PINDER: Imagine life without oil... just try it

Recently a professor from the University of Regina, Emily Eaton, proposed that we stop subsidies to oil and gas companies and no longer consume fossil fuel energy. She has funny ideas: Unlike electric vehicles, battery manufacturing, solar panels and other beneficiaries, the oil industry is not subsidized. These comments follow those of editorialist Phil Tank of the Star Phoenix, a month or two ago, also suggesting oil production in Saskatchewan should cease and desist.Let's assume these are good people sincerely advocating for better public policy as they see it. Unfortunately, their views are an example of something all too common in the western world today... viewpoints are often based on a narrative, not facts.Ergo the following questions for Eaton and Tank.1)Without oil, how does the Professor assume she will travel to the university, supermarket, Rider games and back home? The building of all vehicles — including EVs — requires oil for steel and most other components. How would ambulances get to the hospital? And without oil-based implements, no surgeries or medicines. Meanwhile, Phil Tank rides a bicycle, something also similarly dependent on oil for its manufacture and delivery. How will it work for him when there is no asphalt, at best only gravel, shoveled by hand, for the road or sidewalk he rides on? This is not sarcasm, but a real question regarding his advocacy that deserves an answer.What clothes are they going to wear? Almost all have oil-based components. Chemicals from fossil fuels are a foundation for thousands, maybe millions of products that enable us to enjoy the outdoors, travel, clean our homes, and partake of the vast array of human activities and necessities we enjoy. What is the substitute?How do we heat our homes, or any structure, without utilizing fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas? Wood is a high emitter, and its smoke, unlike carbon dioxide, pollutes the air.Certainly, both Tank and Eaton utilize phones, computers and other implements for their work and much more. Again, their manufacture is not possible without oil. And how do they expect to power these implements and the future dramatic increase in electricity needed for data centres and artificial intelligence? Even the construction of dams for hydro-electric power, and the transmission infrastructure, cannot happen without significant fossil fuel consumption from earth moving, concrete, and more.And please don't suggest the answer is windmills and solar panels. Notwithstanding their importance to the narrative, they are not renewable, nor a solution. Windmill blades require special rare earth minerals, currently mostly from China, which are mined and transported, refined and transported, manufactured and transported to tidewater, shipped to North America and elsewhere, and then trucked to the site for installation. Each step needs oil or diesel.Observing the transportation of these blades on roads is quite amazing - their size is surprising. The installation requires large amounts of concrete, both below grade and above, to stabilize the huge and heavy blades. More fossil fuel inputs required. It is only then, and only when the wind blows, that our energy is free. The specifics depend upon the details above, but you can see the release of emissions to construct and install wind farms, is considerable, and it takes many years of emission free power to break even. Further, a duplicate power system, fueled by coal or natural gas, is needed as so called so called renewables are intermittent.I say so-called because the notion they are renewable is again part of the narrative, not a fact. These blades (and it is the same for solar panels) have a life span and need to be replaced, restarting much of the process described above, creating ever more emissions.Meanwhile, more replaceable than renewable, the old blades and panels, not being biodegradable, create a waste problem.So, windmills and solar panels are not free of cost or emissions, nor renewable. One can follow the same factual logic for the construction of EV's, then also add batteries into the financial and emissions calculations.This is not to suggest that wind and solar farms and electric vehicles are anathema. Every energy source will be needed to support the amazing innovation that is inherent in human activity. The energy solution is “all of the above”.Each person in the developing world on average only consumes about one tenth the oil of the United States. Those who advocate eliminating fossil fuels smack right into the ambitions of the rest of the world to replicate our lifestyles. It also smacks of elitism.Tank’s column, advocating Saskatchewan shut down its oil industry, understates its importance, and is a startling example of how narratives distort facts. There is no question that he did not question those in oil producing areas across the south and up the western side of our province where livelihoods are highly dependent on the production of oil and natural gas.Although much of the early work occurs in Calgary, seismic, land negotiation, site preparation, drilling and completion of wells, trucking, building gathering systems and pipelines, and much more provide jobs for those who don't get much attention from university professors or left wing editorial writers. The journey of oil does not end at the well site or the pipeline. Refining is an integral process converting crude oil into a range of important products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, etc. Both Regina and Lloydminster boast significant refining operations that are core businesses, large employers, and crucial for our province and beyond. The Mayor of Lloydminster — did Tank contact him? — recently remarked his city would be half its size without the Cenovus upgrader and refining facilities. A single phone call, or cursory fact finding, could have dispelled for Tank his misleading narrative that the oil industry is unimportant to our province.One of the leading providers of retail gasoline and service stations is Federated Co-Op, with head office in Saskatoon. In addition to its large and growing chain, it owns and operates a significant refinery in Regina and is in the process of adding a bio-renewable process, presumably to reduce emissions. The Tank column was sadly under-informed and in place, factually incorrect. It is a classic example, as were the silly remarks by the professor, of advancing a narrative that lacks common sense and economic reality but suits their global warming crisis beliefs. Both would be well-served reading best seller How the world really works, by Vaclav Smil. Author of more than 40 books, this Manitoba professor is one of Bill Gates “favorite authors”. It makes no sense to shut down Canada’s oil and gas sector with less than 2% of global emissions, irrelevant as India and China open coal fired electrical plants almost weekly. If the industry succumbed to the ideologues in Ottawa (and the Saskatchewan daily newspapers), Canada would suffer dramatically reduced standards of living across the country, reducing funding including for universities and subsidies for papers.Often, I wonder how PostMedia, the owner of our newspapers, tolerates the persistent one sided and uninformed editorial commentary on important issues.As for the University of Regina - who hired Emily Eaton, and how can she possibly keep her job with such colossal ignorance of basic economic facts and denying our students factual information. As a side point this is why many, including myself, no longer donate to our alma maters, at least until and unless they start teaching facts versus advancing narratives.About 80% of emissions along the chain result from the burning of fossil fuels, mostly in Ontario and Quebec where people, work, fly, drive, and live. The production of oil, mostly in the West, is responsible for only 10% of emissions along the chain.The fossil fuel narrative, based on beliefs and illustrated by the above examples, is damaging to Canada, and contrary to basic science and economics. It is as disappointing as it is real.Many have said, but it was writer Samuel Johnson who is first credited with the truism, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. May I suggest, even if it is paved with asphalt.

PINDER: Imagine life without oil... just try it

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