[ad_1]
Breadcrumb Links Chroniclers
Author of the article:
David Hughes Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage provided details on Thursday, October 21, 2021 on the report of the public inquiry into the anti-Alberta energy campaigns. Photo by Larry Wong / Postmedia Article content
Last week, Albertans received the fruits of the Kenney government’s investigation into foreign-funded “anti-Alberta” activity targeting the oil and gas industry. The $ 3.5 million report, a year overdue and a million dollars over budget, found no evidence of any illegal activity or wrongdoing by any person or d ‘an organization under investigation.
Advertising
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
When Prime Minister Kenney launched this investigation and his $ 30 million “war room” he claimed there was a campaign of “lies and disinformation” by “foreign funded radicals” that limited the expansion of Alberta’s oil and gas industry, costing jobs and resulting in increased demand for oil from suppliers with low environmental standards.
The investigation has been engulfed in controversy and criticized for its inability to reveal new information that is not already in the public domain. Premier Kenney was notably absent when the final report of the investigation was released. Instead, Energy Minister Sonya Savage found herself presenting the report as a victory at a bizarre press conference, where she quickly walked away from the report’s findings and walked away. focused on what she thought the majority of working Albertans might be feeling.
Advertising
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
The press conference revealed the real intention behind the ill-conceived investigation: to redirect and focus the understandable anger, fear and frustration of oilfield workers and other Albertans onto environmental groups and away from mismanagement by the Government of Alberta for the province’s most valuable non-renewable resource.
According to statistics from the Government of Alberta and Canada’s Energy Regulator, Alberta’s oil and gas production hit an all-time high in 2019 when Premier Kenney launched the inquiry and the chamber of war. Alberta’s oil and gas production has increased 42% since 2000, and production of upgraded oil sands has more than tripled, and production of non-upgraded oil sands has more than six-fold.
Advertising
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
However, despite the growth in overall oil and gas production since 2000, revenues from non-renewable resources declined by 44% in 2019 and government revenues per barrel of oil equivalent produced fell by 60%. Since 2005, when non-renewable resource revenues peaked, total revenues have declined by 59% and revenues per barrel of oil equivalent produced have declined by 70%. Albertans sell more oil and gas and receive less.
What about jobs? With production at an all-time high, direct employment in the oil and gas industry in Alberta declined 20% in 2019 from its peak in 2014. The average productivity of an oil and gas worker (as measured by oil and gas production) has grown by 50% industry-wide since 2011, 70% in oil sands and 37% in conventional oil and gas. This is the result of increased automation and efficiency implemented by companies that have reduced the number of employees needed, and not of “foreign-funded radical” plots imagined by the government of the United States. ‘Alberta. In other words, those jobs are not coming back.
Advertising
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
While spending $ 3.5 million on this investigation and $ 30 million a year on the War Room may seem like an excessive waste of money, it is overshadowed by the $ 1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars that the Kenney government lost by supporting the Keystone XL pipeline which was canceled by President Biden.
The next COP26 conference in Scotland will address the global warming crisis. There are no easy fixes, but reducing the production and use of fossil fuels as quickly as possible will be a crucial part of any solution. The Government of Alberta, like many others, will have some very difficult choices to make in any hope of limiting climate change. Given these pressing issues, it’s hard to imagine a more unnecessary waste of time and money than the Kenney government’s search for bogeymen to blame for the Alberta tax problems represented by the Allan Inquiry. .
Albertans deserve much better.
David Hughes is an Earth scientist who has worked in the energy industry in Calgary for most of his career, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada. He now heads Global Sustainability Research Inc. and is an Associate Researcher at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives office in British Columbia.
Share this article on your social network Advertising
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
By clicking the subscribe button, you agree to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300 Thank you for registering!
comments
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil discussion forum and encourages all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour of moderation before appearing on the site. We ask that you keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications. You will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, if there is an update to a comment thread that you follow, or if a user that you follow comments. Check out our community guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.
|
Sources 2/ https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-allan-inquirys-real-purpose-redirecting-blame-from-kenney-government The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
[ad_2]