Keystone decision a victory for people power
A doctor tells your friend that unless he exercises and eats better, he’ll be dead of a heart attack within five years. You doubt his ability to exercise and diet, so you offer him a deep-fried Mars bar to try to make him feel better. Do you get insulted when he refuses to gobble down the gooey mess, or do you try to be a better friend?
This is what Canadians should be asking themselves in light on the U.S. State Department’s decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline earlier this month—a momentous event in the world of energy and climate change politics.
First, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a dramatic warning that unless we stop building energy infrastructure like coal plants and oilsands pipelines in the next five years, we’ll be on the road to runaway climate change.
“As each year passes without clear signals to drive investment in clean energy, the ‘lock-in’ of high-carbon infrastructure is making it harder and more expensive to meet our energy security and climate goals,” said the IEA’s chief economist Fatih Birol. Delay is a false economy, he said, for every dollar of investment not spent on cleaner technology before 2020 requires an additional $4.30 to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet the very next day, the Harper government and the oil industry railed against the Obama administration’s decision to send the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry diluted bitumen from the oilsands down to Texas, back to the drawing board. In retaliation, our industry and government leaders threatened to sell the oil to China instead, even though the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, which would take the bitumen to the Pacific coast, is even less likely to be built than the Keystone XL.
The Obama administration has indicated that any future evaluation of the pipeline must consider the climate impacts of building a pipeline that would enable a 45 per cent increase high-carbon oilsands oil output.
This potential impact on the climate was, however, the prime motivating force behind the anti-Keystone movement on both sides of the border.
A number of strands converged in the people powered campaign to beat Big Oil. Solid research debunked oil industry claims. Freedom of Information requests exposed cosy back-room dealings between oil lobbyists and the U.S. State Department. Local people opposed the ecological and health consequences of pipeline spills. First nations’ concerns over the health impacts of expanding oilsands production were heard. How oilsands expansion violates treaty rights in the absence of free, prior and informed consent was highlighted. Climate scientists warned that building another pipeline to the oilsands would be like lighting a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet.
These strands converged in peaceful, dignified mass protests across the continent that showed President Obama he had the public support to act on his campaign promise to “end the tyranny of oil” and take action on climate change. To demonstrate the depth of that support, over a thousand people were arrested at sit-ins on the White House lawn and on Parliament Hill over the last four months.
The oil industry may howl over how democratic concern trumped their money and backroom lobbying power this time, but we’re going to need a lot more victories like this one if we are going to avoid the highly polluting infrastructure “lock-in” that the IEA warns against.
If you care about the planet we are leaving for our kids, it’s time to say no to deep-fried Mars bars disguised as new pipelines or coal plants. The Earth needs better friends. Let’s draw the line at the oilsands and start flexing those democratic, “people power” muscles in support of the green energy revolution that will keep the planet healthy for generations to come.
