Making a problem more difficult doesn’t make it easier to solve. It compounds the problem. Some of the political decisions being made these days are confounding today’s consumer – and this writer is one of them.
With the Ukraine conflict now approaching 40 days, and Europe now becoming desperate for an immediate alternative supplier of crude oil and, more importantly, natural gas, what can Canada do to help?
Tell the U.S. to help them? They certainly can. We certainly cannot.
Although this is not my area of expertise, so I stand to be corrected by my colleagues, I must ask: if Canada is the 4th largest producer of natural gas why can’t we export this fuel to Europe to help them out?
As I understand it, over the years there have been 18 proposals for LNG terminals. Currently we have only one under construction. Meanwhile our only crude oil customer, the U.S., has now become not only the world leader in crude oil production and refined product exports – but the leader in these categories for LNG with 160 fully operational LNG facilities.
Can we export natural gas to the U.S. and let them carry the ball?
Similarly, can we increase crude oil exports to the U.S. so they can stick handle exporting it to Europe to fill in the Russian supply gap? If so, how do we do that with limited pipeline capacity and a federal government with a Net Zero mindset?
When it comes to domestic prices for gasoline and diesel, I also must ask: why, with prices at record levels and inflation in gallop mode, must we endure another government encouraged (dare I say mandated) increase in the carbon tax amusingly on April Fool’s Day? Who’s the fool here? Does the leader of the U.S. impose a federal carbon tax?
No.
In fact, President Biden has taken a different fork in the road and is trying to lower prices, not increase them.
He’s no fool.
He is doing this by releasing one million barrels a day for six months from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Canada didn’t see the need to establish a crude reserve but did see the need for a carbon tax.
Our solution to runaway inflation? Just make it worse – take a different fork in the road and run away from the problem instead of trying to solve it.
– Roger McKnight – B.Sc., Senior Petroleum Analyst
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