Western Standard - Uncensored： COP 26 - Climate Change Hypocrisy

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00:01:00.000 Alton

00:01:10.000 Thank you.

00:01:40.000 good evening and welcome to uncensored i'm your host bruce mccallister thanks for being with us

00:02:07.040 tonight. We have a lot to unpack. Just before we get to our panelists and introduce them, let's

00:02:13.200 tee up the subject material tonight. We'll talk about COP26, 400 jets on the tarmac over in

00:02:20.320 Glasgow, and countless limousines and cars idling nearby. What's it all for? And is there a giant

00:02:27.880 hypocrisy in it? Our panel will weigh in. Our Prime Minister with a new cap announcement on

00:02:33.580 oil and gas emissions, the fallout already being felt in Alberta. What does it all mean? We will

00:02:39.220 weigh in on that also. And a new federal environment minister, a former Greenpeace activist and anti-oil

00:02:46.480 and gas advocate. We'll ask our panel about that. Also, a giant wind farm planned for Alberta, 18,000

00:02:54.880 acres. Nobody's talking about it. One of our panelists is. She knows all about it. We'll get

00:03:00.760 to the bottom of it including details on the german investor who stands to profit and we will

00:03:06.120 conclude this evening with this what can albertans do about the situation we are in one of our

00:03:11.880 panelists the author of the free alberta strategy we will talk about that and the path going forward

00:03:17.280 now let's meet our panelists starting with danielle smith danielle the executive director

00:03:22.140 of the alberta enterprise group the former leader of the wild rose party and a common sense

00:03:27.460 conservative commentator. Danielle, always good to see you. Thanks for being here tonight.

00:03:31.860 Hello, Bruce.

00:03:33.060 Rob Anderson, practicing lawyer. Rob, also former Wild Rose member, former finance critic and author

00:03:38.900 of the aforementioned Free Alberta Strategy. Good evening, Rob.

00:03:42.640 Hey, Bruce.

00:03:43.900 And Donna Kennedy-Glans joining us tonight, a face you'll probably recognize. Donna's been doing a

00:03:48.140 lot of political commentary of her own. An author, a former energy analyst, and Donna, a quick plug 0.98

00:03:54.320 for your book coming up here it is um teaching the dinosaurs to dance coming out in the spring

00:03:59.560 correct that's right thank you bruce okay well we'll get we'll we'll talk more about that maybe

00:04:05.380 at some point during the show because everybody says it's a great title what's the book about so

00:04:09.260 we we will i promise leave some time for that want to start with the summit though uh everybody this

00:04:14.200 is what uh everyone is talking about in canada uh danielle let's begin with you what do you make

00:04:19.320 of it are we getting anywhere we've got 30 000 people over there what's what's the result well

00:04:25.240 i think we were all waiting to see what the prime minister would do in response to the equalization

00:04:29.900 referendum which gave a strong mandate to premier jason kenny to pursue taking uh equalization out

00:04:35.200 of the constitution and i think appointing stephen galbeau is the big uh middle finger that he gave

00:04:41.520 us in response because i i think there's no other way to interpret the fact that we now have a

00:04:47.500 a radical Greenpeace environmentalist in that position,

00:04:51.480 who when he got elected a few years ago,

00:04:53.920 said he would make it his mission

00:04:55.840 to address the issue of fossil fuel use.

00:04:57.760 The other thing that has me quite concerned

00:04:59.960 is that when the premier was asked

00:05:01.860 about this oil and gas cap on emissions,

00:05:04.460 he said, yeah, well, I tried to talk to the prime minister

00:05:07.300 about this after I got elected in April, 2019,

00:05:10.340 but he didn't see that interested.

00:05:11.880 And that says to me that there has been practically no

00:05:15.260 or definitely zero cooperation and collaboration

00:05:19.100 on some of the great things

00:05:20.200 that our energy companies are doing in Alberta.

00:05:22.460 And I really fear what it means is that

00:05:25.260 we're seeing the prime minister set to go down the same path

00:05:28.240 as we're seeing in Quebec,

00:05:29.800 which has begun with a ban on oil and gas exploration.

00:05:32.780 It wouldn't surprise me if he's going to try to push

00:05:34.500 the same thing across the country.

00:05:35.880 Definitely not a positive step.

00:05:38.860 Yep, for sure.

00:05:40.140 And I want to come back to Guilbault, obviously Guilbault

00:05:43.180 and ask about him a little bit more in depth,

00:05:45.100 first I want to talk about the summit in general. Rob, you see, I think somebody had said 30,000

00:05:50.780 delegates over there, 400 jets on the tarmac, and here we are in the name of cleaning up the

00:05:58.140 planet. There's a hypocrisy to all of this. What do you make of it?

00:06:02.380 Well, I mean, there's huge hypocrisy, but the problem here is the climate alarmists. They

00:06:10.540 aren't being truthful about the urgency of the situation um that's well documented i mean the

00:06:16.460 temperature models over the last 20 years have grossly over exaggerated the actual temperature

00:06:20.180 change of the earth it's just one of a hundred of examples but because they're not being honest

00:06:24.660 the solutions they're forcing on us right now from these ridiculous summits

00:06:28.760 are very dangerous because these policies are causing energy prices and therefore inflation

00:06:35.160 on everything to soar which is especially destructive and harmful to those in poverty

00:06:39.900 or close to the poverty line and that results in actual damage and people actually dying of

00:06:45.900 starvation in certain areas increased violence drug abuse all kinds of social skills that really hurt

00:06:51.500 people um because affordable and reliable energy is the key to lifting people out of poverty and

00:06:57.580 these people at these conferences including our prime minister and his environmental minister

