It’s time to quit bickering, end the uncertainty and shut down Enbridge’s controversial Line 5. Before you grab the torches and pitchforks, bear with me here. I am going somewhere with this..Line 5 is a major pipeline carrying essential petroleum liquids from Western Canada, through Michigan and into Sarnia, Ont. Products from Line 5 provide heating stock for Ontario and Quebec along with aviation fuel for international airports on both sides of the border. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been trying to shut down Line 5 for years and now it has turned into a political football for the White House..If Whitmer succeeds in shutting down Line 5, home heating prices will skyrocket in Central Canada, thousands of people will lose their jobs in Sarnia, and air travel may be disrupted for months while they seek alternative fuel sources. Our already rising energy costs will skyrocket..So why does Whitmer want to shut down Line 5?.To be blunt, it’s because she is an environmentalist ideologue. Economic realities mean nothing to people like her nor do ground-level jobs. She lives in a cloistered world of privilege and neither sees nor cares what human damages her eco-crusade will inflict. She is much like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in other words..So why do I want to see Line 5 shut down?.I want to see Line 5 shut down because it will hasten the economic reality check voters and decision-makers in North America desperately need..Politicians and the majority of the electorate have mentally drifted into an alternate reality where we will be able to shut down all hydrocarbon-based fuel sources without paying a dire economic price for it. They believe renewable sources of energy generation will spring up like daisies once the oil pumps shut down and we will all happily dance down the yellow brick road of a green new world..Europe is in the midst of an energy crisis like none we have seen since the 1970s. Germany has gone back to burning coal as an energy source while Great Britain is sourcing natural gas from Qatar. India and China are increasing their coal mining while Russia and Norway are ramping up oil production. Even left-leaning economists are beginning to grudgingly admit the mad rush towards renewable energy sources has been a large contributor to the energy shortage of today..Despite seeing this crisis unfold in Europe and despite high energy prices spurring inflationary spikes around the world, the political leadership in North America is acting as if none of this is happening. Trudeau has appointed an environmental extremist as the nation’s environment minister and is imposing caps on oil and gas emissions. President Joe Biden is begging OPEC to increase oil output while refusing to acknowledge his cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline has contributed to domestic energy costs. Biden is playing coy with the status of Line 5 at a time when we are desperately in need of domestic energy security..Our electorate is no better..Trudeau coasted to re-election with an NDP-backed minority government and in Calgary Jyoti Gondek was elected as the new mayor surrounded by a crop of union-backed councilors..Despite Calgary’s core being a dystopian ghost town with over a million square feet of vacant office space, Gondek has decided to make the declaration of a climate emergency her top priority as she states we must move beyond oil and gas. The top remaining companies in Calgary’s core are in oil and gas yet the new mayor is shunning them. They will be encouraged to leave while incoming investment is chilled..People won’t wake up until they get a good kick in the ass. That kick is coming in North America and the only question now is whether it’s coming sooner or later. I would rather see the kick come sooner as it will make it easier to backtrack and recover once things hit the fan. If we continue our slow march to energy poverty, it will take a little longer to hit the economic bottom but will also take a lot longer to climb out..The sudden cancellation of Line 5 will provide the shock we need. A bucket of cold water of reality thrown into the faces of a spoiled and sleepy electorate. We need to shatter the fairy tale that we have a source of renewable energy reliable enough, affordable, and ready to replace hydrocarbons right now..It’s like the old method of putting a kid off of cigarettes when they have been caught smoking. You make them smoke a whole pack in one sitting so they can get a good solid taste of what they are flirting with..People are wishing for a world without hydrocarbons. Let’s give them what they’re wishing for. After a season of freezing in the dark, I suspect we will see citizens demanding reality-based energy policies and the political leadership will follow..Cory Morgan is the Alberta Political Columnist for the Western Standard and Host of the Cory Morgan Show
