A story by Blaine Moen.
A few years ago I was talking with a good friend. We had been friends since our youth, he's a rancher in southeast Alberta. While talking on the phone I watched a fox run past our barn, across our road and through our yard. I told him about it and he instantly said "shoot it!".
"No!" I replied, "Why would I shoot it, they eat gophers and other pests."
He replied, "it will take your chickens!"
I should mention I live in rural Alberta, the Porcupine Hills, east or downwind of the Grassy Mountain mine.
"I don't have chickens!" I said with frustration and a bit of laughter.
"Get some!" He exclaimed with frustration and a bit of shock.
I hesitated for a bit, "Are you suggesting I get some chickens so I can shoot the fox?!"
Dumbfounded he said, "of course!"
As a card carrying redneck and a lifelong Peter Lougheed conservative I laughed hysterically, we both did. But, that conversation stuck with me, I've used it several times and I can't think of a more comparable anecdote to explain our UCP approach to mining Alberta's eastern slopes.
"We need the high grade metallurgical coal hidden under our eastern slopes to make steel!" That's what Brian Jean and Danielle Smith have said several times recently.
"We need the steel to make the large dump trucks that carry the coal from the mine to the railway." That is the logic used, the same maze of circular logic spun when my friend told me to shoot the fox. So, we rip the coal from the ground. The same ground that provides Alberta water. We permanently damage our watershed so we can get the coal to make equipment that allows us to rip the ground up and get the coal out.
See, it's simple.
Although, recently Danielle Smith has been saying "we need metallurgical coal to make windmills and solar panels". Let's examine that.
First of all, the UCP pause placed on renewable energy, meaning wind turbines and solar panels, has all but eliminated Alberta’s need for new wind turbines and solar panels. So, Danielle Smith, your forward thinking eliminates our need to rip apart our watershed. Thanks Danielle!
Wind turbine bases are made predominantly out of steel with fiberglass used for the turbines blades, with steel and copper predominantly in the generator itself. But, although electrical wind generators do require steel, it is not mandatory that steel is made from coal steel. They can use recycled steel. What a concept!
Solar panels require silicon, glass, aluminum and copper. To be fair, they do require steel bolts to fasten the panels to the roofs of our 3500 square foot McMansions we are building which are supposed to relieve Canada's housing crisis. But, that's another debate for another day.
My point is that all too often we, especially in Alberta, develop rationale to justify our actions as opposed to adapting our actions to meet scientific rationale.
I should buy chickens so I can shoot the fox.
Alberta should rip apart our watershed to get at the coal steel we need to build the equipment necessary to rip apart our watershed.
That is some questionable and suspicious United Conservative Party logic right there!
Blaine Moen
Its the same as using the energy in using natural gas to heat the Athabasca water to make the steam to separate the sand from the tar that is mined by the machines that are made from the steel that is smelted by the coal that will pollute the waters so we can sell the oil to the USA at a big discount that makes big profits for the mainly US corporations who own the leases and the machines that use the diesel from the NorthWest Refinery that use the tarsands crude in lieu of royalties that is made by burning natural gas that provides the energy to heat the Athabasca water make the steam...........
Having been in (and profited) from the northern Alberta gravel business I always felt I was supplying gravel to build heavier roads to haul more gravel. Never has there been any question of reducing the loads etc. and whether it’s gravel they are hauling or oil infrastructure it’s just blindly more and bigger.