The Cost of a Partisan War

No war can be won on a partisan basis.

This is true for the War in Iraq, but it is equally true for the War Against Oil that must follow it.

There’s a great example of this in today’s news, from Canada. The Conservative government’s Minister for the Environment, John Baird, testified yesterday that meeting the Kyoto emissions targets will lead to the worst recession in 60 years. He predicted rising unemployment and higher home heating costs.

Liberals who support Kyoto accused Baird of  "scaremongering," but this is beside the point. Don Martin of The National Post called it all politics, and that’s just the problem.

If an outside power were threatening Canada’s sovereignty, if the
United States, for instance, were about to invade and annex the
provinces as states in order to take its vast oil, gas, and timber
wealth, Mr. Baird would not be warning about recession, or
unemployment. He would be demanding sacrifice, he would be calling on
his people to save their country, he would be singing "Oh Canada!" at
the top of his voice.

That’s precisely what is happening.

America’s pollution, its own insatiable appetite for hydrocarbons, is
indeed threatening Canada. We’re threatening to seize its seacoasts,
we’re threatening to darken its skies, we’re threatening to poison its
clean waters, to kill its children. We are not just threatening this.
We are doing this.

Every nation on the face of the Earth is doing this. Every nation on
the face of the Earth is burning hydrocarbons, for its heat, for its
cooling, for its transport, for its comfort, for its factories. And
this process is the enemy.

Maybe it will mean unemployment and recession to Canada if they accept
the Kyoto targets. But if this were a foreign invasion we would call
this sacrifice, and anyone who refused such sacrifice would not be a
patriot, would not be a good Canadian.

If The War Against Oil is made a partisan issue it is lost, just as the
War in Iraq is lost because it has become a partisan issue.

It need not be a partisan issue.

The War Against Oil is an immense opportunity, for Canada, to harness
the winds which sweep across its plains, to harness the energy that
lies under its mountains, to harness the currents that pass by its
coasts. The War Against Oil is an immense opportunity for research, for
new discovery, an opportunity to create new types of energy systems
based on hydrogen, ammonia, and water.

Yes, there is sacrifice involved. In the short term, cutting back on
greenhouse emissions will require higher energy prices. Some factories
will have to close, or be retrofitted, and they may not re-open. This
is true.

But if you think of renewable energy as bombs in this fight, if you
come to understand that producing hydrogen will liberate Canada from
the cost of imported oil, gas and coal, then the whole issue takes on a
whole new cast.

And it does just that.

The countries which achieve breakthroughs in renewable energy
production, in energy efficiency, and in the hydrogen cycle, will
prosper. Those who tie themselves to oil will suffer. That is the
reality.

Canada is already suffering from $3/gallon gas. Make that a sacrifice
of war, turn efficiency into patriotism, push replacements as war
materiel, and everyone will benefit. Even if John Baird believes global
warming to be a complete hoax, Canada benefits from this program,
because it detaches itself from dependence on Venezuela, on America, on
Russia, and on the Middle East.

The time is now, not for a partisan fight over environmental policy,
not for false choices between conservation and the economy, but for a
united front in the War Against Oil.