00:07:02.780 when they focus on shutting down alberta's oil and gas industry rather than harnessing it to develop

00:07:08.700 the technologies that will allow us to power economies more efficiently and sustainably

00:07:13.100 they actually worsen the very problem that they are trying to solve especially as poor energy

00:07:18.780 hungry countries look to burn coal and even wood in some cases to meet their needs so they're

00:07:25.020 completely backwards on how they're addressing this issue and of course the hypocrisy their

00:07:30.460 hypocrisy knows no bounds well we should mention one of our panelists has been to one of these

00:07:36.060 summits before dawn i know you um you were at one in paris i believe you can correct me if i'm wrong

00:07:41.820 but uh you know what did you learn from that and what are you taking away from this one

00:07:46.620 thanks bruce i i actually did go to cop uh 21 and i actually took my son one of my my sons came with

00:07:53.660 me i went on my own dime um i went economy just for the record and and i took with me um the

00:08:01.340 viewpoints actually 40 40 people had gathered before that summit and reached out across alberta

00:08:09.100 talked to 500 000 albertans and we took those viewpoints of albertans to not just the government

00:08:16.140 talks or the corporate talks but we actually took that into advocacy space and it was it it was it

00:08:22.140 was a bit like a carnival it was three stages one was for the diplomats and it was you know very

00:08:27.900 you know can you imagine coming together as that many politicians and coming up with language

00:08:33.500 everybody agreed on it's really it's really diluted discussion and then you had corporations

00:08:39.900 and they were trying to share best practices and frankly canada has a lot of best practices

00:08:46.700 coal like look what we've done in alberta on coal look what we've done on methane look what we've

00:08:51.180 done on conservation of land like we have some really really good practices to share and that

00:08:57.180 was pretty constructive space but i spent 90 of my time with the the advocates and and believe me

00:09:04.620 i i felt a little weird in that space at times because i was the target of criticism because i

00:09:09.820 was coming with viewpoints from people who were saying all over alberta we get it that we have to

00:09:16.460 do energy transition we understand climate change and and rob you know some people don't believe it

00:09:22.940 but lots of people believe it and i grew up on a farm and my farming family really understand that

00:09:28.380 climate change is happening so they just don't know they wanted to talk about how to transition

00:09:33.100 and they wanted to tell people in paris that these are the consequences of your choices like you can

00:09:39.020 say you know no more oil sands but this is the result and you understand that result so it was

00:09:45.340 kind of a human check-in bruce but it was it was a lot of drama i mean now today we've got you know

00:09:52.780 bill gates and we've got leonardo dicaprio i mean it's a it's a place it's like a davos for

00:09:59.740 the environmentalists and and it's a really hip place to be so it's not surprising people are

00:10:05.740 there but i i think a lot of the work gets done outside of those venues okay so let me stay with

00:10:12.780 you and we'll go reverse order this time donna so there's there's a lot of noise frankly about

00:10:17.100 who wasn't there our premier wasn't there um now when you were there premier notley was there

00:10:23.020 correct premier at the time yes um so so how do you view that should should premier kenny have

00:10:28.620 been there and what might he have accomplished if he was actually it was i i thought a lot about

00:10:34.220 that i know a lot of people are are really critical of him not showing up and defending our you know

00:10:39.980 the good stories and and and sort of being there is a bit of a foil to trudeau right now

00:10:45.500 But to be honest with you, I think it probably is a good idea for him not to have gone.

00:10:52.780 It's a stage where people want the drama.

00:10:57.240 And what would happen is, you know, Trudeau gets up and says,

00:11:00.660 we're going to put a cap on oil and gas emissions, which we all know.

00:11:05.720 I mean, to Danielle's point, I mean, this has been around since the NDP.

00:11:09.460 This didn't change.

00:11:11.180 It's been with us.

00:11:12.120 We all know that's what's going to happen.

00:11:14.060 So it's not really a surprise, but do we want to have that conversation between Trudeau and our Premier in a public space where, you know, there's a lot going on?

00:11:24.180 Carney, who is viewed as a really grounded player in all of this, you know, financial guy, trusted, and he's getting attacked by Greta right now.

00:11:32.820 So I don't know. I think maybe it was a wise move for Kenny not to go.

00:11:39.140 Well, I love, Donna, that you're with us tonight because I can already see some points that you're going to disagree with Rob on, with Danielle on.

00:11:45.640 Yes.

00:11:46.340 This is great for discussion.

00:11:48.100 And frankly, I'm with you a little bit.

00:11:51.120 I didn't see the need for another delegation going from Alberta, just wondering what they might accomplish.

00:11:57.540 That said, you want to be front and center where you can be.

00:12:00.560 Rob, what did you think?

00:12:01.780 Should the premier have been there?

00:12:04.980 That's a tough one.

00:12:06.020 I believe he should be there.

00:12:08.280 believe that there should be an alberta delegation there i i agree that that might have limited use

00:12:13.720 um but i think it's important like even in that in what donna was saying there and i find i find her

00:12:20.760 position to be extremely reasonable um uh it's very important to we we did this in covet too

00:12:29.080 you're either anti-vax or you're pro-vax you know you're either anti-science or you're pro-science

00:12:35.800 the issue that many people are taking and if you look at uh michael schellenberger for example and

00:12:41.160 other ipcc contributors and so forth what they have an issue with and what i have an issue with

00:12:46.760 is climate alarmism that to me is extreme it's not that these people are many of us are denying that

00:12:53.640 climate change is happening of course it's happening it's always happened and we have to

00:12:58.520 figure out how we can make sure that we're not affecting it in a way that is that is detrimental

00:13:04.040 to the human race i think everyone agrees on that but these the alarmism the absolute frothing at

00:13:09.940 the mouth of the at that you see at these at these uh at at these events and and and by trudeau and

00:13:17.020 by his environmental minister that says you know oh we're gonna you know this is gonna happen we're

00:13:22.040 gonna have runaway global warming by 2030 if we don't cut it back to such and such or 2050 but

00:13:26.520 these predictions have been shown to be wrong religiously for the last 20 to 30 years

00:13:33.740 I mean, you just got to look at the data. And so people are saying, look, we have an issue here to address. Let's address it. But let's use best practices. Let's think through these things. And the great example here is coal versus natural gas. I mean, China and India are literally firing up dozens of new coal fire plants monthly because they have to. Their people need the energy. And as everyone knows, these plants are literally double the emissions intensity of natural gas.

