Nelson: Let's admit it — the energy industry backstops our prosperity
原始发布日期： 2016-01-01 发布者：李方字变大 字变小
 Let’s acknowledge that Canada relies upon the oil and gas business, says Chris Nelson. Losing it would be an economic nightmare affecting everyone. Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal Canadian annual exports — things we produce that others are willing to buy — are topped by oil and gas at almost $130 billion in real, U.S. dollars. The next best product nations give us money for is vehicles — about $60 billion. After that, it’s relative chicken feed. Now for those content to see this country slide into an agrarian backwater necessitating massive cuts to health, education, pensions and other tax-funded initiatives, then fair enough. That’s odd, but honest. But for the other 95 per cent of whiners, activists, pity-poor-me and bandwagon-jumpers who blow hot air while living off the fat of this land, their parents’ largesse or transfer payments from Alberta, well, perhaps they can come up with a credible industrial strategy to replace the billions we’ll forgo in returning to rubbing sticks together for warmth. No doubt they’ll blather on about some green energy revolution — as though Alberta will rival China or Germany in designing and building giant windmills, solar panels or such projects. We haven’t the population or industrial know-how to envisage such massive investment. There’re reasons industrial production is located near large populations — it’s cheaper getting goods to a big market. And, golly gee, in the real world, competitive costs of production and distribution matter. So what would these earnest folk have us do? The details please, and not some airy-fairy slogans with the business plan acumen of a lemonade stall in mid-January. Even the Alberta NDP will figure out you can’t tax a stone, and when the energy industry resembles exactly that, then the only other option is borrowing to pay an ever-expanding public payroll with a Canuck buck worth about a U.S. quarter. Except the funny thing about borrowing is that some day, you have to pay it back, and the more you’re repaying, the less there’s to spend on what once were naively called essentials. Take high outlays in Alberta for teachers, nurses or public-sector pensions as examples. Call Detroit to see how that works when the debts pile up — that’s if there’s still a phone operating in Motor City. So can we at least have a credible discussion about energy and its environmental effect? First, let’s acknowledge Canada relies upon the oil and gas business. Losing it would be an economic nightmare affecting everyone. Then let’s admit the high probability — little ever being certain in science — the warming of the planet is heavily influenced by the huge amounts of energy we consume and the carbon dioxide emitted. If each side of this spurious debate agreed, then maybe we’d actually see a future of both prosperity and environmental stewardship. Because, instead of disowning the energy industry, we should embrace it as the most likely champion of real green-based industrial development. Yes, oil companies have laid waste to land, air and water. But then we once thought smoking cigarettes would do nothing more than make us look cool like Cary Grant. Times change and now there’s an opportunity to provide solutions and improvements in how we extract and use energy. Get it right and the world will rush to our door. There are areas such as cheaper carbon capture or reducing the methane leakage from countless gas wells, or using drones to sniff for pipeline gas leaks in which we could be world leaders. Put a price on carbon, but plow the money back into cutting-edge research to build the efficient energy infrastructure of tomorrow. There’s money to be made and then taxes to be paid, and then, glory be, the Pembina Institute can still be on our Christmas card list. Sneer all you want, but I’d back the energy companies to come up with the engineering know-how to make this possible before I’d put money on David Suzuki, Al Gore, Neil Young or even Leonardo the Chinook himself. Chris Nelson is a Calgary writer whose column appears weekly. Calgary Herald |