These days it seems like we’re driving with the brakes on.
How can we trust, or even believe, the political drivers of our economy when they keep screaming with wide-eyed fanaticism, “Net Zero 2050! Net Zero 2050!”?
Will this happen overnight, as so many of them seem to believe?
It could be possible if all fossil fuels were fossilized back to extinction!
So just do that.
Nike up for goodness’ sake! Just do it!
Let’s shut down the Enbridge Line 5 now as Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of the state of Michigan, is insisting on – just in time for re-election. Run those gasoline pump prices from $2.05 per litre in southern Ontario to $2.95 per litre. Let’s roll with a $7.00 per U.S. gallon in Detroit; and let’s increase the mysterious carbon tax in Canada because … don’t you know… that tax has lowered emissions hasn’t it?
Oh, never mind.
Let’s instead ask why the U.S. doesn’t have a national carbon tax.
Oh, never mind.
I find it confusing in this net zero windmills-of-their minds’ quest that the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David L. Cohen, recently commented that the U.S. is “not really in the market” to expand its oil and gas links with Canada. This is because such a move would, “interfere with the country’s climate change initiatives.”
As I drove along, after hearing this, I had to wipe the fog from my rear-view mirror and ask what those initiatives might be because I don’t think the consumer has seen them or is taking notes. They are, however, taking note of their credit card bills and the imbalance in their bank accounts.
Pump prices for gasoline and rack prices for diesel continue to rise as consumers need and want more and more refined petroleum products.
This sure flies in the face of “net zeroism.”
If the political mantra is that the death of fossil fuels is just around the corner, then that corner sure isn’t in “my town” Canada or “their town” U.S.A.
If the death of all fossil fuels is nye, someone please explain to me why supply is in free fall, yet demand is ballooning.
Today’s U.S. inventory report shows that crude oil inventories are now 15% below the 5-year average, gasoline is down 9%, and distillates are down 24%.
We are now in driving and flying season. If you think prices are high now, well… you can fill in the blanks.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Cohen, I must ask you to explain why the solution appears to be:
• For the U.S. to draw crude out of its own SPR and export it to Europe,
• Refine U.S. crude and export diesel and gasoline to Europe,
• Hop on a plane and ask OPEC to increase their crude oil production,
• Relax sanctions on Venezuela to get more crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast refining hub
Then to maintain the demand for gasoline and diesel, just do what the state of New York is doing – drop state taxes for the next six months, which will cut the cost by 16 cents a U.S. gallon and therefore encourage an increase in demand or the soon to be dead fossil fuel industry.
All these actions, Mr. Ambassador, may force the saying to change from “Net Zero 2050!” to “Negate Zero 2050.”
– Roger McKnight – B.Sc., Senior Petroleum Analyst
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