Energy
Take Notice – Question the Net Zero Agenda, and You’re Out the Door
Former Manitoba Hydro CEO Jay Grewal Photo from the Winnipeg Free Press
The other week the CEO of Manitoba Hydro was ousted from her position by the utility’s NDP appointed Board of Directors. This story likely won’t get much attention outside of Manitoba, but it should. Why? Because it illuminates just how overzealous the Net Zero cult has become.
Now-former CEO Jay Grewal was appointed in 2019 as CEO of Manitoba Hydro under Brian Palliser’s Progressive Conservatives. Ms. Grewal is an accomplished executive with decades of experience and impeccable credentials. She was the utility’s first female CEO, and by all accounts handled her role well, “leading the utility through significant challenges, including two droughts, a severe snowstorm and the COVID-19 pandemic,” in the words of NDP Finance Minister Adrien Sala, who oversees Hydro.
So, what was the issue? Well, according to the Winnipeg Free Press, the NDP government decreed that Manitoba Hydro “chart a path to achieve a net-zero energy grid by 2035.” And Ms. Grewal, because she knows her brief, described that mandate as “not feasible.” That is, it can’t be done.
What did this quite sensible position, grounded in reality, get her? Fired.
The story goes that Ms. Grewal, speaking off the cuff at a public event, suggested the wind and solar build-out Manitoba Hydro had committed to was best financed privately, not through the public utility, given the huge costs and uncertainties involved. Daring to suggest private investment in the world of crown utilities is putting a red flag before a bull, and the NDP “crown ownership is sacrosanct” bull flew into a rage. This may have been the fatal mistake that made Grewal’s firing a sure thing. Minister Sala clamped down on that one right away, releasing a statement which said that “the NDP government expects new generating assets to be publicly owned.” Sorry tax-payers!
But why is there even discussion of a big solar and wind build out? Because that is part of the net zero mantra.
Manitoba Hydro is a large utility, delivering reliable electricity and gas energy to hundreds of thousands of Manitobans. And the province is not in great financial shape. According to a government report from December, Manitoba’s forecasted deficit has ballooned to over $1.6 billion. As it stands Manitobans pay 33 cents for every dollar of their Hydro bill to service interest on the NDP Hydro debt, according to Grant Jackson, PC shadow minister for Manitoba Hydro. The utility is key to the province’s long-term economic wellbeing. And the affordable, reliable power the utility delivers is key to getting Manitoba into better financial shape.
That doesn’t seem to matter much to Premier Kinew and his NDP government. What matters is adherence to the ideology. They don’t want a steady hand at the tiller, they want a green rubber stamp on all of their questionable decisions. A “Yes Man.” Or, in this case, a Yes Woman.
I suspect that Ms. Grewal went along with as much as she did against her better judgement. Her net zero comment shows that she’s a woman of sense. As does her suggestion that there be private-sector partners to help fund new projects.
But in the end, going along to get along didn’t do her or the province any good. “Give ‘em an inch, and they’ll take a mile,” is the old expression, and that’s always the way with green ideologues. Their demands are never ending, and before you know it, our way of life is fundamentally altered.
Leaders in business across Canada should take note of this episode, because it shows that it doesn’t work to feed the crocodile in the hope that he’ll eat you last. What Canada needs right now is men and women who will stand up and speak clearly, who are willing to say no to net zero and its economy-destroying demands.
Good for Ms. Grewal for speaking the truth. Hopefully the next time she does, she’ll add that the Net Zero madness is not only “unachievable” but “irresponsible” and “un-Canadian” as well.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned International Energy Agency (IEA) head Fatih Birol in July that he was considering cancelling America’s membership in and funding of its activities due to its increasingly political nature.
Specifically, Wright pointed to the agency’s modeling methods used to compile its various reports and projections, which the Secretary and many others believe have trended more into the realm of advocacy than fact-based analysis in recent years.
That trend has long been clear and is a direct result of an intentional shift in the IEA’s mission that evolved in the months during and following the COVID pandemic. In 2022, the agency’s board of governors reinforced this changed mission away from the analysis of real energy-related data and policies to one of producing reports to support and “guide countries as they build net-zero emission energy systems to comply with internationally agreed climate goals” consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2016.
Dear Readers:
As a nonprofit, we are dependent on the generosity of our readers.
Please consider making a small donation of any amount here.
Thank you!
One step Birol and his team took to incorporate its new role as cheerleader for an energy transition that isn’t actually happening was to eliminate the “current policies” modeling scenario which had long formed the base case for its periodic projections. That sterile analysis of the facts on the ground was replaced it with a more aspirational set of assumptions based on the announced policy intentions of governments around the world. Using this new method based more on hope and dreams than facts on the ground unsurprisingly led the IEA to begin famously predicting a peak in global oil demand by 2029, something no one else sees coming.
Those projections have helped promote the belief among policymakers and investors that a high percentage of current oil company reserves would wind up becoming stranded assets, thus artificially – and many would contend falsely – deflating the value of their company stocks. This unfounded belief has also helped discourage banks from allocating capital to funding exploration for additional oil reserves that the world will almost certainly require in the decades to come.
Secretary Wright, in his role as leading energy policymaker for an administration more focused on dealing with the realities of America’s energy security needs than the fever dreams of the far-left climate alarm lobby, determined that investing millions of taxpayer dollars in IEA’s advocacy efforts each year was a poor use of his department’s budget. So, in an interview with Bloomberg in July, Wright said, “We will do one of two things: we will reform the way the IEA operates, or we will withdraw,” adding that his “strong preference is to reform it.”
