It is among the daftest of lawsuits ever, and perhaps the greatest waste of taxpayer dollars in recent memory..Vancouver city council voted to spend $660,000 to join a lawsuit against so-called Big Oil because of its role in accelerating climate change..Thankfully, the narrow 6-5 decision is subject to a final vote..This is odd for a city adjacent to the second largest airport in Canada. Vancouver International Airport shuttles more than seven-million passengers in a good year, generating countless amounts of greenhouse gases..Council apparently wants to cripple the companies that power the aircraft. These are jets that allow passengers to conduct important business, connect with family and friends, and take holidays..The energy companies already pay taxes and employ thousands of people, but Vancouver city council believes they should be censured in the courts for providing the lifeblood of a modern economy..The legal action is odd for a city that crows about the welcoming of fuel-guzzling cruise ships. Canada Place is scheduled to receive 210 cruise ships this year..The cruise ships use the foulest of fuel and run 24-hours a day, even when in port. CBC reported a mid-sized cruise ship can consume up to 150 tonnes of fuel a day and emit as much particulate as one-million cars..“All of them run on the dirtiest fuel you can imagine,” says Dietmar Oeliger, the head of transport at Nabu, a German environmental association..“It's heavy fuel oil, it's quite toxic. It's a residual of the petrol industry, and it contains a lot of dirty stuff.”.If Vancouver city council is concerned about the environment, it should shut the door on the cruise industry, instead of supporting frivolous legal suits at taxpayer expense..The legal action is strange for a city that neighbours one of the largest ports on the continent. The Port of Vancouver is the biggest in Canada and the fourth busiest in North America..Vancouver city council thinks vessels that service the port can run on fairy dust, or the fuel they require is unnecessary..The legal action is odd for a city that benefits from the BC Ferry system. BC Ferries is the biggest passenger ferry service on the continent. Its fleet of 36 boats travel to 47 docks several times each day..Vancouver council thinks the fuel that powers them should be demonized. If not the fuel itself, the companies that produce it should be called to task, says the city’s council..It was only a few years ago British Columbia’s government launched an inquiry into the high cost of gasoline on the Lower Mainland. Vancouver city council wants to increase the cost of gasoline even further..Energy company CEOs and their shareholders won’t pay the price of any unlikely legal settlement. It will be the hapless consumers, who are already buckling under the weight of high energy costs fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, who would suffer..The proposed legal maneuver has been compared to class action suits against tobacco manufacturers. The difference, of course, is that smoking cigarettes or cigars is discretionary. Oil and the many products it is used for, including computers and medicine, is essential..Some hollow grandstanding from politicians is to be expected. It’s often candidates’ only talent. But when politicians attempt to cobble an essential product, they have lost their minds..By all means, switch to electric buses and fire trucks. But when city councilors think companies should be penalized in court for providing a product critical to the functioning of modern society, they have gone too far..Vancouver taxpayers should expect far better from their representatives. Instead of falling under the spell of leftist idealists, councilors should be realists..In this instance, Vancouver’s reservoir of wisdom is running on empty..David Marsden is a columnist for the Western Standard. He served as managing editor of the Red Deer Advocate and editorial page editor of the Calgary Herald, as well as editor of several British Columbia publications.
