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Dan McTeague

Trudeau is destroying the Canadian economy one regulation at a time

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It is amazing, with ever increasing energy costs in Canada and throughout the world, that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to promote the extreme Green Agenda that will destroy Canada’s energy industry.

The latest example? Just the other week, the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) released a study that describes how the Trudeau government’s proposed Emissions Cap for the energy sector would “cost the Canadian economy between $44.8 billion and $79.3 billion a year” and would “cause substantial losses, without achieving any net reduction in global emission.” You can read the study here.

In case you’ve not heard about Trudeau’s new way to destroy our economy, let me take a step back and explain.

The Trudeau government is proposing an Emissions Cap to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the oil and gas sector by 42 percent by 2030. This policy is another piece in their larger, foolish plan to try to achieve “Net Zero” GHG emissions by 2050.  Keep in mind Canada contributes only 1.5% of global emissions, so this plan, if even achievable, would reduce only 0.45% of global emissions.

One of the options proposed to achieve this “Net Zero” craziness is a cap-and-trade system. According to Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault “one of the advantages of a cap is emissions reduction certainty.”

Another certainty that Guilbeault failed to mention is that companies will think twice about investing their money in Canada.

Canadians need to consider that. The oil and gas sector is the single largest revenue provider for the Canadian government, generating $45 billion a year in annual economic activity, and  contributes $170 billion a year to the GDP. The economic consequences of this plan are significant, and they will mean a dramatic drawback in social programs in this country. How are we going to pay for our hospitals, our education system? How are we going to pay for our roads and our infrastructure?

As the MEI study found, this emissions cap will result in “substantial losses without achieving any net reduction in global emissions.” Why? Because whether this government likes to admit it or not, there is an increasing global demand for oil and gas. We can either produce those resources here or get them from another country that has no environmental, much less labour standards, such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran.

And here’s the rub. This cap on emissions would apply only to the oil and gas sector. This emissions cap would not apply to the concrete industry, the automotive industry, or the mining industry. And it certainly won’t apply to the jet building industry in Montreal. These must have better lobbyists than the oil and gas industry.

For that reason, an emissions cap, layered on top of carbon taxes, layered on top of a Clean Fuel Standard, layered on top of pipeline blockages, layered on top of Bills C-48, C-69, preventing oil from being shipped from other parts of the world — is clearly a vendetta against the sector that provides over 500,000 jobs to Canadians and contributes billions to our economy. And it is ultimately a vendetta against our pocketbooks, the interests of our society, and the Canadian way of life.

An 18 year veteran of the House of Commons, Dan is widely known in both official languages for his tireless work on energy pricing and saving Canadians money through accurate price forecasts. His Parliamentary initiatives, aimed at helping Canadians cope with affordable energy costs, led to providing Canadians heating fuel rebates on at least two occasions. Widely sought for his extensive work and knowledge in energy pricing, Dan continues to provide valuable insights to North American media and policy makers. He brings three decades of experience and proven efforts on behalf of consumers in both the private and public spheres. Dan is committed to improving energy affordability for Canadians and promoting the benefits we all share in having a strong and robust energy sector.

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Dan McTeague

We are on a Net Zero collision course

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Dan McTeague

Written By Dan McTeague

Welcome to 2024 where the threat of looming power outages in a resource-rich, developed country is a reality. And we have Justin Trudeau and his ideologically-driven caucus to thank for it.

In the past month alone, Alberta has issued four emergency alerts warning consumers to reduce demand or the grid could face the risk of rotating power outages. Residents were urged in one alert to immediately limit their electrical use to essential needs only.

According to the Alberta Energy System Operator (AESO,) which manages the grid, the alert was due to sustained cold temperatures. Alberta’s grid is more vulnerable in the winter due to the decreased opportunity to generate solar power with the shorter days and of course because during extreme cold, there is usually less opportunity for wind power generation.

Thank goodness for hydrocarbons since over those days more than 80% of Alberta’s power came from natural gas and to a lesser extent, coal.

This situation in Alberta should serve as a warning for the rest of the country.

That’s because the Trudeau government is aggressively moving forward with their Clean Electricity Regulations which mandate that by 2035 the Canadian grid be zero emissions. This means the entire country will increasingly be reliant on unreliable energy sources.

And last month, the Trudeau Liberals implemented their Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, which mandates all new light-duty cars and trucks must be zero emission by 2035 as well. In other words, after 2035 forget about purchasing a new gas-powered car or diesel-driven truck. Welcome to Trudeau’s Net Zero world!

