Rebecca Schultz, Minister of Environment and Protected Regions of Alberta, Canada, spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. to discuss how climate activists and Canada's left-wing government have sabotaged Canada's energy security.

Alberta is a western Canadian province known for its abundant natural resources, including oil and natural gas, but the federal government in Ottawa, led by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is moving to restrict development in the province, hurting many blue-collar Canadians who depend on the affected industries for their livelihoods, Schultz told DCNF.

“We've seen in the last few years that activists and the radical left have started to shape policy that I think is very concerning not only for the basic need of ordinary people, which is safe, affordable and reliable energy, but also for energy security,” Schultz told DCNF. (Related article: Report alleges Canadian lawmakers helped foreign powers influence elections)

The general manager of the Keystone XL Pipeline says “hundreds” of workers have already been laid off in Wisconsin as a result of President Joe Biden's order to halt construction on the pipeline.pic.twitter.com/TMOf80ph2i

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 25, 2021

“Certainly, our prime minister has completely caved in to his activist base and ignored the very real concerns of everyday, common sense Canadians, and I think that's a problem,” Schultz told DCNF, referring to Trudeau. Later in the interview, Schultz predicted that the next time Canadian voters go to the polls, they will “very much reject” Trudeau, mainly because of the “woke ideological agenda” he has pursued.

In Canada, one of the officials with deep ties to the climate activist movement who is involved in shaping policy is Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. A former Greenpeace activist who has climbed Toronto's iconic CN Tower and installed solar panels on the roofs of government employees' private homes as protests, Guilbeault has said he will not implement “secret agenda” policies in line with his activist past while in office. according to Canadian news station CBC.

Notably, the Biden administration is packed with former activists, including Tracy Stone Manning, the director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages federal lands for energy production, livestock grazing and other purposes, and who was linked to the radical environmentalists who engineered the Idaho tree-planting scheme in the late 1980s.

“This is really problematic because it's completely ideologically driven and devoid of common sense and the realities that people face every day. And, of course, people care about the environment. Of course, as environment minister, I care about doing the right thing for the environment that we're leaving behind,” Schultz continued. “The places where we live and where we develop resources are being preserved for future generations. But we also know that we couldn't survive a day without oil and gas, or the products that are made from oil and gas and petrochemicals. And that fact hasn't changed. In fact, it's increasing. So I think it's pretty concerning that they're trying to basically suppress opinions and statistics and facts that don't support their narrative.” (Related article: Chinese diplomat expelled from Canada over alleged “intimidation” campaign against anti-Beijing lawmakers)

Canada is not going to meet its responsibilities https://t.co/QKdZdoCe4G

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 20, 2023

Canada is one of the largest energy suppliers to the United States, providing approximately 52% of all energy. Total Oil Imports In 2023, it will export approximately 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to the United States, and in 2022, it will export approximately 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to the United States. according to At the Canadian Energy Centre. Most of the fuel is shipped to the US via cross-border pipelines, but some is transported by rail and sea. according to According to a 2021 report commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute.

The Keystone XL pipeline was a major project that was supposed to help transport oil from Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast and was meant to be another expansion of the system transporting Canadian energy to the United States.

But activists mounted a massive pressure campaign against the project, and the developers ultimately called it off in June 2021 after the Biden administration denied key permits and showed little enthusiasm for the project upon taking office. according to To the Associated Press.

“A project of this size and scope obviously requires a great deal of political will,” Schultz said of Keystone XL. “I think this was a very unfortunate decision because we know that market access is important for energy security and it's important for meeting the needs of Canadians, Americans and people around the world.”

Notably, Brent Sadler, who served in the U.S. Navy for 26 years and now serves as a senior fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at the Heritage Foundation, agrees with Schultz's assessment that Keystone XL would have been a positive development for North American energy security.

Recently Published report Sadler assessed U.S. energy security in light of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) geopolitical ambitions, arguing that policymakers have placed “unnecessary constraints” on cross-border energy interconnections and that national security interests would be better served by “getting out of the way” and “allowing cross-border energy infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline.”

For now, Schultz will focus on the Trudeau government's proposed cap on oil and gas emissions, which could require energy producers to cut their emissions by about 37% by 2030 compared to 2022 levels, according to Reuters. Opponents, many of whom are in Alberta, criticize the policy as a hidden production cap that would severely harm the province's workers and local economy.

Schultz told the DCNF that if the policy is finalized, “it will result in the loss of thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of jobs in the traditional oil and gas industry alone, not to mention what's happening in the oil sands and of course other related industries,” and “the federal government has not taken any socio-economic data into account regarding the impacts of its policies. A competent and responsible government would not look at these numbers and impose a cap, but that's exactly what the Liberal government in Canada has done.”

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