Thursday, June 10, 2021

Opinion: Time to reframe the question around our energy needs

Jim Elliott, OPINION
REGINA LEADER POST

The recent “fight” over Line 5 in Ontario presupposes a narrative that is unproductive and pushes us into the game of whack-a-mole. If it isn’t Line 5, then it is Energy East. If it isn’t Energy East, then it is Keystone. If it isn’t Keystone … you get the picture.
© Provided by Leader Post A view of the Imperial Oil refinery, located near Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, which Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered shut down, is pictured in Sarnia, Ont., on March 20, 2021. PHOTO BY CARLOS OSORIO /REUTERS

I believe we need to change the language and the question. Most politicians and the fossil fuel industry would want you to believe that energy = fossil fuels. We need energy, therefore, we need fossil fuels. If it isn’t coal, then it is natural gas. If it isn’t natural gas, then it is oil or bitumen. The fossil fuel industry wants you to believe there is no other path.

I will admit that most of what happens on this planet is based on energy use. But here is a scenario and different language: If you are a plant, you get your energy through photosynthesis with the source of that energy as the sun. You don’t need fossil fuels. If you are a human, then you need to eat plants and animals for energy. Energy is a service provider, not a product or widget.

We have to therefore ask a different question. Not, “Can we sell you coal, natural gas or oil?” We need to ask what services are you in need of and, once that is defined, you begin to assess the amount of need. In the case of a building and warmth, can that service of warmth be provided through the capture of energy that is already there instead of simply pumping more warmth into a very leaky building? Can that energy be maintained longer inside your home by building a better sealed energy envelop? If you design a building in which you have no need for a furnace, then what use is natural gas or oil or coal?

Once you have exhausted ways to reduce your energy need, then and only then should you be looking for energy sources. And you need to find the most-efficient and effective way to provide that energy source. For example, if your location has the highest and strongest source of solar energy (i.e. Estevan, often billed as Canada sunniest city) then why would you not look at photovoltaic or passive solar installations or geothermal energy? You don’t need to jump to the conclusion of we got to have more pipelines.
© Provided by Leader Post 
Solar should be the first option for energy production some argue.

What the fossil fuel industry has done is convince us to build leaky buildings and only get energy from fossil fuels. Our provincial utilities have been widget sellers for decades. We need to be converting them into energy service corporations and solve your problems with the best way possible, not just sell you more widgets.

Many of the pipelines will become stranded assets unless we wish to dig them up and recycle the steel. Oil and gas wells will become abandoned or, at best, converted to geothermal wells tapping into the renewable energy of the earth. The scar on the surface that is the tar sands can and will be left for the people of the next millennium and beyond to clean up and help nature restore the surface.

If we can only stop the fossil fuel industry from creating more sacrifice zones on the planet, we might have the possibility to take a different road, paved with long term sustainability, healthy people and a healthy planet.

Jim Elliott is chairperson of the Regina chapter of the Council of Canadians.

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