Unless we live our lives under a blanket, we are aware of the rapidly deteriorating conditions on earth thanks to climate change. Every day brings new horror stories of widespread destruction wrought by tornadoes, floods, wildfires, drought and life-threatening temperatures. Unfortunately, the corporate entities most responsible for the fact that our planet is dying conduct themselves with impunity and immunity, thanks largely to the control they have over our politics. As I pointed out in my previous post, Canada must be included in this sad state of affairs.

Former Liberal environment minister Catherine McKenna is unflinching in her critique of the oil industry, especially for their continued despoilation of our environment as their emissions continue to rise.

Canada’s official greenhouse gas inventory was published last week. It showed that in 2024, oil and gas production was the only sector in the country to have increased its greenhouse gas emissions. 

“In Canada, we expect, Canadians expect everyone to step up and do their parts. But instead, we have oil and gas, which is largely foreign-owned, largely U.S.-owned, who aren’t doing their part. All they’re doing is increasing our emissions and demanding subsidies,” McKenna said in an interview while at Montreal’s climate summit last week.

She adds that oil companies are “demanding that Canadian taxpayers pay the bill for cleaning up the pollution they cause and building pipelines they won’t risk their own money on.”

This is a state of affairs that should enrage all of us, yet the supports offered by our government continue unabated. Indeed, the oil companies’ profits soar thanks to war, and those profits benefit few.

[W]hat do they do with those profits? They give them back to fat cat CEOs and then they go give them back to their shareholders, largely Americans who support Donald Trump,” she said. 

Canadian companies in the oil industry are bringing in an extra $170 million in profits every day because of the war in Iran, which has pushed global oil prices up by more than 50 per cent, according to an analysis published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

And despite the fact that renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, we see no real impetus on the part of government to alter the tragic trajectory we are on.

“How about get people off fossil fuels, get them into EVs,” she said. “Why are we still heating our homes with oil and gas?”

According the the former minister, oil can be delivered to homes in Halifax when people can use heat pumps. She also questions why utility companies don’t allow Canadians to put solar grids on the ground and be paid for it. 

“We really have to move forward on these solutions. That isn’t so much about affordability as it is about Canada’s economic competitiveness now and into the future,” she said. “And of course it’s also better for kids.”

And McKenna sees the greenwashing the companies engage in, perpetuating fictions such as becoming carbon neutral through carbon capture.

Three researchers from the University of Ottawa published a study in the Energy Research & Social Science scientific journal in June 2024 on how the New Pathways Alliance was misleading the public with its environmental claims.

The New Pathways Alliance, now known as the Oil Sands Alliance, is a consortium comprising Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor, Cenovus, Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips. 

For years, this alliance has been promoting the Pathways’ project, which aims to make oil sands production “carbon neutral” by 2050 through carbon capture and storage.

Of course, you may recall that the federal government is investing millions in this faux technology. As has been the case for many years, taxpayers are expected to do all of the fiscal heavy lifting while the oil companies reap continuously soaring profits. 

What is wrong with this picture, and why do our political ‘leaders’ continue to do the fossil fuel industy’s bidding?