Time to shift conversation from high gas prices to renewables, says climate campaigner

A climate and social justice advocate for the Council of Canadians says new installations of renewable energy are part of the solution to the climate crisis and skyrocketing oil and gas prices.

Speaking on CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax, Robin Tress disagreed with assertions made by Roger McKnight, chief petroleum analyst at En-Pro International on Wednesday's program.

McKnight said now is not the time to transition to renewable energy, but an opportunity to increase exports of Canadian crude to U.S. processors. 

Tress said the cost of new renewables and energy efficiency is lower than the cost of new fossil fuel infrastructure.

This discussion has been edited for length and clarity.

When you look at fossil fuel costs — heating fuel, gas prices spiking — and those who rely on it are trying to reduce their dependence on Russian energy, what do you see? 

On the cost front, I think it's important for folks to know that even brand new wind energy installations are producing cheaper power than coal, oil, gas or nuclear-powered electricity generation. And that's actually been true for a few years.

So if we're trying to talk about decreasing power prices and in deploying more electricity, we need to address the climate crisis with new installations of renewable energy, which are actually much cheaper than deploying new oil and gas, as [Roger McKnight] yesterday was suggesting.

On the front of dealing with ... Russia's attack on Ukraine, I think we can all say that Russia has a lot of power here because they supply most of Europe's natural gas.

Trying to address the problem of fossil fuel dependency by adding more fossil fuels to the mix, I don't really think is the answer.

Some countries, like Germany, for example, are already turning away or looking to turn away from fossil fuels in response to Russia's attack.

One of the things Roger McKnight was saying yesterday is that you can't just flip a switch and make the switch instantly to renewables. 

It's true you can't flip a switch, but it's even slower to try to develop new fossil fuel infrastructure. So one idea that's being put forward primarily by fossil fuel companies themselves is that we should be exporting from Canada and North America to Europe.

To do that, it might take five or 10 or 15 years. So it's much faster to deploy new ... energy efficiency measures like heat pumps, for example, and new renewable energy. Those might take a few years, but not five or 10 or 15.

I was reading a report yesterday that said the existing electricity grid in Europe has the flexibility to handle 50 million new heat pumps today. The problem there, of course, is we don't have 50 million heat pumps lying around. But instead of investing in new pipelines or LNG facilities, we could invest in manufacturing of things like heat pumps that would help us reduce energy use immediately.

What evidence are you seeing that government is supporting fossil fuels more so than its strategy to develop renewables? 

There's two things I would name here. One is that I think that the fossil fuel industry has had the ear of governments, both federal and provincial, across the country and around the world for years. And this is a very problematic relationship.

I mentioned earlier that wind energy is cheaper to deploy per kilowatt hour than any existing fossil fuel energy system. I think most people don't know that because the influence from the fossil fuel industry over our policy is so strong.

The Council of Canadians is working hard ... we're organizing in communities to put forward a positive vision of a just transition away from fossil fuels to try to break that grip between the fossil fuel industry and the government.

Secondly, a more concrete or a very specific thing that's happening now is that the federal Conservative Party has put forward a parliamentary budget, and that motion read something like, if we really want to support the people of Ukraine, we should build pipelines from west to east in Canada so that we can supply more gas to Europe.

It is horrifying because this party has been willing to support the fossil fuel industry, its demands, even when they're not good for people here or in Ukraine.

Why do you think fossil fuel energy sort of rises as the only solution so much faster or more deliberately than the suggestion for renewables? 

Again, I would point to the very cosy and problematic relationship between fossil fuel companies and governments around the world. A lot of inertia for fossil fuel infrastructure and energy systems that are based on these fossil fuels and major energy production systems like coal plants, for example.

The fossil fuel industry has so much money and so much lobby power, it's been difficult for smaller companies or newer companies that produce renewable energy to get that same lobby power within government. So I think it's a question of what governments are listening to and who they're listening to.

The Council of Canadians has a big campaign for a just transition away from fossil fuels. Three years ago, before all this current conflict started, [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau and federal government promised that they would give a just transition act and that would be a piece of legislation that would guide Canada's move away from the fossil fuel industry toward efficiency, toward renewables. 

We're still waiting on that. We've been working really hard for the last year or so to see that come around. 

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