This article was written by Gillian Steward and was published in the Toronto Star on August 22, 2023.

GILLIAN STEWARD IS A CALGARY BASED WRITER AND FREELANCE CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST FOR THE STAR. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER: @GILLIANSTEWARD

Climate change is wreaking so much havoc across the country and around the world that it is now frightfully clear that we need to quickly slash the carbon emissions that are causing the planet to heat up at such a rapid pace.

But here in Alberta, oil and natural gas producers, with the support of the provincial government, are more interested in upping the production of fossil fuels than they are in finding another way to make money. This became more than apparent over the summer even as the horrors of climate change — ferocious wildfires, flash floods and warming oceans — were revealed on a daily basis.

In the face of it all, both the government and the industry chose to double down on their hubris rather than take responsibility for the harm engendered by fossil fuel emissions.

Premier Danielle Smith has never encountered an oil company that she didn’t want to cater to. So in February, when she created a panel to chart a long-rm vision for Alberta’s energy sector, it was no surprise that the five appointees were all influential oilpatch veterans.

The panel handed in its report on June 30 but Smith has yet to make it available to Albertans.

It’s highly likely that the report didn’t have much good to say about Alberta’s renewable energy industry, which is growing faster than even experts had anticipated. Who knows?

But in early August, Smith suddenly announced all pending renewable energy projects would be stopped in their tracks for seven months. The moratorium is needed, she said, because regulators had asked for one so they could sort out some of the industry’s growing pains. There is no evidence that this is the case.

This left renewable industry leaders mad as hell and vowing to invest elsewhere as they had not been consulted about the sudden freeze on billions of dollars worth of projects.

About 10 days later, Rich Kruger, the newly appointed CEO of Suncor, the largest oilsands operator (it also owns 1,500 Petro-Canada gas stations) announced that Suncor was going to forget about trying to transition to a decarbonized economy and focus on making money.

“Today, we win by creating value through our large integrated asset base underpinned by oilsands,” Kruger told analysts on a conference call.

Kruger is an American who worked for ExxonMobil — one of the worst corporate climate change deniers — for 32 years before being named CEO of ExxonMobil’s Canadian arm, Imperial Oil. He retired from Imperial, which also has large oilsands operations, four years ago and returned to Texas. Now he has been lured back to re-energize Suncor, which at one time made great efforts to appear environmentally friendly. That stage is obviously over.

If you live in Alberta all of this can be utterly confusing.

We have climate refugees from the Northwest Territories flying and driving to Alberta in droves to escape the wildfires there. Accommodation and other services are being provided in various parts of the province because no one really knows how long it will be before they can go home.

We watch the blazing incineration of homes and businesses in the Kelowna area as if it were happening here. Many Albertans vacation, have second homes, or relatives there: we know it well and are horrified by the scenes of red hot destruction.

But our government and primary industry are loath to even mention the words climate change. Smith has been asked by news reporters several times if she acknowledges climate change. She deflects again and again.

It seems the lure of money for the government treasury from oil and natural gas royalties, the lure of profits for oil company executives and shareholders due to current high prices trumps the devastation and suffering caused by climate change.

The skies are filled with smoke but the intentions of those who profit from petroleum have never been clearer.