Letter: ‘Don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where it’s going’

By Letter to the Editor on July 2, 2021.

Dear editor,

Recently, Alberta’s Energy Minister, Ms. Sonya Savage, tried to defend Alberta’s loss on the Keystone XL pipeline as a “prudent gamble.”

I disagree.

Firstly, however, how much was the loss? The “final figure” Alberta must pay under a $6-billion loan guarantee the UCP signed in May 2020 to support the pipeline was $1.3 billion, paid to cover someone else’s debt. But, unless I misunderstand, I think we must also consider the $1.5 billion directly invested in the pipeline by the UCP government, also in May 2020. I believe the total loss to Albertans is $2.8 billion.

By May 2020, there were strong indicators of high risk investing in Keystone. Former U.S. president Barack Obama delayed it for years because there was weak support for it in his country, other than in the U.S. oilpatch.

Native Peoples and other landowners in the U.S. conducted legal challenges for years. The pipeline was cancelled in 2015 by Mr. Obama. His vice-president for eight years was Joe Biden, a presidential candidate in May 2020, who promised to cancel it, as did other presidential candidates.

While it is true Donald Trump reinstated it in 2019, even a casual observer, looking objectively, could see his presidency was a raging dumpster fire, destined to produce little of lasting value. The UCP gambled that Mr. Trump would win in November 2020, something they had no control over.

Beyond the U.S. situation regarding the pipeline however, is the world’s approach to fossil fuels in the past decade or more. There are between $3-5 trillion allocated by nations around the world, waiting to be spent on developing and buying clean energy. All major car makers are producing more and more electric vehicles. Some have medium-term plans to sell no fossil fuel engines in their vehicles. Some countries and many large investment funds are not investing in fossil fuel production. These facts had great significance for a pipeline investment. Wayne Gretzky said, “Don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where it’s going.”

For the UCP in May of 2020, the writing was on the wall to be read. They gambled instead, and it was not prudent.

In the 2019 election campaign Mr. Kenney said “government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers.”

They picked 4.4 million losers: Albertans.

Gregory R. Côté

Irvine, Alberta

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