00:14:01.420 So if you're an alarmist or if you want to out of caution reduce CO2 emissions around the world, like perhaps Donna, myself and Danielle might want to do, and I'm not going to speak for them, but why would you not support fostering trade and pipelines and tankers that result in clean Alberta liquefied natural gas heading to Asia by the boatload so that some or all these coal-fired plants could become natural gas plants and then reinvesting a part of that wealth generating revenue into further technologies that work on bringing the burning of fossil fuels closer

00:14:31.400 to net zero and the reason why they don't is they either lack education vision or many instances in

00:14:37.240 my view they're bought off and paid for by certain special interests but free and clearing clear

00:14:42.280 thinking citizens need to stand up and speak out about this and that's why i think the premier

00:14:46.440 should have attended well you made a you made a very good case and some of those things rob

00:14:51.240 probably the premier uh should have could have said had he been there danielle pick up on that

00:14:55.800 and also the fact that you know rob mentions china and india and of course uh they're not even they're

00:15:00.440 not even at the table so i don't know how we're going to get them to move on anything when they're

00:15:03.800 not even participating well i would say the the premier definitely should have been there but he

00:15:08.680 has to be there with something more than a lame announcement which is what he did on the same day

00:15:13.240 that justin trudeau announced the cap on oil and gas emissions he said oh look at these projects

00:15:17.720 we're going to remediate or or or reduce emissions by seven megatons by 2030 that is nowhere close

00:15:26.600 to being part of the conversation if you talk if you pick up on rob's point about our lng being

00:15:33.320 exported to displace coal if we could get credit for that through the mechanisms that are available

00:15:38.520 in the paris accord that would get us towards a net zero target in alberta if we start looking

00:15:44.120 at bitumen and i've seen a number of proposals they i think people are familiar with bit crude

00:15:48.600 and canapux if you take that kind of approach that we won't use bitumen for combustion purposes that

00:15:55.320 we'll use it for asphalt or we'll use it for construction materials that gets us a well on

00:16:01.480 our way towards a net zero goal if you look at the capability of carbon capture storage and

00:16:07.080 utilization the ability to capture co2 turn it into useful products or buried underground we've

00:16:13.000 got so much poor space that gets us towards our net zero target hydrogen fuel of the future as

00:16:19.800 well we've already got projects on the go to to transform our long-haul trucking to hydrogen

00:16:26.440 that gets us towards the goal then add in our foresters who are planting more trees than anyone

00:16:31.000 else our uh ranchers who are sequestering uh co2 in in soils as well as our producers

00:16:37.560 or farm producers who are doing the same thing when when ifrancois blanchet decided to go on

00:16:42.920 his platform yesterday and challenge alberta that we shouldn't have an equalization program

00:16:48.840 we could have a green equalization program i say i'll take that bet because with the

00:16:54.280 the kind of technologies we're talking about we will get to net zero faster than anywhere

00:16:59.080 else in the country and quebec will be paying us for the benefit of capturing their soil we've got 1.00

00:17:04.920 direct air capture as another major initiative one smart company avatar innovations is partnered

00:17:10.520 with elon musk to develop that technology so i don't know why we run away from this i don't know

00:17:16.600 why we fear it if we believe in innovation then we should embrace innovation we should be there

00:17:21.880 to make the arguments and we should accept that challenge because i firmly believe that without

00:17:26.200 our energy sector taking the lead in this the world isn't going to create these kinds of solutions

00:17:30.280 without us and so we've got to have the confidence that we should be at the table i think the premier

00:17:34.840 could have been there with that message points points well made and uh it would be tough to

00:17:39.960 to debate with any of you frankly uh no matter what position you're taking they're both

00:17:43.720 communicated uh very well danielle when you mentioned uh carbon capture and storage i think

00:17:48.600 of the great work that enhanced energy is doing in alberta with the alberta carbon trunk line

00:17:53.480 more than a million tons uh sequestered annually with the capacity to do much more so you're right

00:17:59.400 we do have innovation here in alberta we need to talk more about it however when when quebec or

00:18:05.480 the prime minister seemingly give you the middle finger in alberta um and and appointing stephen

00:18:11.480 Yeboah as environment minister a lot would say just did they just did that how do we really

00:18:16.840 believe that they're interested in our innovation or is this indeed about shutting alberta's oil and

00:18:21.560 gas industry down and transitioning uh to other energy it's absolutely about shutting alberta's

00:18:27.320 oil and gas industry down and i don't think that we can we can sugarcoat that that's clearly what

00:18:32.680 the extreme environmental movement wants however what's interesting about it is that i think by

00:18:38.360 being so extreme they're actually alienating some who really want to solve this problem i've most

00:18:43.400 recently met two environmentalists paul stevers with a group called climate san and matthew

00:18:49.000 klibbenstein with the hydrogen association of canada both of them say they live on the left

00:18:53.960 both of them very concerned about co2 emissions but both of them realize that the only industry

