22T09:42:12ZKeystone XL debate: how pipeline politics divide Nebraska<p>In Nebraska, the intensity of the Keystone XL debate is second only to that over the chance that the <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/107775/nebraska-may-give-the-big-ten-its-best-shot">Nebraska Cornhuskers</a> will win the Big Ten football championship. Raging for several years now, controversy over the pipeline has bounced from the governor to the legislature, the state Supreme Court and back again, with the final decision <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/al-gore-keystone-pipeline-obama-107998.html">going to President Obama</a> who has not yet announced a decision. In the end, all the Nebraska politics and posturing may be for nothing.</p>
<p>Proposed in September 2008, the pipeline would start in Alberta, Canada, enter the United States in Montana and link with an existing pipeline at Steele City, Nebraska. It would carry 830,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen (a semisolid petroleum product combined with natural gas) across 275 miles of Nebraska farm and ranch land, traversing more than 500 private properties. The bitumen’ destination is the refineries of the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast, where it will be transformed into refined products to meet US demand.</p>
<h2>Strange bedfellows</h2>
<p>The politics of Nebraska, a deep red state, have been temporally scrambled by the unusual coalitions formed to support or oppose the pipeline. It is not a shock that the business community, Republican Governor Dave Heineman, and a majority of the legislature — officially nonpartisan but mostly Republican — have teamed up in support. What is surprising is the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/business/energy-environment/afl-cio-backs-keystone-oil-pipeline-if-indirectly.html?_r=0">addition of some labor unions</a> to this mix. Meanwhile, environmentalists and Democratic activists have joined with typically more conservative farmers and ranchers to oppose the pipeline.</p>
<p>This opposition, led by Nebraska political activist <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/jane-kleeb-vs-the-keystone-pipeline.html">Jane Kleeb</a>, relies on a populist approach that mixes reasonable concerns, such as possible pollution of the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/keystone-xl-pipeline-may-threaten-aquifer-that-irrigates-much-of-the-central-us/2012/08/06/7bf0215c-d4db-11e1-a9e3-c5249ea531ca_story.html">Ogallala aquifer</a>, alongside disregard of landowner concerns, with bombastic arguments that are a stretch at best. For example, at a public meeting last winter, a feedlot owner asked the crowd what they thought he should do with 10,000 dead cows, which he apparently believes could result from constructing the pipeline next to his property. This even though Nebraska already has <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-college-classroom-crusade-to-teach-marvel-to-undergrads-32200">15,000 miles of hazardous materials</a> pipeline under the aquifer, including two delivering diluted bitumen from Canada.</p>
<p>Proponents believe the pipeline will <a href="http://keystone-xl.com/about/jobs-and-economic-benefits/">create jobs</a> and improve American energy security by easing the flow of oil from a friendly neighbor. They note that the Alberta deposits have an estimated <a href="http://oilsands.alberta.ca/resource.html">170 billion barrels of oil</a>, enough to satisfy US demand for at least 30 years.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62096/original/gqz8z4yd-1413555886.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62096/original/gqz8z4yd-1413555886.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62096/original/gqz8z4yd-1413555886.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62096/original/gqz8z4yd-1413555886.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62096/original/gqz8z4yd-1413555886.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62096/original/gqz8z4yd-1413555886.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62096/original/gqz8z4yd-1413555886.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All quiet at the Nebraska State Capitol.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The issue now finds itself in the <a href="http://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/102/PDF/Slip/LB1161.pdf">Nebraska Supreme Court</a>, where Justices recently heard arguments on the constitutionality of the pipeline. The bill, passed in 2012, gave the governor, rather than the Public Service Commission, authority to approve the pipeline. Pipeline proponents applaud this, while opponents believe the commission has jurisdiction and the law is improper.</p>
<h2>Impact at the ballot box</h2>
<p>Those on both sides of the pipeline battle have gone toe to toe for several years. For all the acrimony, though, the issue is having little impact on politics.</p>
<p>Political positions in the top two state races, both open seats, break along predictable lines, with the Republican candidates for Governor (<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-30/buffetts-v-ricketts-in-nebraska-billionaire-backed-race.html">Pete Ricketts</a>) and US senator (<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/05/13/14-things-to-know-about-ben-sasse-nebraskas-next-senator/">Ben Sasse</a>) supporting the pipeline and the Democrats (<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/09/05/can_democrat_chuck_hassebrook_win_neb_governor_race_123865.html">Chuck Hassebrook</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/13/dave-domina-primary_n_5320260.html">Dave Domina</a>) opposed. </p>
<p>In the campaign for the house seat that represents Omaha, located far from the pipeline route, both candidates support construction, as do a majority of Omahans. And just last spring, 29 of the 49 members of the Nebraska Legislature, including a mix of Democrats and Republican, <a href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1057486/keystone-letter.txt">signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry</a> stating, “We support the project and urge approval of the pending permit application for an international border crossing for the pipeline.”</p>
<p>So while the coalitions of both sides on the issue have been interesting and sometimes unusual, the impact on key elections is negligible.</p>
<p>And will there be any impact on President Obama, who has the final say? Probably not. He is a lame duck who will shortly enter his final two years in office. Nebraska is a small, red state where the president has a low approval rating, making it less likely he will be concerned about opposition. In Omaha, the only part of the state where he and his fellow Democrats enjoy any substantial support, pipeline construction is relatively popular.</p>
<p>After all is said and done, the Nebraska fight over the Keystone Pipeline will have been thought provoking, but it will have little long-term impact on Nebraska politics. It will continue on for a while after a final decision, bringing lawsuits over construction, land prices, and the like. But in the end, the politicians, corporations, unions, non-profits, trade associations, and lobbyists will move on, prepared to fight another day for another cause.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Landow received a U.S. Department of Education grant (2009) and a grant from Sherwood Foundation (Susie Buffett) (2012) to fund the Nebraska Civic Leadership Program, which allows Omaha high school students to study political science and go to Washington DC every summer
He is a current Board Member, Planned Parenthood Voters of Nebraska; former Executive Director, Nebraska Democratic Party; former staff member to a U.S. Member of Congress; former Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Omaha.
</span></em></p>In Nebraska, the intensity of the Keystone XL debate is second only to that over the chance that the Nebraska Cornhuskers will win the Big Ten football championship. Raging for several years now, controversy…Paul Landow, Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska OmahaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.