Why encourage oil production?

In the midst of the uncertainty in the oil sector, despite only 20 per cent of tarsands crude being affected by the light-heavy crude price differential, Saskatchewan is introducing new incentives to actually increase production, freezing royalty payments (more welfare for the oil industry at taxpayer expense) and initiating a water injection program to recapture more oil from existing wells.

All the extra water for that new procedure will supposedly come from underground brackish water not fit for human consumption, but since only oil companies were consulted and no environmental assessment was done, can that statement be trusted? And the 500 permanent jobs that are supposed to result? Right, like that’s going to happen.

It’s not as if critics are calling for an immediate shutdown; the oil companies are still producing as much as they ever did. Why not start by just capping production at the current amount indefinitely, while we transfer to carbon-free sources of energy? Of course, that is anathema to a society whose mantra is endless growth of everything. We’re already heading for the edge of the environmental cliff, so let’s accelerate and get it over with.

You could understand Thelma and Louise’s decision, but not ours. It’s a death wish, pure and simple. How else to describe it?

Tim Nickel, Saskatoon