00:18:59.880 that is able to roll out technology at scale is the energy sector that we have pioneered right

00:19:07.160 here in alberta you're not going to create a wind farm solution to this global problem you are not

00:19:12.600 going to create a solar panel solution to this problem you need the kind of technologies that

00:19:17.240 only our industry is capable of doing and so if you're serious about solving the problem then

00:19:23.000 you're not actually going to achieve it with what the greta thunbergs and the extreme environmentalists 0.92

00:19:27.880 are saying in fact when you look at the rollout of wind and solar the places where it's been the

00:19:33.240 most successful rolled out with the most penetration is a place where we have natural

00:19:39.000 gas as a backup because with intermittent power the only way you can work it into your grid is

00:19:44.280 you've got to be able to turn on base power in a an effective way as soon as that occurs so there's

00:19:49.000 no reason why the wind and solar industry should be oppositional to the natural gas industry they're

00:19:55.000 part and parcel they need to to coexist together and they need to grow together and the the message

00:20:00.440 that the extreme environmentalists have that it's going to be wind and solar and nothing else it's

00:20:05.720 been proven even by the leftists like michael moore in his documentary planet of the humans

00:20:10.120 it's been proven that can't possibly happen so i don't know why we continue to operate in the

00:20:15.240 fiction that somehow they have the upper hand on us they don't we've got the upper hand on this and

00:20:20.120 we need to be confident in asserting it well they're certainly uh pushing us down that road

00:20:24.600 aren't they with the cap announced by the uh the prime minister on oil and gas emissions um

00:20:30.440 Rob, is it even hidden anymore, the agenda, the message that appears to be coming out of Ottawa?

00:20:35.940 And how do the office towers in downtown Calgary deal with this?

00:20:41.980 It's not a hidden agenda anymore.

00:20:44.020 I mean, that's pretty clear.

00:20:45.920 I mean, the prime minister, I think, he tried to walk back some comments he made on previous campaigns about phasing out the oil sands and so forth.

00:20:56.660 But now it's pretty clear.

00:20:58.760 It's abundantly clear.

00:20:59.820 The stated objective of this government is to phase out and end the energy industry here.

00:21:06.000 And the way you do that is you let the current projects play out.

00:21:12.780 You let them gather what they're going to gather, produce what they're going to produce.

00:21:18.060 And then you just make it impossible for there to be more, for there to be new investment.

00:21:23.780 And right now, Alberta is seen as one of the most unattractive places in the world.

00:21:29.060 to invest new oil and gas money sure you can through fracking and some things there's some

00:21:34.880 existing plays of course the large oil sands plays that are already in the ground and operating

00:21:39.040 those will play themselves out and and and and there'll still be revenues generated from there

00:21:44.760 but this is just not a place that you invest right now and that's the goal that is the goal

00:21:49.440 of the Trudeau government that's the goal of Ottawa is to phase out the entire energy industry

00:21:54.220 over the next 10 to 20 years and the harms that that is going to cause this province the

00:21:59.920 devastation the loss of jobs the loss of revenue the effect that it'll have on health social

00:22:05.480 services education all of these things is is remarkably destructive and irresponsible in every

00:22:13.160 way of this uh this federal government um uh you know to to go down that road up the the solution

00:22:19.720 here. We all know that we're transitioning, but that transition is not away from oil and natural

00:22:25.460 gas, but that transition is not going to take 10 years worldwide. That transition is going to take

00:22:30.080 closer to 50 to 100 years worldwide. And we can either be part of that transition in a way that

00:22:35.160 where we have the revenues and we enjoy the bounty of our natural resources, or we can allow

00:22:45.080 venezuela saudi arabia uh iran etc to supply oil to the world uh with with cruddy environmental

00:22:54.360 records and you know obviously treating their their people in a in a in a not very good way

00:23:00.760 we can't allow that to happen we have a role to play and the federal government wants to end that

00:23:05.320 role and it's irresponsible uh donna you want to pick up on that oh yeah i'm an energy nerd so yes

00:23:12.920 Yes. I had the portfolio of electricity and renewable energy. I think it was the first

00:23:19.420 portfolio in Canada. I had that in 2013, 2014. And I come out of the extractive sector,

00:23:27.420 so I had to prove myself that I actually believed in renewables, and I really do. To Danielle's

00:23:34.460 point and to what rob's saying i i think i mean we have a we have such an abundance of energy

00:23:42.220 possibility in alberta we can weave together stuff that nobody else can do in most places in the

00:23:48.940 world it's quite amazing and and during this transition until we get batteries we are going

00:23:54.860 to need to do that that's just the reality we live in a cold country and we're gonna need natural gas

00:24:00.460 to back up when that's just a fact i wish it was different but it's not that's the way it is

00:24:05.740 so i i think it's what i ask myself all the time bruce is i follow the money and and right now yes

00:24:16.060 we have a lot of ideology coming out of federal government leadership and we have had for a long

00:24:21.340 time that has not changed that's been the same regardless of who is environment minister we

00:24:26.780 still know what's coming out of the prime minister's office that's been pretty locked in for a while

00:24:33.260 what's more interesting is who lends money to the energy sector so i've got lots of friends and

00:24:41.820 one of my sons was cfo of junior oil and great company great little company doing well ethical

00:24:49.500 creative and the banks came to him last christmas and said you know what we love you guys we think

00:24:54.540 you're doing great but you know our policy is we're not going to loan to small players anymore

00:24:59.980 you're going to have to sell your assets to those guys over there and my son's gone into a different

00:25:04.060 business like that's the reality that's that's what's going on in alberta um we have to transition