Many Canadians are wondering how we are going to produce the energy to power our cars along with everything else in our lives, especially in the depths of the cold winter months.

And the answer is simply, “we can’t.”

We are on a collision course of the Liberal government’s making. In their ideological zeal to achieve Net Zero, they seem to have been completely unhinged from reality.

As I like to remind people, Canada contributes 1.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Even if we halted all use of fossil fuels in our country it would have no global effect on world CO2 levels.

We can see the consequences of this pursuit of Net Zero, in Europe. Germany has frantically put coal power back on the grid in order to meet electricity demand. The UK is slamming the breaks on EVs and stepping up North Sea oil exploration. Italy is spending billions trying to fill its energy gaps with natural gas from Libya.

We are staring down the barrel of an upcoming election and if we want to ensure our quality of life, we need a major course correction. This does not mean delaying the implementation of EV regulations, or emissions caps, or even simply pushing back Net Zero target dates.

No. We need a party that will stand up against Net Zero and its related policies. We need a government that will see that this is a suicide mission we need to abandon entirely, not simply punt down the road.

Let’s hope we don’t have to wait for the worst-case scenario before Canadians finally realize the standard of living and access to affordable energy cannot be taken for granted. We truly are on a collision course with reality, due to ideological government policies that will have a crippling effect on our economy and way of life.

Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy

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Dan McTeague

Call out ‘net zero’ for what it is, a scam

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From Canadians for Affordable Energy

Dan McTeague

Written By Dan McTeague

Net Zero emissions by 2050. Have you heard this line? It is increasingly hard to miss. Every trendy business, bank, corporation and government boasts about their commitment to it. But what exactly do they mean by it?

In short, Net Zero by 2050 means our country either emits no greenhouse gases or offsets whatever it does emit through measures such as buying carbon credits or investing in carbon capture technology.

Net Zero has been a central project of groups such as the World Economic Forum, the United Nations and other globalist institutions. They’ve spent the past several years pressuring governments around the world to commit to Net Zero and to make those commitments legally binding, so it will be difficult for elected officials to roll them back in the future.

That’s what’s happening here in Canada. This has been a major priority for Justin Trudeau. The Liberals have spent years championing the push to Net Zero, mandating it by law in 2021.

But law or not, Net Zero isn’t actually going to happen.

It is a ludicrous goal, in part because achieving it would be unimaginably expensive. So expensive, in fact, governments the world over don’t even attempt to estimate the total cost. Whenever they’re asked, they just say “the cost of doing nothing will be higher.” But if they don’t know how expensive their own plan is, how on earth could they know that it would be cheaper than not doing it?

External estimates place the cost for Canada alone somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 trillion. That number is so staggering it is impossible to fully comprehend it. It is more than our nation’s entire Gross Domestic Product! Look at it this way — that is the equivalent of spending $1 a second for 63,417 YEARS.

But the fact Net Zero will ultimately fail doesn’t mean attempting it isn’t going to negatively affect your daily life. It will.

Under the umbrella of Net Zero you’ll find,

  • Carbon taxes
  • Clean Fuel Standards
  • Just Transition
  • Emissions caps
  • Cancelled pipelines
  • Electrification strategies
  • Gas and diesel car bans
  • Electric vehicle subsidies
  • Costly building codes
  • Curtailed food production

The list goes on and on.

But beyond the economic impact and the personal hardship, we must remember the end game of this Green Agenda isn’t really about reducing carbon emissions. No, it is much more insidious than that.

At the heart of this Net Zero movement is a desire to fundamentally change our economy and way of life. They are looking for a complete transition from the economy that has made Canada the great nation that it is.

“You will own nothing and be happy.” Remember those words attributed to Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum (WEF)? Well take those words to heart, because he means it.

The implications of Net Zero are broad and overreaching. And they will have the effect of fundamentally affecting our quality of life.

It will make energy more expensive. It will raise the cost of everything. It will make us less competitive in the global economy, especially against countries such as China because, you will not be surprised to learn, China has not signed on to this suicide pact. (But they are keen for other countries to stifle their economy in pursuit of this absurd goal, not least because they produce 70% of the world’s solar panels.)

Net Zero regulations, policies and mandates are a direct assault on affordable energy, and an affordable way of life. That is the goal of the Green agenda, and if they have their way, Canada, its standard of living and its way of life will suffer.

Net Zero is a scam.

Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy

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