Of course it is, but what’s interesting is just how hypocritical, because if the investment happens, Albertans could be cutting a giant cheque to the Saudi company.<\/p>\n
Before we explore the depth of Kenney’s hypocrisy, let’s state for the record that more Alberta petrochemical production is a good thing.\u00a0In May, I wrote the Energi Hydrocarbon Vision,<\/a><\/em> arguing that Canada has to adopt a post-combustion strategy for oil and gas. In practical terms, this means using hydrocarbons to make carbon fibre (oil sans bitumen) and petrochemicals (natural gas) instead of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Turning natural gas into clean-burning hydrogen and sequestering the CO2 underground is also part of the vision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While more petrochemical production is a smart move, the<\/span>\u00a0problem here is Kenney\u2019s decade of \u201cethical oil\u201d politics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ethical Oil was coined by Ezra Levant – the unethical muckraker and founder of Rebel Media – in his book of the same name.\u00a0 Levant’s argument is that Western environmentalists and media criticize the oil sands but ignore the human rights abuses of countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The whole point of Ethical Oil is to provide cover for the environmental problems with Canadian oil and gas – the sky-high greenhouse gas emissions of the oil sands and the 37 ponds containing 1.4 trillion litres of toxic tailings, for example. \u201cWe may be bad but those guys are worse\u201d is a poor defence of an industry that desperately needs to clean up its act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, Kenney raved about Levant\u2019s book when it came out in 2010 and he has been pumping the Ethical Oil narrative for all it’s worth ever since. The Premier is a prolific tweeter, search his Twitter timeline for dozens of examples.<\/span><\/p>\n But here are two instances of the ridiculous lengths Kenney’s government has gone to promote the Ethical Oil narrative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tyranny index<\/b><\/p>\n Everyone knows about the waste of $30 million a year known as the Alberta energy war room, a.ka. the Canadian Energy Centre. This past spring, the war room published the cartoonish \u201ctyranny index<\/a>\u201d by former Fraser Institute researcher and notorious right-wing activist Mark Milke and his fellow traveller Lennie Kaplan. <\/span><\/p>\n The basic point of this fatuous exercise was to show that oil and gas production from \u201ctyrannies\u201d like Saudi Arabia made up a higher percentage of global supply now than free countries like Canada – despite the fact that crude oil sells on grade and price, not ethics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Milke promoted the tyranny index on Alberta media, but the project was ridiculed on social media and, it appears, quietly kicked to the curb. <\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes, Ethical Oil doesn\u2019t even sell in Alberta. <\/span><\/p>\n But where Milke and Kenney hope it will sell is Wall St. “When so-called ‘<\/span>ethical investors’ <\/span>do not treat\u00a0<\/span>tyranny-produced oil in the same manner they might if the product was a t-shirt assembled by child labourers in southeast Asia, or diamonds mined with slave labour in Africa\u00a0<\/span>(<\/span>where profits were\u00a0<\/span>funnelled to<\/span>\u00a0guerrilla forces<\/span>)\u00a0<\/span>\u2014\u00a0<\/span>blood diamonds<\/span>, they make a choice,” Milke argued<\/a> in a war room commentary.<\/span><\/p>\n Wall St. and international investors aren’t buying that malarkey because they understand the importance of climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Climate risk assessments now influence how capital is elected, as Alberta has ruefully learned the hard way thanks to financing restrictions imposed by UK-based HSBC bank and the giant Zurich Group insurance company, as well as oil sands divestments by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, to name a few.<\/p>\n The Tyranny Index was a flop and deservedly so.<\/p>\n Ban Saudi oil from North America<\/b><\/p>\n A quick perusal of Canadian Energy Regulator data shows the flaw in Kenney\u2019s argument. This past January, Canada imported <\/span>750,000 barrels per day of crude oil, 78 per cent of it from the United States. Only 13 per cent came from Saudi Arabia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why would Canada start a trade war for under 100,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude oil imports? About $1.5 billion of Canadian exports to the Kingdom would be in jeopardy. And what would happen to the jobs of the 5,000 Albertans working in Saudi Arabia?<\/p>\n Railing against “dictator oil” makes for great tweets and creates employment in the war room, but it’s not hard to see there’s no incentive for Ottawa to back Kenney’s demand for import tariffs.<\/p>\n Watch this interview with international trade economist Professor John Ries of UBC for an expert explanation of why Kenney’s idea of “fortress North America” will never fly.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/energi.media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Tyranny-Index-Figure-3-V2-960x0-c-default-e1604341506962.jpg\")
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But that didn\u2019t stop Kenney from using Ethical Oil to argue for banning Saudi oil from North America using import tariffs. According<\/a> to the Financial Post in April, Kenney said \u201cprospective import tariffs on oil coming into North America\u201d were under discussion with Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n