00:25:10.940 but what i am watching really closely and bruce i hope we get to talk about this is what's going on

00:25:16.460 with who is funding renewables and and why are they come why are all these foreign investors

00:25:24.460 showing up i know we have great assets but i i'm back to follow the money okay look we can and uh

00:25:31.260 you know i i have an out an outline to follow but you guys all mess it up because you just continually

00:25:36.860 you continually raise the next topic before we get to it let's talk about it let's let's fine

00:25:41.660 let's just stay right here okay so donna let's let's let's let our our listeners and viewers

00:25:46.540 understand uh what you're following there is a hearing underway the last couple of weeks maybe

00:25:50.940 longer about a huge proposed uh wind farm near lomond alberta and you can give us some of the

00:25:57.420 details 18 000 acres i believe um 83 of these giant uh giant statues uh whatever they call them

00:26:06.780 this thing is immense nobody is talking about it it's a german investor that's here who who is

00:26:13.180 making all of the money and um tell us give us some insight okay well i'll try to not be unruly

00:26:19.740 bruce sorry about that um seriously i i am nerding out to watch an alberta utilities commission

00:26:28.060 hearing via zoom um on a renewable energy project is yeah it's it's not for the faint of heart um

00:26:37.260 i've it's been going on for the last couple weeks there's a there we've we've heard recently that

00:26:42.540 there's a lot going on in vulcan county there's a the biggest solar farm in canada is going on

00:26:48.700 in vulcan county and amazon's going to buy the electricity and green gate's doing the project

00:26:53.340 isn't that fantastic? And it is fantastic. In this same little community, I drove down there

00:26:59.540 on Sunday, in this same little community near Lomond, Alberta, L-O-M-O-N-D, a gigantic German 1.00

00:27:08.760 multinational is going to, wants to, if they get permission, construct 83 wind turbines that are

00:27:16.400 taller than the Calgary Tower and have a wide sweep. It's almost that tall. It is a remarkable

00:27:25.140 investment. It's going to be, if they are successful, the biggest wind farm in Canada.

00:27:31.580 I mean, gosh, we start to sound like Texas with all these big boots things going on.

00:27:36.820 So I'm curious, why are they coming here? Why are they coming to Alberta? They've never invested

00:27:42.600 here before so i i went deep i went really deep and they are investing here because yes and under

00:27:51.000 the ndp government we had you know iso the electricity um aso alberta electricity service

00:27:59.400 system operator oh system operator thank you i just called them aso they had a bid for three

00:28:06.120 wind farms and people bid and those projects went ahead good stuff now this government has

00:28:12.200 opened it up and if you bid on these projects you bid you know you get to construct generate the

00:28:18.440 electricity but not only do you just get the right to sell the electricity to albertans you also get

00:28:26.360 the green credits now even the ndp didn't do that so it used to be that you you know you have this

00:28:32.840 great big cake that was electricity that you could sell but and the icing this little sliver of icing

00:28:39.640 was the green credits today even the market surveillance guys who are watchdogs are saying

00:28:46.280 who cares about the cake all they need is the icing to make this thing go economically 0.94

00:28:51.880 credits are worth that much and if you're avio wind and you come in from germany and you invest

00:28:58.280 your money to build all these wind turbines in our land remote places where people get accused

00:29:03.720 of nimbyism for questioning this because green is good you get to sell those credits and the value

00:29:10.960 of those credits is going up by the day and so they will likely be sold to somebody like amazon

00:29:17.260 to offset their emissions in a place like california now i have a problem with that i want

00:29:24.220 albertans to get that money am i being ridiculous i don't think so i don't think so danielle you

00:29:31.140 were nodding away there and um do you want to weigh in on this subject i don't know if you're

00:29:35.800 familiar with this this particular farm i don't mind a discussion about wind but it seems to me

00:29:41.500 we don't talk about wind and the environmental impacts the same way we talk about any other

00:29:45.860 energy source so if we're going to do compare green with green let's talk about the migratory

00:29:50.400 birds that get killed with these turbines let's talk about the bats that get killed let's talk

00:29:54.400 about the fact that you can't build wind turbines with a wind turbine you need to have steel which

00:29:59.320 you need fossil fuels for. You need cement, which you need fossil fuels for. You need fiberglass,

00:30:03.780 which you need fossil fuels for. You need to transport it to site. Some of these, I don't

00:30:07.500 know how big this one is, but it's 1,500 or more trips in traditional combustion engine vehicles

00:30:12.860 to get it to site. So why aren't we talking about all of those carbon impacts? In addition,

00:30:18.020 as I understand it, we don't have an effective way of decommissioning and recycling all of the

00:30:23.880 products at the end of life for these for these installations. And so we do have an imbalance in

00:30:30.200 how we assess them. The other thing I worry about with when I was down in Montana, and one of the

00:30:34.780 things they do in Montana is if you're going to sell renewable into the grid, you have to be able

00:30:39.480 to firm it up. So if you say I have 100 megawatts of power to sell, you have to always be able to

00:30:45.060 sell 100 megawatts of power, which means you have to partner with something like natural gas to be

00:30:50.260 able to make it work. The fact that they are able to come in, get all of the different credits that

00:30:55.700 Donna's talking about, in addition not have the same scrutiny on the environmental side that we

00:31:01.280 would have on our traditional industries, and then at the end of the day mess up with the power grid 0.78

00:31:07.620 because they can't provide reliable energy. I've looked at this every single year when we get down

00:31:12.440 minus 30 in February, we have an air mass that sits on us and none of those turbines move.

