The Canadian Senate’s Conservative-led energy committee report Now or Never: Canada Must Act Urgently to Seize its Place in the New Energy World Order is a plan to exploit resources, not provide energy, says the Council of Canadians.
"Highlighting destructive energy sectors such as the tar sands and fracking is incredibly short-sighted," says Maryam Adrangi, the Council of Canadians Energy and Climate Justice campaigner. "An energy strategy shouldn’t be based on destroying the water and air for many communities. There are other options, such as redirecting fossil fuel subsidies to public transit, building retrofits, and provincial energy sharing. This is where jobs actually come from."
The Council notes that the report's claim that natural gas is clean, efficient, and safe ignores robust evidence to the contrary regarding fracking for shale gas and tight oil.
"Not only does this report gloss over the environmental and human impacts of fossil fuels, the authors of the report even admit on page 2 that the report is completely detached from the reality of climate change," says Adrangi. "How can you write a report on Canada's energy future that ignores the climate crisis and the need to transition off of fossil fuels? Are we supposed to take this seriously?"
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