The latest news that Canada will be building a series of massive hydro projects “the size of 15 Hoover Dams” sounds impressive, but there is a long leap between an announcement and completion. The dollar value is estimated at some $70 billion for the collection of projects by Hydro-Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. Remember that BC’s Site C dam began in the 1980s and was ultimately completed for approximately $16 billion in 2024, double the projected price of $8.8 billion in 2014.Canada’s National Electricity Strategy, Powering Canada Strong, is reportedly designed to strengthen Canadian sovereignty, potentially reducing reliance on our north-south power grid connections with the USA and instead (or in addition to) creating an East-West-North national grid. But Friends of Science Society, where I am the Communications Manager, has questions about the plan, and we have answers, as shown in this series of videos: "What are the Challenges of an East-West Power Grid?" “Misleading Opinion Poll on Transmission Lines and Affordability,” and “What are Line Losses?”I found it alarming to watch a recent DOOMBERG pro-tier video introduction to China as the “Firehorse of geopolitical energy.” DOOMBERG (no doubt a take-off on Bloomberg) is the moniker for a Substack on energy, finance, and geopolitics run by a “small team of entrepreneurs that started this business after long careers in the industrial sector,” who prefer to remain anonymous. This is the year of the Firehorse in the Chinese Zodiac. DOOMBERG characterizes the Horse as representing vitality, speed, and independence. The elemental Fire sign represents intensity, passion, and transformation. They describe Firehorse China as a “bold, charismatic force, hard to contain,” but one that is a “Firehorse through the fires of hydrocarbons.”That is probably a surprise to many renewables advocates who claim that China’s astounding build-out of renewables proves that the days of fossil fuels are over. While impressive, it may also be due to China finding a place for its panel/turbine over-capacity production and creating an excellent marketing message. The 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, a summarized version written by retired energy economist Robert Lyman and published by Friends of Science Society, gives you the gist of what powers the world without the green filters. .I’m not a pro-tier subscriber, so I only got the benefit of the 10-minute excerpt. I found it alarming that DOOMBERG energy analysts identified an odd kind of checkmate play by China against the West — by promoting “electrify everything.”DOOMBERG draws on the recent edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy, and they provided a number of their own graphs. They show that in the 1960s, the US was the dominant world producer of primary energy; 60 years later, the graph has flipped. China is the leader. They show that China not only flipped the comparative graph of being a world leader over the US in terms of electricity production, but China also now far outdistances US electricity production by three times.So, a casual review of these graphs might make one come to a logical conclusion — maybe we, too, should “electrify everything.” As in Dan Wang’s book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, China embodies all that is shiny and new — electrifying in the literal sense of the word, with EVs, high-speed rail, and modern cities with shimmering high-rise apartments — what’s not to like, or emulate?DOOMBERG shows that China essentially runs on coal, because coal is domestically available and abundant. Thus, China is not very dependent on imports of oil or gas. China has made energy security the focus of its geopolitical strategy, and here’s the part of the DOOMBERG clip that really got my attention when they said:“We don’t think it is a coincidence that China has been flooding Western academia and poli-sci making think tanks with the concept that the world should electrify everything. In other words, we should move away from gasoline and diesel and even jet fuel towards electricity and batteries and renewables because this plays directly into China’s strength. The more the world electrifies, the more China can use external demand for industries it dominates in order to weaken its geopolitical opponents and play to its own internal strengths, and we think that this chart is a profound one, one that very few analysts in the West have internalized.”.Most transformers and many other key elements of the electrical power grid have been outsourced to China over the years. The global production of wind turbines and solar panels is dominated by China. The rare metals mining and processing chains for EV and battery production are dominated by China.Some 57% of global electricity is produced by fossil fuels, so thinking that “electrify everything” will decarbonize your country is, in most cases, an illusion.Is DOOMBERG far-fetched to ascribe the push to “electrify everything” to Chinese propagandists via academia and poli-sci think tanks? Consider that it has been reported by Belgian jurist and author, Drieu Godefridi, that Russia funded environmental groups in Germany to phase out nuclear and remain reliant on Russian oil and gas.Consider that Canada is presently striving to establish a “Sustainable Finance Taxonomy” to attract “green” investors, while at the same time ENGOs and the “Elbows Up for Climate” mayors and councillors denounce the oil and gas sectors, vital to our economy..So unlike China, which maintains energy security, almost immune to supply shocks, by relying on abundant, domestic coal, the outside world is being induced into “electrify everything,” which would make countries economically weak through decarbonization, and at the same time reliant on China for most electrical components.A totally electrified society could be completely paralyzed by a solar flare, courtesy of Mother Nature, or an EMP — electromagnetic pulse — which could come from a near-altitude explosion of a nuclear weapon, courtesy of a geopolitical enemy, creating a pulse that would fry most electronic systems instantly. This type of “back-to-the-Dark-Ages” scenario is described in John Matherson’s fictional tale “One Second After.”Energy security is national security. While we must build out our provincial power grids to meet growing demand, let’s not fall for “electrify everything” or decarbonization, both designed to make us reliant on others and ultimately economically weak.As the Friends of Science Society’s submission to the Sustainable Finance Taxonomy group states, we must REcarbonize Canada. We must calibrate our domestic energy choices to ensure independence, redundant systems, and regional energy security in an ever more unstable multi-polar world. To build Canada strong, we must not choose electrons over molecules. We need both, and we must not be duped into deindustrialization like Germany was, reportedly by Russian-funded ENGOs.