00:31:19.880 When it gets cold and frozen, none of those solar panels are generating energy either. And so we

00:31:25.880 have to recognize these are not year round alternatives and we have to judge them from

00:31:30.200 a reliability standpoint as well. That's supposed to be what the electric system operator is

00:31:34.600 supposed to do. And it seems like if everyone's chasing after the green credits, they're just not

00:31:39.000 making the full assessment that they need to on the cost benefit right and we should also consider

00:31:44.120 how much government money uh is is thrown at these things and by comparison to the oil and gas

00:31:49.080 industry uh rob you're the only person that hasn't jumped in on this one go ahead uh well i just echo

00:31:57.720 everything that uh that i've heard here is that daniel's uh um outline of the environmental

00:32:04.440 impacts of these wind farms was is is very true um there's a great book out it's called apocalypse

00:32:12.200 never it's by michael schellenberger he's an environmental activist ipc contributor certainly

00:32:18.280 not a righty very much on the left side of things but someone who's actually truthful

00:32:23.160 about climate alarmism and the damage he believes it's causing both the environmental movement and

00:32:28.520 the environment he talks a lot about solar farms and wind farms and it takes for solar farms take

00:32:35.400 450 times 450 times more land than nuclear plants and wind farms take 700 times more land than

00:32:43.800 natural gas wells to produce the same amount of energy and we are literally sitting on an ocean

00:32:51.320 of clean burning natural gas and we're getting better and more efficient at burning it and using

00:32:56.280 it every day that will not only heat our homes but it could heat hundreds of millions of homes

00:33:00.760 around the world as as i talked about earlier in asia and africa and so forth if we if we got our

00:33:06.440 act together and didn't have a hostile federal government and we can use all of these profits

00:33:12.040 from the sale that gas to develop and innovate tech in alberta uh which is which is fantastic

00:33:17.160 we have to be smarter on this issue bruce like aside from i'm not going to repeat what danielle

00:33:22.600 said these things are just but ugly okay like let's just call it a spade a spade we have one

00:33:28.160 of the most beautiful pristine landscapes in the world here especially on the uh on the on the

00:33:34.640 eastern slopes i do not want and i'm i'm sure the residents i know in talking with several of them

00:33:40.600 over the last week because i knew we were talking about this issue they are absolutely horrified by

00:33:46.380 this it's destroying their entire view scape and landscape they're ugly and they don't you can't

00:33:53.180 just at the end of life here you don't just tear them down and reset throw them in the recycle bin

00:33:57.960 at the curb I mean this is this is ridiculous we're sitting on on an ocean of natural gas and

00:34:04.380 all this is is it's a scam it's a way that a German company has found to come in here and and

00:34:12.000 and use the the carbon credit process and and the funding that's made available to them from

00:34:17.840 government and so forth directly and indirectly to make a buck this isn't about the environment

00:34:22.640 it has nothing to do with the environment if they did they could make you know they can make a far

00:34:28.880 bigger difference by investing in lng and getting it over to asia if they wanted to actually work on

00:34:34.080 c reducing co2 levels um loud and clear i hear you it's just brutal and there's there's

00:34:41.360 there's we should show leadership here and kenny should be all over this i hate i hate to cut you

00:34:46.800 off rob these lights on our landscape especially when you're that passionate on it on an answer i

00:34:51.920 hate to cut you off but we've got a couple things we want to get to before we run out of time in

00:34:56.320 about 10 minutes don i want you to close this one off for us and let us know what's the status of

00:35:01.200 this hearing what happens going forward the every all the uh the proponent and all the objectors

00:35:08.240 have been heard from. The AUC hearing has finished. They will announce their decision within 90 days,

00:35:15.200 so we'll know by year end. The First Nations communities that are directly affected by this

00:35:22.000 Blackfoot in southern Alberta were objectors and pulled out at the very last minute,

00:35:28.240 all three groups. The Majerville Medicine Wheel, which is a very significant religious site,

00:35:35.840 a traditional site is within view scape of the this particular installation of

00:35:42.400 turbines so it was very controversial there's a lot at stake here and once you

00:35:48.560 put these things up they're gonna be with us for a long time so I just you

00:35:53.380 know I want us to hear these people and I'm not you know I get NIMBYism but

00:35:59.320 these people have a right to be heard and and I I'm just not sure how many

00:36:05.260 Albertans can and have keep keep nerding out keep nerding out and listening to these things and

00:36:11.160 we'll we'll keep having you back Donna to to chat about them okay so what do we do about what we're

00:36:16.860 dealing with in Alberta what can Albertans do well Rob has authored along with a couple of others

00:36:22.200 Barry Cooper and Derek Fromm the free Alberta strategy Rob tee it up for us and tell you what

00:36:29.200 tell us what you suggest that we might do in order to make Ottawa frankly hear the voices of

00:36:34.960 albertans well thank you for that um and i'm very interested to hear donna's uh view on this because

00:36:41.040 i know that she was obviously on the fair deal panel and right did the lion ship like a lot of

00:36:46.220 work on that obviously um and there were some very good recommendations which are in as are part of

00:36:52.500 the free alberta strategy virtually every almost every one of them um the i would say the main

00:36:58.640 concept because you know we're short on time but the main concept is alberta in my view bruce needs

00:37:03.720 to um declare itself a sovereign jurisdiction within uh within canada um much like quebec

00:37:11.240 has effectively done they have their national assembly um they pass laws that uh like banning

00:37:17.400 pipelines from crossing their borders that are clearly unconstitutional not in their purview

00:37:21.400 but they do it anyway in ottawa doesn't really have a choice but to respect that and alberta

00:37:26.920 needs to as you know we talked about before coming you know to air here alberta needs to 1.00

00:37:31.560 get its elbows up here like we are being attacked on every single side right now but mostly by by

