The Protestors and The Pipeline: An Alberta Fable

The day had turned cold; a constant drizzle made the city look drab and unfriendly, but this didn’t dampen Mike’s mood as he rolled up to the site of the protest. Thirty bucks an hour and at least six hours a day guaranteed. That’s what he was told.  He could recognize some of the other pros by their large placards with clever puns or rhymes.

“Your Pipeline Sucks gASS” and “Make Alberta – Oil Free in ’23!”  were two of the biggest and brightest in the group.

“Mike! Mike!” He heard his name on repeat before he realized it came from the same spot as the big orange sign with the pipeline pun. He wound his way through the crowd and found Chris, his shorter, leaner counterpart, dressed in almost identical plaid jacket to his own.

“Nice one,” Mike said, with his hand outstretched in greeting.

Chris shook it briefly before withdrawing his hand immediately. “You’re freezing, man! I was just texting the others to warn them. It’s like Siberia up in here. I told them we needed one of those propane heaters like we had last month but they put the kibosh on that pretty quick. Apparently, it wasn’t good optics”

“What exactly is it today? Pipelines? Oil and Gas?”

“Both, I think.”

Mike nodded, unsure how he felt about the protest but quite certain he needed the paycheck. Everything had become more expensive in the last few months. His grocery bill had doubled and his rent had gone up nearly a hundred dollars a month.

“Do you have a marker? I still need to make up my board.” Mike asked pulling a rough looking piece of cardboard from under his arm. He liked to keep things looking a little more amateurish and felt it sold the narrative a little better. Chris handed him a marker and a piece of paper with some scribbled slogans.

“A few suggestions from the big boss.”

Mike skimmed the list; they were all pretty awful. “I see you didn’t use any of them.”

Chris shrugged, “The worst part is she probably paid someone to write those… I did choose an orange sign though.”

“A subtle nod to the party. Nice one.”

Mike pulled the lid off the marker with his teeth and scribbled, “WE’LL BUST A CAP ON YOUR GAS!” in bold, black letters.

“Clever, but probably offensive.”

Mike nodded, “It’s hard to tell these days…” he perused the list, “Seven years to stop the stink? What is does it even mean?”

“I don’t think we need to know… we get paid anyway.”

The moral of the story? Many Albertans don’t know exactly what is meant by emissions caps. They happily support the very policies that are making life more difficult for our citizens because it sounds good. Times are changing, technology is advancing, and like most of our constituents, the United Conservative Party looks forward to a day when actual clean energy is a global reality. But we are also realists. With rapid inflation and many Albertans struggling to put food on the table, the UCP believes that investments in technology and innovation must happen before further emissions caps. Our plan aspires to have a net-neutral economy by 2050. (This means that Alberta would be emitting the same amount of CO2 as we were offsetting in natural carbon sinks (trees, grass), credits from LNG export, and emission-reducing technologies.) We can aspire to this because twenty-seven years provides time for the industry to invest in the innovations to get us there.