PIPELINES ARE ESSENTIAL

Two items of news concerning energy have given me cause for concern. First Joe Biden plans to halt construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Second, opposition is mounting against a proposed large coking coal mine in western Alberta.

Pipelines are essential infrastructure for continued supplies of petroleum products, in particular Canadian bitumen. Rail shipment is expensive, inefficient and dangerous. What ever efforts are made to reduce CO2 emissions, the world will need oil for some time to come. Biden’s move is not good news for Canada.

Coking coal is essential for the manufacture of steel. Similarly, large amounts of silicon are required for solar panels and communication devices. Silicon cannot be smelted from sand or silica without lots of coking coal.

We need to be careful what we wish for. All the moves to electrify transport and install renewable energy require huge investments in infrastructure. That means steel, and silicon, plus a lot of other metals. Mining needs energy.

It is about time we stopped demonizing coal and oil. If their emissions are leading to climate disaster, then we are all doomed. A wide reading of sound science outside the “green box” will reveal that we are not on a path to catastrophe. By all means let us clean up our atmosphere of pollution. But CO2 is not pollution, as the politicians keep calling it. That shows they are talking through their green hats. Peter Noakes, Charlottetown