I can certainly appreciate the article by Mr. Ken Allred about oil that was recently printed by your paper (Gazette, March 7). He said "emissions from our oil and gas industry have actually increased."
I want to find out where Mr. Allred got his information. In the last three years, oil exploration has plummeted, many have moved from Alberta and almost all industry is down in Alberta. How can emissions be up? The refineries have excess product and have cut production, the oilsands are being squeezed, and B.C. and the rest of Canada want to shut down Alberta oil supplies. Hence, it would be impossible for emissions to be up. In fact, the facts and data don't show that at all.
Here is the proverbial tail wagging the dog. The press that is coming out and advertising that is coming out of the so-called global warming/green sector is that the sky is falling.
Have we ever thought about the fact that Alberta is carbon negative, meaning all of our forests and grasslands are cleaning the air and we are removing more carbon from the air than we are creating. Hence we are producing more clean air than carbon we are creating and we are cleaning carbon from other parts of the world that drift into our province. Why did people come in droves to Alberta to start selling carbon credits? It would seem that Alberta is being environmentally responsible and being blamed for the folly of others.
We are taking care of our own back yard, maybe the rest of Canada needs to start looking at themselves and cleaning up their own act. For those of us who lived through the ’60s and ’70s, we see that there has been huge progress made in cleaning emissions and cleaning up the environment. In fact, we have more stringent regulations than ever. What more can we do? Oil is a necessity, it wouldn't be here in the earth if it wasn't.
Maybe the solution comes in the way people use oil in their lives. I have to laugh when people get in their car, drive to the airport, hop on a jet, and lecture people on the evils of oil and gas. Then they get on a plane, fly home, get in their car and drive to their house. Then they count the thousands they made for the speaking engagement they just did while turning the gas heat up in their house and then sit down on their sofa and relax, while 50 per cent of the products in their house are a petroleum byproduct.
So let's all jump on the bandwagon and stop the production of oil. I don't think many of us would want to go back to the horse and buggy. And by the way, for those of you who want to say use electric cars, figure out how many of the parts on an electric car are a petroleum byproduct, and the case that the battery which holds the power is made of plastic, a petroleum byproduct.
Ted Durham, St. Albert
