The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
CanadaCarbon Levels & MeasurementCarbon-Free TransitionClimate Action/"Blockadia"Climate Impacts & AdaptationClimate Policy/Meetings/NegotiationsEnergy PoliticsMedia, Messaging, & Public OpinionOil & GasPipelines/Rail TransportSub-National GovernmentsTar Sands/Oil Sands
Home›Jurisdictions›Canada›‘We Are Better Than This’: Berman Explores Alberta’s Energy Future. Notley Comes Back with Unicorns.

‘We Are Better Than This’: Berman Explores Alberta’s Energy Future. Notley Comes Back with Unicorns.

October 14, 2018
October 14, 2018
 
313
2
Share:
  •  
  • 40
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    40
    Shares
  Print This Story
Kris Krug/wikimedia commons

Activist, analyst, and policy advisor Tzeporah Berman called for civil discussion and a managed transition off fossil fuels, and Premier Rachel Notley tried to refute her with unicorns (seriously, literally), after a speaking invitation from the Alberta Teachers’ Association became one of the year’s most contentious moments in the debate over the province’s energy future.

“In back-to-back speeches to social studies, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies teachers at the River Cree Resort and Casino Saturday, Berman and Notley made contrasting pitches for why oil pipeline projects like the Trans Mountain expansion to B.C. are either a white-knuckled grasp on a dying industry, or a necessary investment to keep people employed and cover the costs of a transition to renewable energy,” the Edmonton Journal reports.

Berman’s heavily-referenced presentation (full final draft available on the Stand.earth website) surveyed the depth of the climate crisis, the urgency embodied in last week’s IPCC report on 1.5°C pathways, the sinking economic viability of Alberta’s high-cost, high-carbon fossil industry, the astonishing rise and plummeting cost of renewable energy and energy storage, and the need for a deep, honest dialogue on the energy transition that will be at the heart of the province’s future.

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

“We can’t address climate change by building more of the past,” she told media afterwards. “The idea that pipelines are answers to climate change is absurd. You don’t buy more cigarettes to quit smoking.”

“Here in Alberta, we ride horses, not unicorns,” the province’s NDP premier responded, in a speech that branded “far-left environmentalists” and the province’s extreme right politicians as equal threats to progress on climate change. “I invite pipeline opponents to saddle up on something real.”

The Edmonton Journal and National Observer both have more detailed accounts of the dueling speeches, with the publication based in Alberta’s capital giving considerable space to Berman’s facts and arguments.

“No one is saying oil and gas production should be shut down overnight. But how much will we produce and for how long? Is it big enough?” Berman said in her prepared remarks.

“Here’s a crucial point that gets lost in the debate here in Alberta. The storm of controversy is not about having an oil industry—that would just be a ‘normal’ controversy. The storm is happening because government and industry want to grow production instead of planning for a peak and decline.”

Berman briefly addressed the wrenching, manufactured controversy that followed her invitation to speak in Alberta, culminating in brutal personal attacks and online death threats that prompted her to request security for the visit.

“It’s been quite a month,” she told conference participants. “I have been called a lot of things…An eco-terrorist. Try explaining that one to your kids. An enemy of the state. A traitor, a liar, an extremist, a scumbag…and much worse that I can’t even repeat.” The experience “has given that old saying ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ new meaning and importance.”

She added that “the debate over this speech has revealed a deep underbelly of fear in Alberta, for good reason. Change is hard, and in the climate era there are no easy answers.” But she traced a time when leading environmental executive directors and fossil CEOs sat down for some deep dialogue, and along the way, found themselves talking about their kids and vacation plans during breaks in negotiations.

“In the environmental community, we need to hold ourselves accountable for vilifying those who work in the oil industry, for not acknowledging how we have all benefitted and continue to benefit from oil, for not acknowledging how painful change is and will be,” she said.

“At the same time, many in industry and government need to be held accountable for trying to silence much-needed debate. For playing on people’s real fear about their livelihoods, their families, and using that for political gain. We are better than this. Regardless of your opinion of the Trans Mountain pipeline or the growth of the oilsands…we are better than this.”

Tags26 WeeksBitumen BubbleBitumen Bubble Canada’s Pipeline Climate Policy Paradox
Share:
  •  
  • 40
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    40
    Shares
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
CanadaCarbon Levels & MeasurementCarbon-Free TransitionClimate Action/"Blockadia"Climate Impacts & AdaptationClimate Policy/Meetings/NegotiationsEnergy PoliticsMedia, Messaging, & Public OpinionOil & GasPipelines/Rail TransportSub-National GovernmentsTar Sands/Oil Sands

    2 comments

    1. Geoffrey Pounder 15 October, 2018 at 11:59 Reply

      Berman: “In the environmental community, we need to hold ourselves accountable for vilifying those who work in the oil industry…”

      Exxon now finds itself in court for its decades-long campaign of deception, doubt-mongering, and denial of global warming.

      Last week’s IPCC report hands Berman plenty of extra ammunition — and robs Notley of hers.
      In politics, timing is everything. Berman’s speech is timed perfectly with the release of the IPCC report. Notley’s oilsands promotion could not be more cretaceous.
      Wrong week to support fossil fuels. Wrong century.

      NDP supporters need to get off the fence. You can’t be on both sides of the climate change issue. Either you accept the science and respond accordingly — or you don’t.
      Where will you stand? On the right side of history and science? Or with an industry-captured out-of-touch politician?

    2. ben 16 October, 2018 at 15:09 Reply

      “could not be more cretaceous.”
      I have to like your comment just for that use of the word, Geoffrey

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • EXCLUSIVE: Blaming Campaigners for Rising Premiums Masks Trans Mountain’s Shoddy Safety Record, Ex-Insurance Exec Says
      EXCLUSIVE: Blaming Campaigners for Rising Premiums Masks Trans Mountain’s Shoddy Safety Record, Ex-Insurance Exec Says
      March 12, 2021
    • Time to Invest Now as Governments Devote Just 18% of COVID Spending to Green Recovery
      Time to Invest Now as Governments Devote Just 18% of COVID Spending to Green Recovery
      March 12, 2021
    • Toronto City Council Calls for Ontario Gas Phaseout
      Toronto City Council Calls for Ontario Gas Phaseout
      March 12, 2021
    • Brookfield to Supply Hydro-Generated Electricity for U.S. Green Hydrogen Plant
      Brookfield to Supply Hydro-Generated Electricity for U.S. Green Hydrogen Plant
      March 12, 2021
    • A Decade After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Cleanup ‘Has Barely Begun’ [Sign-on]
      A Decade After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Cleanup ‘Has Barely Begun’ [Sign-on]
      March 12, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Republican Senators Delay Haaland Confirmation in Fossil Power Play
      March 11, 2021
    • Alberta Health Whistleblower Dr. John O’Connor Wins Free Expression Award
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Lost Financing Prompts Bangladesh to Cancel Nine Coal Plants
      March 11, 2021
    • Renewables Supply 88% of Portugal’s Electricity in February
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Alberta Health Whistleblower Dr. John O’Connor Wins Free Expression Award
      March 11, 2021
    • Calgary Tech Company Expands, Creates 500 Jobs
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Republican Senators Delay Haaland Confirmation in Fossil Power Play
      March 11, 2021
    • Mississippi Regulator Forces Power Company to Shut Unneeded Coal, Gas Plants
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • Kerala State, India Installs Solar to Turn 75,000 Homes into ‘Mini-Power Stations’
      March 11, 2021
    • Wind Moves Ahead in France as Gas Demand Lags
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.