In the News April 27
Promotion of Canada’s Integration into U.S. War Machine
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin Tours Oil Sands
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney hosted Joe Manchin, Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and Democratic Senator from West Virginia during the week of April 11. Manchin met with Kenney, Energy Minister Sonya Savage, and energy top executives and also toured the oil sands.
Manchin’s visit was billed as a discussion about “energy security” with the goal of “replacing Russian oil.” Manchin made it clear that the interests he represents consider Alberta annexed territory of the U.S. “There shouldn’t be a barrier because we have a border. That border should be invisible when it comes to energy and the climate and the responsibilities we have as citizens on this earth,” he said.
By “citizens of the earth,” Manchin is speaking of the U.S. as the indispensable nation, with all others and their legitimate concerns and rights considered dispensable.
The expression “citizens of the earth,” is used when speaking of the U.S. as the indispensable nation in the world whose dictate everyone must follow, with all others and their legitimate concerns and rights considered dispensable. On this basis, Manchin spoke of the U.S./NATO proxy war to crush Russia with enthusiasm, stating “This horrific war in Ukraine is a wake-up call for the free world. The free world should be relying on the United States and Canada to provide the products and the resources that they’re going to need, and to be able to help Mother Earth and climate. We’re talking about this, this North American energy and climate consortium, and what it does. For the first time, we’re able to use the resources that we have, because we do it cleaner than anybody in the world.”
Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, also informed the U.S. administration that Canadian oil and natural gas producers could raise production by 300,000 barrels a day, adding to supplies that have hit record levels in recent months.
“What the United States and Canada produces, whether it be natural gas, whether it’s extracting oil, whatever we do it’s the cleanest in the world – whatever we replace will be the cleanest in the world. If you take the United States of America and you take Canada out of the fossil business, we’re the only ones that will spend the money that will make the effort to develop the new technologies that will clean up the climate. You take us out and Mother Earth is going to be in trouble on the climate. We’ll go to heck in a handbasket, and I believe that with all my heart.”
Kenney has made it clear that he sees the conflict in Ukraine as an “opportunity” to make a case for increased production in the oil sands, more pipelines, and to further increase Alberta’s role in supplying the U.S. war machine and economy.
Manchin called on U.S. President Joe Biden to reverse his decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline’s permit. Kenney, who gifted TC Energy with $1.5 billion shortly before Biden cancelled the permit, continues to push for the pipeline while TC Energy says it has “moved on” and is no longer considering building the line, which would have transported 830,000 barrels of Alberta oil daily to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast. [1]
For his part, Kenney was over the top about his visit, stating, “This visit of Senator Manchin is a huge, I think, confirmation for us that we have friends in the United States who understand the important role that we play in American energy security.”
The U.S. has become a net petroleum exporter, and is not experiencing a shortage in oil and gas. U.S. imports of crude oil from Russia have averaged about 200,000 barrels/day, about three per cent of total U.S. imports and roughly one per cent of total U.S. consumption. By comparison, Canada now exports about 4 million barrels/day or 61 per cent of total U.S. imports, mainly heavy oil from the oil sands. The U.S. also imported around 470,000 barrels/day of petroleum products from Russia, such as naphtha, kerosene and gas oils.
The cartels are using the conflict in Ukraine as a pretext to raise prices, seize even greater profits, make the case for increased oil production in their “Fortress America” which according to them includes Canada, demand billions more in pay-the-rich schemes in the name of “greening the economy” and increase their access and control of markets and sources of raw materials in the name of “energy security.”
Manchin’s visit coincided with the launch of a campaign by U.S. oil and gas interests through American Energy Alliance which demands that the Biden administration stop “stifling investment” which it claims is responsible for the high price of oil and gas, “promote investment in new projects” (read more pay-the-rich schemes), build more pipelines, and approve thousands of drilling permits on federal lands and waters including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Naval Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
It would be difficult to find a less credible champion for these absurd claims about “clean energy” and saving Mother Earth. Manchin is said to have received more campaign donations from the oil, coal and gas industries than any other senator in the current U.S. election cycle. He was responsible for blocking Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill, which needed support from all fifty Democrats in the Senate. Before blocking the bill entirely, Manchin used his position as chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to remove provisions which would have led to the closure of coal plants. It is reported that he is now involved in negotiations about reviving the bill in some form, raising the question of how his visit is connected to whatever deal-making is going on, as to which cartels will benefit from the billions of dollars in pay-the-rich schemes carried out in the name of meeting climate change goals.
It would be difficult to find a less credible person to make claims of lofty goals of “clean energy” and shows the fraud being carried out in the name of “greening the economy.” His record speaks for itself. Manchin was formerly governor of West Virginia, and his family owns a West Virginia coal company. An investigation by the New York Times and other reports explain how he used his political office to get waste or slag coal, one of the most carbon intensive fuels in North America, classified as an “alternative energy,” which allowed utilities to count it toward their renewable electricity goals.[1] His family business then became the sole supplier of a power plant using “gob,” a type of low-grade coal mixed with rock and clay that can be burned to produce electricity. This arrangement to serve private interests, including his own, raised the cost of electricity in one of the most impoverished regions of the U.S., while significantly raising levels of toxic emissions including mercury and sulphur.
All of this scheming underlines the absurdity of the claims of the governments at all levels that they are concerned about the environment, while fully serving the private interests responsible for the assault on Mother Earth, on the sovereign rights of the Indigenous peoples and the working people the world over, and for their brutal wars of aggression. Such frauds must be exposed and denounced and governments in Canada must be held to account. The highest environmental standards must be upheld. Indigenous hereditary rights must be upheld.
Note
1. See article here. See also here.
TML Daily, posted April 27, 2022.
|
|
