Kinsman: Is American energy independence a threat to the Canadian economy?

A “threat”? That’s not the right word. Canadians these days hover between smugness and paranoia.

Canada should be part of the continental energy solution. But the reality is that to be valorized in that way and to have our energy assets monetized, we have to be part of the continental carbon abatement solution. For real, as in actually putting some money into it.

Instead, our energy production community and its inept spinmeisters propose we are ENTITLED to valorization, because… well, because we’re us, and we’re so great. The asinine notion of our oil being “ethical” set new highs (or lows) in goofy self-satisfaction.

Canadian energy CEOs question the science of climate change. They hire ex-Bush Administration has-beens in Washington as lobbyists to counter the U.S. environmental movement. Out here in B.C., the pipeline companies look absurd because it’s how they have behaved. Pipelines don’t have to be dangerous. But the people running ours are dangerously numb to the public’s opinions.

Are U.S. shale and fracking and the environmental movement and Hollywood crusading a threat to us?

No. The threat to us is ourselves.