| Date Published | October 30, 2016 |
| Company | Oilfield HUB |
| Article Author | Kevin Turko |
| Article Type | October 2016 Issue |
| Category | Articles, Carbon Corner |
| Tags | Carbon Corner, Carbon Tax, E&P, Oil & Gas: Government, S&S |
| HUB SEARCH | OilfieldHUB |
Last month, when we kicked off the Carbon Corner section of the magazine, we had absolutely no idea of the storm brewing just over the horizon. In fact, we felt much of the debate surrounding the impending carbon tax introduction in Alberta had gone relatively silent. It was as if complacency or even apathy had simply sunk in. Had we all thrown in the towel? Were we all feeling that any chance to reverse the NDP ideologues climate change path toward the lifesaving carbon tax was futile at best?
Perhaps, we were all hoping our governing politicians and their imported eco-activist advisors would eventually see the light and delay the carbon tax until the economic fortunes of Albertans have improved. No such luck! Come hell or high water, they appear to be doubling down. We have learned over the past several years, all too well frankly, you can’t change the deep seated beliefs of true climate change warriors with just plain old science or facts. The same goes for their solution to the problem that being carbon pricing or cap and trade. In layman’s terms, this means new and many more taxes.
In just a few minutes in early October, he reignited the carbon tax debate, but now it’s on a national scale. Is Trudeau rushing to ratify the COP 21 Paris Agreement and his new carbon price plan so he can be the self-proclaimed climate change ‘selfie’ superstar at the
upcoming COP 22 conference in Marrakech, Morocco this November? Who knows? But, now he has also upped the ante! Introduce a carbon tax or cap and trade program by 2018 in your jurisdiction or we will do it for you. So, how is he selling his plan to average Canadians? Here’s how! The building block of all vegetation on earth, carbon dioxide, is now carbon pollution. And, the in vogue and newest form of federal and provincial taxation is now called carbon pricing. No wonder over 63% of Canadians don’t support carbon pricing.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to argue against some of the social justice statements in Trudeau’s announcement. He does it all for the sake of being heralded as the world leader on climate change, but are we not already the world’s leader? Seeing as Canada’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions only account for 1.6% of the world’s total, how much better can we get? Our U.S. neighbors are running at 16%, and China tops the list at 22%. In Paris, the major emitters of the world agreed to a non-binding reductions, but Canada seems to be the only country which has jumped on the carbon tax bandwagon. We offered up a 30% reduction in our GHG emissions, a whopping 0.5% of the current world totals. Just how much are we prepared to tax Canadians and our businesses to achieve such a monumental small reduction in GHGs when absolutely none of the major
emitters are moving toward levying any form of carbon taxes on their economies? This includes our biggest oil and gas competitor, the United States of America. Leonardo DiCaprio recently asked President Barack Obama if he thought they would see a carbon tax in the United States in the next decade or even in his lifetime. Did Obama answer his Hollywood groupie? Of course not! Instead, he pivoted to another panel member, an environmental activist, who was more than delighted to expound endlessly on the merits of carbon taxes. DiCaprio’s take on her long winded answer is more money for education. So, what does education have to do with reducing GHG emissions? Well, there you have it. We likely are not going to see a carbon tax south of the border in the next decade or, as DiCaprio put it, in his lifetime! Wow! So, what the hell is our rush to carbon tax stardom?
We are being played in Canada into believing we need to jump into this carbon tax poker game to get a social license to get pipelines approved and to sell our oil and gas beyond our borders. Nothing could be further from the truth! There is a massive amount of gamesmanship being waged against Canada, and our eager beaver climate change politicians are being duped. Australia just repealed their carbon tax, and every other country in the Paris Agreement is setting their own GHG reduction targets under their
own terms. Nothing is binding and not a carbon tax to be found anywhere!
Not only are we competing against these sovereign nations, our oil and gas industry is also being attacked from within by foreign funded environmental radicals and lobbyists. They are like cocaine addicts. The more social license we try to earn with these groups the more they want. They can never be satisfied! They are believers and are not interested in our facts. So, when our politicians beat the social license drum, while it may make us all feel good, the music being played is just another carbon tax melody with lyrics that will have little to no real positive impact on GHG emissions.
Shenanigans, I call!
Kevin Turko
President
Oilfield HUB Inc.
kevin.turko@oilfieldhub.com
403.537.6561
Originally published in the