John Bolton - April 02, 2026


I OPPOSE The CARNEY⧸Smith Carbon SUCKING Machine - Stand With Me


Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

175.11166

Word count

2,274

Sentence count

135

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

10

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this day in 2026, I formally oppose the Pathways Project in Alberta and you should too. I talk about why this is a bad idea and why you should be against it. I also read an article about the $20 billion project hanging over Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's energy deal with Ottawa.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 On this date, Thursday, April 2nd, 2026, I formally oppose the Pathways Project in Alberta, and you should too.
00:00:12.700 Hi, it's John, and welcome to the channel, 253 a.m., Thursday, April 2nd.
00:00:17.620 I hope you're having a great day today with the Big Blue Mug of Coffee.
00:00:21.500 I appreciate you being here.
00:00:22.860 By the way, if you haven't subscribed to the channel as of yet, I would appreciate it if you would click on subscribe right now.
00:00:28.780 And just a reminder, clicking on the big blue mug does not subscribe you to the channel.
00:00:33.060 Hit the red button you see on the screen.
00:00:35.520 Thank you.
00:00:36.020 So, yeah, I'm coming out against the Pathways Project in Alberta.
00:00:40.840 And for those of you who don't know what that is, maybe you don't live in the province,
00:00:44.300 this is one of the things that Daniel Smith has had to agree to in order to get a pipeline out to the West Coast.
00:00:50.440 Part of the memorandum of understanding you may have heard about between Alberta and the federal government.
00:00:56.700 and basically this is what it is right here. This is Mark Carney's giant carbon sucking machine
00:01:03.780 and this is what we have to build in order to get a pipeline to the west coast from Alberta.
00:01:09.360 I might add that this dollar figure here now is inaccurate. It's much higher than this and look
00:01:15.880 at this picture. Take a good look at it. It may look like a cartoon. It may look silly to you
00:01:21.100 But this is an accurate representation of what is going to happen here. It's going to suck air 0.99
00:01:27.520 and put your money in the ground. This is the purpose of the giant carbon sucking machine. I
00:01:32.720 think it was Jeff Rath who may have coined the phrase. He said it here on this channel a number
00:01:38.920 of times. You know what this is? This is, I was trying to think of a way to describe this. This
00:01:44.660 is the oil and gas equivalents of a frontal lobotomy. This serves no purpose. It doesn't
00:01:50.620 do any good. This is quackery. And the province of Alberta, my premier, who I think is pretty
00:01:56.720 smart, agreed to this nonsense. We need to formally be against this. And we've got people
00:02:01.600 on all sides of the political spectrum that will stand arm in arm with us to stop the giant carbon
00:02:07.060 sucking machine. They may have different reasons, but they don't want it either. 0.75
00:02:13.380 Now, why am I talking about this today? Because of this article right here.
00:02:17.300 the taxpayer funded mega project hanging over daniel smith's energy deal with ottawa now
00:02:23.940 let me just before i get into this article you may say to me john but you know the only way
00:02:27.800 we're going to get a pipeline to the west coast is if we agree to this so we have to agree to this
00:02:32.540 it's you know it's a negotiation no we don't have to agree to this
00:02:35.620 there's really no purpose in this and i'm going to get to that in just a moment after i read a
00:02:43.180 little bit of this article to you. I'll tell you what this is doing and what it's not doing.
00:02:48.760 So let's get back to the article. The taxpayer funded mega project hanging over Danielle Smith's 0.94
00:02:54.660 energy deal with Ottawa. Let me bring myself on screen. And before I move on here, there's a very
00:02:58.620 important question that I had after reading this complete article. I'm not going to read it all to
00:03:03.620 you. You can read it. I'll put a link in the description, but you need to ask this question.
00:03:07.400 I'm going to ask this question of you in just a moment, okay? Very important. Nobody ever asks
00:03:13.360 this question when we talk about things like this. So on to the article. As Alberta Premier
00:03:18.680 Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney looked to finalize their proposed energy grand
00:03:23.160 bargain, a $20 billion albatross hangs around their necks. Now, just before I move on here,
00:03:29.480 I created this graphic that I showed you earlier about, I think about six weeks ago. Back then,
00:03:35.320 it was $16 billion. And in a matter of six weeks, we're now at a $20 billion project.
00:03:40.760 What are the chances that the government's going to bring it in at $20 billion? Is it going to be
