Moe needs to accept the future of clean energy
Criticizing climate plans only serves to alienate more voters
Like his predecessor, Premier Scott Moe has spent much of his time in office demonizing any effort to respond to climate change. But that strategy has already limited the Saskatchewan Party’s appeal to voters and, in the long run, the economics of cheerleading for dirty energy may be as flawed as the politics of doing so.
On the political front, last week’s Regina Northeast byelection looks to have primarily reflected a highly energized NDP campaign. But it also included a noteworthy take-away for the Saskatchewan Party, arising out of the revelation that their candidate Gary Grewal had donated money to the federal Liberals.
That connection to Justin Trudeau’s party was seen as particularly damning among provincial partisans, given that Moe’s public message has involved little more than rote criticism of the Liberals’ (however feeble) climate plans. And it apparently resulted in apathy on the part of the governing party’s volunteers and voters alike.
Beyond signalling that the Saskatchewan Party’s founding alliance has been blasted to smithereens, Grewal’s fate suggests that Moe and his predecessor have managed to make even the faintest association with reasonable climate policy a scarlet letter within their party. But the more Moe continues that effort, the more he’ll drive away potential candidates and voters who recognize the threat of climate change.
And if Moe thinks he can make up for his gross neglect of the environment with economic
The more Moe continues that effort, the more he’ll drive away potential candidates ...
messaging, he may want to take a closer look at what’s happening outside Canada’s oilpatch.
The U.S. government is doing everything in its power to serve the fossil fuel industry. But any temporary political machinations will ultimately give way to popular demand, and there’s little indication the American citizenry holds any desire to cling to expiring dirty energy.
To the contrary, polling for a trade group for U.S. utilities has found strong support for a move toward cleaner energy, even if that is associated with increased bills (which may not be the result in any event). And respondents didn’t accept any excuses about the feasibility of shifting toward 100-per-cent renewable energy — meaning that even in the country at the epicentre of conspicuous fossil fuel consumption, corporations relying on dirty sources of power aren’t hoping for much more than to buy time.
Similarly, Data for Progress has analyzed existing survey data and conducted new polling, and all show that majorities of voters both generally and in swing states support a “green jobs guarantee” along with policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
So while the United States may be dedicating government power to fossil fuel interests today, it looks set for a quick energy transition once the political winds change — meaning that any hope of relying on it as a long-term export market may be futile.
Meanwhile, China has long been mooted as an alternative market for Canadian energy products. But its energy choices have also tilted away from fossil fuels toward clean energy.
China signed on to an unprecedented cooperation pact with the state of California, signalling that it’s looking for partnerships to expand its own clean energy industry, not to lock itself into decades of coal and oil.
If Moe is paying attention to the long-term well-being of either his party or Saskatchewan’s economy, he’d thus be well served to stop his anti-environment crusade. And if he won’t, then voters will need to demand a full transition to clean energy before economic forces do the job first.