Oil prices have risen to a staggering $120 US per barrel in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But in that’s not a new record in real dollar terms.
Inflation-adjusted oil prices reached the same level in 2013, driving a supply response that temporarily lowered prices. World oil demand steadily increased, reaching a record 100 million barrels per day before the COVID collapse.
Demand has since come roaring back and despite all the “net zero” rhetoric, the International Energy Agency forecasts that world oil demand will continue to grow.
The big question is: who will supply all that oil? Middle Eastern countries, led by Saudi Arabia, will be major contributors and, despite the U.S. and U.K. bravado banning Russian imports, current and forecasted world oil demand cannot be met without Russian oil. That disparate list of countries controlling world oil supply may soon include Iran if, as news reports suggest, U.S. President Joe Biden is naïve enough to remove oil export sanctions in return for the Ayatollah’s “pledge” to suspend uranium enrichment.
That would leave world oil supply security in the hands of countries that subjugate women, a country led by a murderous psychopath and a country developing a nuclear bomb with the avowed objective of annihilating Israel.
Meanwhile sa国际传媒, with the world’s third-largest oil reserves, is sacrificing hundreds of billions of dollars per year in revenues and new capital investment, along with tens of thousands of well-paying jobs, on the net-zero altar with policies that make building new oil-export pipelines virtually impossible.
Even a proposed trans-national pipeline that would have delivered Canadian oil to eastern refineries was deliberately stymied by the Trudeau government, leaving tankers carrying Saudi Arabian and African oil up the ecologically fragile Gulf of St. Lawrence, while emitting immensely more greenhouse gases than domestic oil.
Speaking in London in July 2006, before departing for a Vladimir Putin-hosted G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, then-prime minister Stephen Harper called sa国际传媒 “a new energy superpower.” Oil and gas industry capital investment rose sharply, doubling from $30 to $60 billion before the Harper government’s defeat in 2015.
By 2019, Trudeau’s anti-oil-and-gas policies had collapsed capital spending to less than half of 2006 levels.
Most Canadians are unmindful of the above issues. But if there’s one thing that gets their attention, it’s the price at the pump. The current escalation of fuel prices must be sending anti-fossil-fuel ideologues worshiping at the net-zero altar into celestial orgasm.
But certainly not real-world working Canadians.
On March 4, gas prices in sa国际传媒 hit $2 a litre, taking the cost of filling up the family sedan to $140. Given the sprawling nature of Canadian cities, commuting to work takes at least one fill-up per week. That amounts to more than $600 a month for a single car.
Let’s look at the three highest gas price cities as of March 4.
Toronto: Pump price: $1.75/litre, taxes: $0.57/litre
(Prov. fuel $0.15; fed. excise $0.10; fed. carbon $0.11; HST $0.21)
Montreal: Pump price: $1.84/litre, taxes: $0.59/litre
(Prov. fuel $0.15; fed. excise $0.10; fed. carbon $0.11; QST+GST $0.23)
Vancouver: Pump price: $2.01/litre, Taxes: $0.67/ litre
(Prov. fuel $0.02; sa国际传媒 Transport $0.07; city transit $0.18; sa国际传媒 carbon $0.09; fed carbon $0.11; fed. excise $0.10; GST $.10
As these prices continue to escalate, food and other necessities have also risen to record levels across the country. A recent Angus Reid survey found 53 per cent of Canadians were already unable to keep up with the rising cost of living.
The 11-cents-a-litre federal carbon tax doesn’t seem like much compared with current total pump prices. But that’s just the beginning. The Trudeau government plans to progressively increase the carbon tax to 38 cents a litre by 2030. Adding the nine-cent-a-litre sa国际传媒 carbon tax means drivers here will pay carbon taxes of 47 cents a litre.
The theory behind carbon taxes is that higher prices will reduce consumption. But that only applies if there’s a viable alternative. For already cost-stressed real-world Canadians driving a vehicle that’s needed for their business or getting to work, imposing carbon taxes on fuel simply impoverishes them.
At this time, when Vladimir Putin threatens to cut oil exports, the importance of unleashing sa国际传媒’s enormous oil resources has never been clearer. While visiting Latvia on March 8, a reporter asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if sa国际传媒 could help make up the oil shortage. His answer illustrated the fanatical depth of his worship at the net-zero altar: “We will be there to support, as the world moves beyond Russian oil and indeed, beyond fossil fuels, to have more renewables in our mix.”
This incredible answer comes at a time when innocent Ukrainians and their beautiful country are being ravaged by a megalomanic who threatens the world with nuclear Armageddon. Putin should be grateful to Trudeau for helping him control world oil markets by hamstringing sa国际传媒’s “energy superpower” potential. It was Putin’s predecessor Lenin who coined the term “useful idiots.”
Never before have I been ashamed of being a Canadian. I pray for new political leadership that will make me, and millions of other dispirited Canadians, proud of our country again.
