Winds Of Change
The Saturday Huddle is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region. Mark Leger is the editor of Huddle and the Director of News Content for Acadia Broadcasting.
For people who live in Saint John, the Irving Oil refinery is a dominating presence. As an avid runner who favours the east side of the city, I jog by it often, peering up at its hulking containers and the intricate and snaking system of pipes and smokestacks.
It’s part of the urban fabric close to schools, malls, stores, churches, and residential neighbourhoods. An employee once told me oil refinery workers across North America are often surprised to hear the Saint John facility is situated in the middle of the city like that.
As I was thinking about this column earlier this week, I checked out my Instagram feed and the first thing that appeared was a picture posted by an Irving Oil employee of its city centre headquarters.
Many of the company’s employees are immensely proud of the 11-storey building, which opened in the fall of 2019, and regularly post pictures on social media channels of its architectural features and panoramic views of the city.
If I walk out the front door of my uptown office and turn right, there it is.
My point if it isn’t clear already: Irving Oil is a significant presence in my physical and virtual world.
And the oil economy looms large in all our lives, even though we’re amid a transition toward the widespread use of renewables. The pump price is high right now; I set personal records every time I fill up these days (more than $110 last week for a midsize SUV).
Part of the reason for the recent price spikes is the war in Ukraine, with global leaders trying to figure out how to lessen the dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies, particularly in Europe.
I recently listened to an interview with global energy expert and author Daniel Yergin on The Ezra Klein Show. Yergin talked about the potential for U.S. oil and shale gas to supply the European market that’s trying to lessen its dependence on Russia.
It made me think about New Brunswick’s potential missed opportunity, with the fierce resistance to exploring and developing natural gas supplies here. I also reflected on the now-dead Energy East pipeline project that would have brought Alberta oil to Saint John and exported it through a terminal that would have been constructed here.
On a campaign stop in Nova Scotia earlier this week, Jean Charest, a federal Conservative Party leadership candidate and former Quebec premier, said a revived project could get his support if he were prime minister.
“The last pipeline done in Quebec was done under my government. So I’m favourable to pipelines and every project will be judged on its merit,” Charest told Acadia Broadcasting reporter Anastasia Payne.
But the project’s proponents likely missed their best opportunity when Stephen Harper had a majority government that didn’t rely on the support of Quebec MPs.
The real potential for large-scale fossil fuel projects is in Newfoundland and Labrador, which just received approval for the Bay du Nord offshore oil project.
Andrew Furey, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, says local projects like this could be a win both for replacing Russian oil and the environment. Offshore drilling produces much lower emissions than the extraction process in places like Alberta’s oil sands.
Podcast: A Different Kind Of Politician For Newfoundland And Labrador
David Campbell and Don Mills spoke with Furey on the latest Huddle “Insights” podcast, the last in a four-part series of interviews with Atlantic Canada’s premiers.
“We all hope that the Ukrainian crisis passes very quickly and peacefully. But even with the passage of time, and hopefully the quick resolution of peace, there is going to be a massive quantity of oil that is required that is going to be decades-long in the transition of Europe, in particular, to a cleaner, renewable resource,” Furey told Campbell and Mills.
“This is the oil that [Europe] and the United States will need if we’re going to meet our environmental targets and if we’re going to ensure that our NATO allies are no longer relying on Russian petroleum products.”
I may recognize that New Brunswick missed opportunities to export oil shipped by pipeline to Saint John and develop shale deposits for use at home and abroad. I may also understand why Furey wants to exploit Newfoundland’s offshore oil reserves to help revive a struggling economy. But I’m not an unreserved supporter of fossil fuel developments.
When voicing their support for fossil fuel projects, politicians and business leaders often talk about managing the transition to a cleaner future where most energy supplies are renewable. They talk about continued fossil fuel developments as part of the transition process, as if being part of the problem is part of the solution.
But I don’t blame them for wanting to grow their economies, I just understand the urgent need for action on climate change. I guess I’m like the federal government, which increased support in the recent federal budget for both electric vehicles purchases and carbon-capture technologies in fossil fuel projects.
When I run near the refinery, I’m always aware of which way the wind’s blowing. There’s often an acrid taste in my mouth that worries me and I think it’s because the prevailing winds are going against me. It’s as if pollutants can’t harm me if they’re not blowing in my face.
I see the larger debate on fossil fuels very much the same way for people who have rigid positions on one side or another.
We can’t avoid the reality that fossil fuels are still very much part of our daily lives. We also can’t escape the consequences.