00:03:45.920 double that? The pair first signed their memorandum of understanding in November of last year and
00:03:51.640 promised to finalize its details by April 1st. I'll come back to that date in just a moment.
00:03:56.100 But finalizing the deal would require taxpayers to shoulder a massive financial burden,
00:04:00.360 likely totaling many billions of dollars. That's because one of the key promises
00:04:04.540 in the Smith-Carney deal is to build the Pathways Carbon Capture Network,
00:04:08.840 which proposes to gather CO2 from up to 13 oil sand sites in northern Alberta and store the
00:04:14.840 resulting emissions underground. So in a nutshell, this is what happens. Air goes into the machine,
00:04:19.780 it buries your money underground. That's what's going on here.
00:04:23.420 while still early in its planning phase the pathways project is a massive undertaking
00:04:31.780 unlike any similar carbon capture scheme attempted smith last week suggested that
00:04:37.620 an mou deal on the pathways project is unlikely to happen before wednesday's deadline which was
00:04:42.480 yesterday but said she hoped to have a final agreement in the next few weeks we need to
00:04:47.500 oppose this more on that in a moment far from being loud proponents of pathways the consortium
00:04:52.980 of oil sands companies behind the project has itself seemed lukewarm on its benefits,
00:04:58.360 regularly pointing out that pursuing emissions reduction schemes like carbon capture would add
00:05:03.360 costs and make them less competitive with non-Canadian oil producers. In February, the group,
00:05:09.100 which is made up of five oil sands companies, including Suncor Energy, Synovus Energy, and
00:05:13.720 others, dropped its previous Pathways Alliance name in favor of the Oil Sands Alliance moniker.
00:05:18.300 So here's the thing. If you were to say to these companies, you can have your carbon capture scheme at the cost of $20 billion, a lot of it footed by the taxpayers of Canada or no carbon capture scheme whatsoever, what do you think they would choose?
00:05:33.240 They're just going along with this to get along with the government.
00:05:36.740 it's a rhetorical question the project which was officially proposed shortly after the formation
00:05:43.780 of the oil sands alliance in 2021 was proposed during the trudeau area era of course it was
00:05:50.140 when the government had introduced a suite of tightening regulations like carbon taxes
00:05:54.140 and a cap on oil sands emissions pathways was seen as a key way to expand oil sands production
00:05:59.400 under canada's new environmental regime while also cutting emissions i might add to you that
00:06:04.140 yesterday, the industrial carbon tax was jacked up again. April Fools. Pathways was created at a 0.99
00:06:12.380 time when climate policy was an existential threat, she said, and that's referring to Heather
00:06:17.000 Exner-Pirro, special advisor to the Business Council of Canada. And now it's obviously not
00:06:22.820 a top-line issue for voters. Now it's very much build, expand, produce more, be an energy superpower. 0.62
00:06:28.840 As for the Pathways project, Exner Pirro said the project remains unpopular for many segments
00:06:34.920 of the public who would ultimately have to pay for its development. Who is the demographic that
00:06:40.640 wants that? She said on the right, they won't be impressed with the $20 billion government spending
00:06:45.700 on carbon capture. And on the left, they also think it's a waste of money because it supports
00:06:50.440 fossil fuel production. Which takes us back to the point I made earlier about both sides of the
00:06:56.740 political spectrum will be against this stupid, ridiculous scheme, this quackery for different 1.00
00:07:04.420 reasons. Even First Nations groups are against this. They're going to go to court over this. 1.00
00:07:11.340 Coalitions of First Nations rural landowners demands review of proposed pathways carbon
00:07:15.860 capture project. Environmental and health risks, that'll be held up in the courts for years.
00:07:21.700 But the question you need to ask after reading this article, folks,
00:07:24.760 I looked for it. I read it over twice. What's the purpose of this?
00:07:31.560 What's the benefit of this? How does this change the climate? How does this change the temperature
00:07:39.400 of the planet, this $20 billion plus, mostly of taxpayers' money? And if you're living in the rest
00:07:47.460 of Canada, you're on the hook for this as well. How is this a benefit to us? How is this a benefit
00:07:53.200 it to Albertans. Well, we get to build a pipeline if we put this in. This is a total waste of money
00:07:59.700 that accomplishes nothing. You know, when the government says it's going to build something,
00:08:04.540 I've said this here before, I'm very, very adamant on this point. When the country says
00:08:09.560 it's going to build something, for instance, they say they're going to build an arena.