00:37:38.760 ottawa and uh when we're talking about what's happening um in confederation here and what's

00:37:45.320 happening is not just sucking resources out of alberta that's definitely still a problem 0.66

00:37:49.400 equalization and transfer and so forth but this is an existential crisis we are talking about

00:37:55.560 the destruction of our most important significant industry not just in alberta but in all of canada

00:38:02.520 and like what country undertakes such a such a self-destructive course of action we have to say

00:38:09.720 look in alberta if you pass laws that interfere with our provincial jurisdictions such as natural

00:38:15.240 governance of our natural resources we are not going to enforce those laws within the province

00:38:21.160 so carbon tax we're not enforcing it here we're not going to put that burden on our people

00:38:25.800 and on our industry to enforce the carbon tax with any provincial agency or governed body we need to

00:38:34.440 start doing these things and yeah it's going to ruffle feathers and you know maybe a little mini

00:38:39.240 uh controlled constitutional crisis is what uh what a country needs from time to time when it's

00:38:44.360 become as dysfunctional as it is now but that's kind of the foundational principle of the free

00:38:49.640 alberta strategy we'll probably make more time for it in a future episode rob but um having said what

00:38:55.080 you just did danielle we'll start with you and then we'll go to donna and allow her to make a 1.00

00:38:58.120 comment and then wrap up um okay you hear a lot of talk about separation lately i think this is where

00:39:04.920 the rubber hits the road many albertans are frustrated but they about what they see but

00:39:09.560 don't want to go that far is this um is this a lever we need to pull do we need to be more

00:39:14.520 aggressive clearly we do there's two there's two things that i'll just jump off from what rob said

00:39:20.440 about how we assert ourselves i remember being on a panel a few years ago with um with a quebecer

00:39:25.880 and we talked about how confederation should work and it actually should work ironically

00:39:32.680 a little bit more like the european union instead of having ottawa collect all the taxes and shoot

00:39:38.440 the money back to us we collect our own taxes and we decide what we're going to shoot to ottawa 0.66

00:39:42.680 i mean the i don't know how it is that we gave up autonomy over that central tax collection role

00:39:48.760 because even if ottawa argues they have an entitlement to every penny that they're taking

00:39:54.120 from us i think it would be good psychologically for us to be able to see just how much we're

00:39:59.960 giving to ottawa that gets dispersed into quebec and the rest of the country right now it's

00:40:04.440 intermingled the other thing too is that we need to demonstrate that we have the capacity to do

00:40:10.040 all of the things that an independent sovereign within Canada jurisdiction can do. And we haven't

00:40:15.720 done that. So for me, collecting all of our own taxes first is the number one priority.

00:40:22.120 Second, I was recently talking to somebody who is trying to create a bio waste facility in Alberta.

00:40:30.600 They said it's mystifying. In Quebec, you only have to go through one environmental review process.

00:40:35.720 Quebec has the environmental authority. Once they've decided to approve it, it gets approved.

00:40:39.480 we have two layers here not only does alberta have an environmental review process but doesn't

00:40:44.600 get approved until ottawa approves it how come quebec has autonomy on environmental approvals

00:40:50.040 and we don't why is the federal government asserting that it should be able to approve

00:40:53.960 our sagd projects or the tech frontier mine or whatever other project we put forward the answer

00:40:59.400 is no we just have to assert ourselves in the same way that quebec has and those would be the

00:41:03.560 the two places I'd start. Okay. Donna, concluding thoughts, both on this subject and on what we've

00:41:10.180 discussed so far this evening. I'm going to be a bit of a dissent here. I actually think we should

00:41:18.540 put our elbows down a little. I was on the Fair Deal panel, and I was actually surprised that

00:41:23.940 Kenny asked me to be on that panel because I think it was a case of keeping your enemies close.

00:41:28.720 um i learned a lot because i like to listen to albertans and they had a lot to say and i think

00:41:35.540 we dug into what the legal framework is and and i think there's a better understanding of what our

00:41:40.280 legal rights are within within confederation and that has a value to what both danielle and rob

00:41:46.900 what you're speaking to we we need to know our rights so that we can you know exercise them

00:41:51.680 but you know british columbia has figured out a way to do the carbon tax in a way that's effective

00:41:57.880 And we could have done the same thing.

00:42:01.160 Our industry here and innovators, and I'm not just talking about oil and gas, are doing leading edge stuff.

00:42:08.520 AI out of Edmonton, like that's cutting edge.

00:42:11.220 Machine learning, lots of stuff coming out of all over the province, everywhere.

00:42:16.540 I think we just need to keep doing what we're doing.

00:42:19.620 and if we put our elbows down and stopped attracting all this drama because it's attract

00:42:26.180 we're like a lightning rod for it right if we could just say you know what we want people across

00:42:33.140 canada to thrive all of us we are only four and a half million people here in alberta

00:42:39.700 we contribute more than we take you know what for now that's the deal and and we acknowledge it but

00:42:46.660 But let's just move on and just allow us to be able to whatever it takes.

00:42:53.040 We might have to dig a little bit differently and we might have to shoot from behind the neck from time to time to throw in a hockey metaphor, Bruce.

00:43:02.880 But it's it's we have to learn how to do it and we have to be smart.

00:43:07.360 And I think we're capable of it. But elbows up all the time.

00:43:10.900 I just think it's a game that gets tired and it's distracting and it's distracting us from

00:43:15.940 doing what we are capable of doing, which is a heck of a lot more. And I want us to spend our

00:43:21.340 energy on that. Well, I can tell you more people are shooting from behind the net for what it's

00:43:25.500 worth. The lacrosse move is making its way into the NHL. Dawn, I know you've got a jet, so thank

00:43:31.520 you for your time tonight. I know Rob and Danielle are both going to probably disagree with some of

00:43:35.700 what you said, but really appreciate you joining us. One more plug for your book, okay?

