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The demand for a pipeline to the Pacific is a simplistic solution when the oil industry worldwide is changing. Demand for oil is shrinking and will shrink even more in the future.

The growth of solar energy and electric vehicles is reducing the need for oil as a source of energy. China is producing fleets of electric buses that will be used domestically and available for export. Transport trucks can be retrofitted to run on LNG. This use of alternate energy will result in an oil glut, and oil that is expensive to produce, such as Canada’s oilsands and heavy oil, will be the first to feel the pinch.

Meanwhile, the cost of production of a barrel of crude in Saudi Arabia is about $9, and they have access to a world market.

Which raises the question: Will Canada even be able to ship enough oil to pay for the pipeline to the west coast?

When the provincial premiers and opposition parties lash out at the federal government it is just so much short-term politics. Alberta is facing an election this year and British Columbia is in a precarious minority government that prevents any serious self-reflection.

Rather than examining the role of oil in the future and facing reality, they prefer to place the blame elsewhere and demonize another government.

Which brings me to the events at the Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia. While the provincial and federal governments are looking at the short-term economic crisis, the Wet’suwet’en people at the Unist’ot’en camp are fighting for their land rights and the rights of their children to come.