00:08:13.120 I want to know the benefits of the arena before they spend my money. They have to make a point
00:08:18.560 of saying, this is why you need the arena. And if they spend the money, I want to see an arena. I
00:08:24.680 want to see those benefits. What are the benefits of spending this $20 billion plus? And when they
00:08:31.020 preach to us about climate change, and folks, this video is going to get throttled on YouTube
00:08:35.980 because I'm talking about this. So give it a thumbs up, please, if you would. When they talk
00:08:41.100 about climate change now, they just spend the money. They don't even tell you how it benefits
00:08:45.280 you. Who is this going to benefit? Is it going to benefit you? No, what it's going to do,
00:08:50.100 it's going to benefit companies like, well, Brookfield, who are all in for carbon capture.
00:08:57.000 This is a massive transfer of wealth from your pocket to companies like Brookfield
00:09:02.100 to enrich people like Mark Carney and his friends. This accomplishes nothing.
00:09:10.360 Then again, it might accomplish a couple of things. This strokes Mark Carney's ego. No
00:09:14.480 doubt he bragged when he signed the memorandum of understanding, look, I've got Daniel Smith
00:09:19.140 to agree to a giant carbon sucking machine. Gives him bragging rights among his fellow
00:09:23.940 climate change zealots. Look, I'm building a giant carbon sucking machine. And it allows
00:09:28.760 Mark Carney and the Liberal Party and the government of Canada to dictate Alberta's
00:09:33.180 path forward, which is totally unacceptable to me. It allows Mark Carney to continue his
00:09:38.900 relentless push to net zero. A relentless focus on net zero. I was thinking this morning
00:09:44.900 about this question and I put it into Google search and AI came out with the number. I knew
00:09:50.260 this number. And here it is right here. How much has the world spent on mitigating climate change?
00:09:55.660 Annual global climate finance reached a record USD $1.9 trillion in 2023. Investments since 2004
00:10:03.960 exceeding $6.7 trillion. And people like Mark Carney, they want to increase the $1.9 trillion
00:10:09.900 by about tenfold to $11.7 trillion per year to meet the 1.5% targets by 2030.
00:10:18.440 And what are we told after spending $7 trillion on this? It's not enough. Things are getting worse.
00:10:26.460 This is what's called good money after bad, in for a penny, in for a pound. A fool and his 1.00
00:10:33.940 money are soon parted. How foolish are we to continue doing this? And that money, if it was 1.00
00:10:42.280 spent somewhere else, could it be doing some actual good in the world? I mean, I know this,
00:10:47.240 you may know this. One in four people globally still lack access to safe drinking water,
00:10:53.880 according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF. How would lives be changed if we took
00:10:59.040 just a little bit of money and cleaned up a river in India? Now, there are some of you who say,
00:11:03.220 I don't want to spend any money in India. But if there's a trade-off between spending
00:11:06.820 $2 trillion a year on changing the temperature of the planet or $20 billion on a giant carbon
00:11:13.280 sucking machine to actually change people's lives and save people, where would you put your money?
00:11:18.200 We used to actually clean up the environment, folks. We used to clean up rivers and pick up 0.92
00:11:22.580 garbage. Now we spend trillions of dollars for what? And then there's this story here.
00:11:29.200 progress on basic energy access reverses for the first time in a decade global energy access gap
00:11:36.440 worsens as population growth outpaces new connections 685 million people living without
00:11:42.620 electricity access in 2022 2.1 billion people continue to rely on damaging cooking fuels
00:11:49.780 globally how would these people's lives change if they had a coal-fired power plant
00:11:55.100 you know the beginning of the last century the life expectancy in north america was less than
00:12:03.060 50 and because we have progressed with oil and gas and energy we've now extended that by more than 20
00:12:11.280 years people in third world countries don't have basic access to water and energy they don't live
00:12:19.680 very long folks but we're spending money on giant carbon sucking machines and spending trillions of
00:12:24.440 to change the temperature of the planet.
00:12:26.960 This is lunacy.
00:12:29.960 And we have to oppose the giant carbon-sucking machine.
00:12:32.940 Daniel Smith, stop it.
00:12:35.580 Tell Carney we want a pipeline to change people's lives,
00:12:39.500 to enrich Albertans.
00:12:44.420 That's where I stand on this. 0.98
00:12:46.160 This is ridiculous. 0.97
00:12:47.940 Do you stand with me? 0.97
00:12:49.280 Let me know what you think in the comments.
00:12:50.860 I'm going to read them all.
00:12:52.160 If you like the video, give it a thumbs up.
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00:12:57.080 I'll see you in the next one.