00:43:40.900 Thank you. OK, the book, the book, one more time, teaching the dinosaur to dance.

00:43:47.920 That's right. And it's due out in in the spring. Donna Kennedy, glad. So good to have you. Thank you.

00:43:53.140 Thanks. Boy, boy, Donna packed a lot in there. And, you know, I think, to be fair, much of what she says is reasonable.

00:44:01.200 But a lot of people are at the point where they said we've been trying that strategy.

00:44:04.920 We've been trying to do it that way. And it's not working.

00:44:07.900 I mean, what would you say, first of all, to what Donna said and concluding thoughts on what we've discussed so far this evening?

00:44:13.360 Well, anybody who knows hockey knows that you don't you're not going to win too many games if you don't bang, crash and get your elbows up in the corners from time to time because you won't be respected and your space won't be respected.

00:44:23.400 So I think that it is important. And I think that, frankly, we haven't, we've had our elbows down for several decades now where we basically just allowed Ottawa to run roughshod over our provincial jurisdictions to rob us blind, frankly, $700 billion over six years in net equalization and transfers.

00:44:45.580 we can't allow this to happen anymore where we're going to be a has been and have not and uh that's

00:44:52.360 not the alberta that i want to live in uh the alberta i want to live in and i want to see kids

00:44:56.340 live in and and friends and family it's a strong prosperous economically powerful province that

00:45:04.020 you know that is able to create the technologies to deal with some of these big world environmental

00:45:08.800 issues and do so on our terms with our people and our money and uh we need to start we need to stop

00:45:15.560 being so deferential to the authority of ottawa in order to get there because if we don't i'm

00:45:21.100 telling you it's uh we're going to bleed out as a as a province and you can if you want to look to

00:45:26.680 what we'll look like um you know people aren't going to move here for our weather that's for

00:45:30.700 sure uh it's going to look we're going to look a lot like you know who knows um other places that

00:45:36.320 are far less prosperous and that we don't want to be like so i think the strategy is is a key

00:45:41.100 piece of that and i'm glad to see that uh or hear that danielle um uh is uh understands so much of

00:45:47.860 it and is supportive of it so maybe we're about to get an endorsement from you danielle uh well

00:45:53.660 well said rob listen uh thank you and uh why don't we leave the last word to danielle tonight on what

00:45:59.460 you've heard from donna and rob on this subject danielle and just just in general um you know

00:46:04.340 our our conversation this evening well let me let me tell you the problem that i have in the

00:46:09.280 position that I'm in is because I talk to innovators all the time, and I know that the

00:46:13.760 innovators have taken the net zero challenge seriously, and they think they can do it.

00:46:17.660 They think that not only this race to net zero is one that we should run, but it's one that we

00:46:22.480 can win. But I feel like the polarization has gotten in the way of the conversation. So with

00:46:28.060 Premier Kenney, he spent so much time fighting the carbon tax that I don't think he wants to talk

00:46:32.820 about the things that I'm seeing about this type of innovation. And then on the other hand, if you

00:46:37.420 believe the polls, it looks like Rachel Notley might be our next premier. Well, last time she

00:46:41.900 got elected, she completely froze out the business community and wasn't interested in hearing what 1.00

00:46:45.500 they had to say. So if you end up with our two political leaders not hearing from the innovators,

00:46:50.800 and at the same time, you've got a mayor in Calgary, Jody Gondek, that doesn't know what's

00:46:54.440 going on in her own backyard. The same time you've got a prime minister who thinks that we've got an

00:46:58.680 industry that's stuck in the 1990s. I don't know how we move forward on finding that kind of

00:47:04.560 collaboration and that sort of solution. That's where I'm feeling some frustration is that it

00:47:08.600 does seem to me like we are the most entrepreneurial place in the entire country. We have the best

00:47:14.680 minds here. And what happens when we have downturn in our economy is everybody sits and thinks and

00:47:21.880 gets creative and then they come back even stronger. And I feel like we're on the cusp of

00:47:25.680 doing that. But I don't think that the politicians understand just how much the industry is prepared

00:47:31.260 to innovate, how quickly they're prepared to get there. And instead, we're setting up this

00:47:36.400 polarization and this fight. That's what I worry about is nobody's at the table. No one's talking

00:47:40.860 to each other. And if we don't get people talking to each other, I think that the inevitable is

00:47:46.300 going to happen. I don't know that this country can stay together. Well, talking about it is

00:47:50.380 exactly what we need to do. And that's what we try to do tonight and we'll continue to do. Danielle,

00:47:54.580 thank you. And Rob, thank you both for being with us. My pleasure. All right. Let me conclude with

00:48:00.920 this tonight to those of you watching at home. We're going to do this on Censored every week.

00:48:05.980 We're going to do a segment. If you have some thoughts on what you'd like to see us discuss,

00:48:10.140 some of the issues that you would like to see covered, send us an email. We'll certainly take

00:48:13.900 it into account. Rob and Danielle will be regular panelists and we'll bring a third in depending on

00:48:18.140 the subject material. But frankly, Alberta is in a situation where many of these things are not

00:48:24.180 getting the publicity that they need to. And we're going to do our best to give that to them and to

00:48:28.520 bring some perspective and some insight on this political panel called Uncensored.

00:48:33.300 Thank you for being with us tonight. We'll see you next week.

00:48:58.520 .

00:49:28.520 You

Western Standard - November 05, 2021

Uncensored： COP 26 - Climate Change Hypocrisy

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