Lo and behold, less than two months later, Javier Blas says in a September 10 Bloomberg op/ed headlined “The Myth of Peak Fossil Fuel Demand is Crumbling,” that the IEA will reincorporate its “current policies” scenario in its upcoming annual report. Blas notes that, “the annual report being prepared by the International Energy Agency… shows the alternative — decades more of robust fossil-fuel use, with oil and gas demand growing over the next 25 years — isn’t just possible but probable.”
On his X account, Blas posted a chart showing that, instead of projecting a “peak” of crude oil demand prior to 2030, IEA’s “current policies” scenario will be more in line with recent projections by both OPEC and ExxonMobil showing crude demand continuing to rise through the year 2050 and beyond.
Whether that is a concession to Secretary Wright’s concerns or to simple reality on the ground is not clear. Regardless, it is without question a clear about-face which hopefully signals a return by the IEA to its original mission to serve as a reliable analyst and producer of fact-based information about the global energy situation.
The global community has no shortage of well-funded advocates for the aspirational goals of the climate alarmist community. If this pending return to reality by the IEA in its upcoming annual report signals an end to its efforts to be included among that crowded field, that will be a win for everyone, regardless of the motivations behind it.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Audrey Streb
The Trump administration is rolling back President Joe Biden’s restrictions on oil and gas, planning 21 lease sales in 2025 — a sharp contrast to Biden’s first year, which saw none.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have already held 11 lease sales under Trump generating over $110 million for Americans, and plan to host 10 more in 2025, the agency told the Daily Caller News Foundation. While the Biden administration imposed a sweeping offshore drilling ban and greenlit a record-low offshore oil and gas leasing schedule, the Trump administration is working to reopen development on federal lands and waters.
“President Donald Trump has revived American energy. While the Biden administration left our energy resources to waste at the cost of taxpayers, Americans can feel relief knowing that they now have an administration laser focused on unleashing our domestic energy sources, lowering costs, and securing a more affordable and reliable energy future,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the DCNF. “The number of new oil and gas lease sales simply speak for themselves.”
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has reported 3,608 new oil and gas permits in Trump’s second term thus far, compared to 2,528 permits during the Biden administration, according to the DOI. Trump and the DOI have approved 43% more federal drilling permits than his predecessors had at the same point in their presidencies, according to the agency.
The DOI has also opened more than 450,000 acres of federal land for potential energy development, and the DOI and BLM are set to approve more drilling permits than any other fiscal year in the past 15 years, the agency said.
On his first day back in the Oval Office, Trump signed an executive order to “unleash American energy” and declared a national energy emergency. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) further directed the DOI to open more domestic energy exploration opportunities, ordering the agency to “immediately resume onshore quarterly lease sales in specified states.”
Trump has emphasized bolstering conventional resources, which stands in contrast to Biden’s stifling of the oil and gas industry, as he froze liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, blocked the major Keystone XL pipeline and halted BLM lease approvals on his first day as president. Biden instead championed a green energy agenda, pushing for major wind and solar projects through billions in subsidies, loans and grants.
Notably, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) previously confirmed to the DCNF that the Biden administration failed to adequately review the environmental impacts of certain offshore wind projects before approving them. The Trump administration has cracked down on offshore wind, halting many major projects and reviewing several more, with Burgum arguing that the energy resource the Biden administration favored is “not reliable enough” at an event on Sept. 10.
Additionally, gasoline prices have been dropping nationally in recent months, with costs hitting four-year lows headed into summer and Labor Day weekend, according to GasBuddy and the American Automobile Association. The average retail price for gasoline is projected to keep dropping due to falling oil prices, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
“[Oil] prices are not set by current supplies. They’re set by future expectations,” Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, told the DCNF previously. “President Donald Trump is sending signals that the oil industry here is going to be very vibrant. He’s shrinking permitting time for fossil fuel projects, so expectations for fossil fuel supply in the United States are great.”
Province urging post secondary students to apply for loans, grants, scholarships, bursaries and awards
Poilievre: “Carney More Irresponsible Than Trudeau” as Housing, Jobs, and Energy Failures Mount
Breaking: ‘Catch This Fascist’: Radicalized Utah Suspect Arrested in Charlie Kirk Assassination, Officials Say
Former NYPD Inspector Shares What Family Of Alleged Charlie Kirk Assassin Feared Before Turning Him In
-
espionage2 days agoInside Xi’s Fifth Column: How Beijing Uses Gangsters to Wage Political Warfare in Taiwan — and the West
-
Censorship Industrial Complex2 days agoDecision expected soon in case that challenges Alberta’s “safe spaces” law
-
Education2 days agoOur kids are struggling to read. Phonics is the easy fix
-
International2 days agoBrazil sentences former President Bolsonaro to 27 years behind bars
-
Energy1 day ago
The IEA’s Peak Oil Fever Dream Looks To Be In Full Collapse
-
Crime1 day agoTransgender Roomate of Alleged Charlie Kirk Assassin Cooperating with Investigation
-
COVID-191 day agoWhy FDA Was Right To Say No To COVID-19 Vaccines For Healthy Kids
-
Crime19 hours agoDown the Charlie Kirk Murder Rabbit Hole