Lək̓ʔəŋən [LEKWUNGEN] TERRITORY / VICTORIA, B.C. — Emily Lowan, leader of the Green Party of British Columbia, spoke out about Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney’s backroom pipeline deal: “Danielle Smith and Mark Carney are betting Canada’s economy, and BC’s future, on a resource the world is rapidly transitioning away from.” Lowan continued, “that includes ‘decarbonized oil,’ a meaningless buzzword to sell an antiquated economic model.”
Chinese solar exports have doubled their record high in recent months, with the nation’s oil imports plateauing. The EU — an organization that Carney himself claimed would dictate the new international order — produced more power from renewable energy than from fossil fuels last year.
“There is no world where a new pipeline proves beneficial for working people, economically or environmentally,” said Lowan. “Danielle Smith’s self-interest will only benefit the fossil fuel billionaires who are stuffing her pockets and funding her desperate last grasp at oil dominance. Letting Smith dictate oil policy is like letting a child dictate bedtime.”
Jeremy Valeriote, MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky agreed, stating “this new agreement goes totally backwards, and for what—appeasing corporate interests and Premier Smith?”
“The Liberals’ choice to back this agenda is yet another example of them enacting a Conservative plan Canadians firmly rejected,” said Lowan. “Instead of a steady hand, Canadians received a puppet for industry lobbyists. Instead of affordability, working families have only seen prices go up. Instead of building our national sovereignty, the Liberals are offering handouts to an industry set to make $90-billion dollars in profits this year through gutting industrial carbon pricing, cutting into the revenue we need to maintain essential services.”
Valeriote continued, “Announcing a national electrical grid alongside fossil fuel expansion is a bizarre approach to national development. In B.C., we already have a government approving electrical projects in order to power and subsidize fossil fuel corporations, and we’ve seen how it goes: while the public waits decades for any real benefit to their communities, it’s entirely offset through corporate exploitation and the worsening climate crisis.”
Lowan concluded, “If Carney and Smith were actually interested in the future of Canada, they’d recognize that the world’s biggest economies are transitioning to renewables for a reason. They can choose to entrench our economy in the unstable, rapidly depreciating model of fossil fuel extraction, or create thousands of jobs and deliver lower energy bills for working families by investing in the renewables that will truly build our nation.”
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