Canadian & Venezuelan Oil and Conservative Machinations
In fact, the quicker a transition happens, the cheaper it will be. Even without taking into account the savings to be made from avoiding costly climate disasters, a University of Oxford study found a shift to renewables by 2050 could save the global economy at least $12 trillion (€10.2 trillion) in energy system costs. As compared to sticking with fossil fuels.
- How clean energy could save us trillions, DW News
By Gregg Wall (1-10-2026)
2026 started out with the overthrow, or coup, inside Venezuela. Nothing upsets America’s parasite class, billionaires & corporations, like public ownership of resources, especially oil & gas. By now, the playbook is well established… after impoverishing Venezuela with economic sanctions, crippling debt, and ensuring the nation couldn’t revitalize its oil & gas infrastructure for the largest proven oil reserves in the world, King Donnie went in for the kill. Maduro was snatched and deposited in a New York courtroom, along with Mrs. Maduro, just three days into the new year. Trump told the Venezuelan Vice President (paraphrase) we can do this the easy way or the exceptionally nasty way, but the oil is ours… $2.8 billion in Venezuelan oil has been pledged to the United States (as of this writing), with America controlling future sales indefinitely.
Venezuelan crude is a direct threat to Canadian crude sales, both nations have sour or more commonly referred to as heavy crude, which America’s antiquated refineries depend upon. Presently, Canada provides nearly all of America’s sour crude needs, this arrangement, which has been highly beneficial to America’s oil robber barons and Wall St royalty, could eventually come undone thanks to Trump’s Venezuelan pirate raid. The fact that the several billion dollars required to update America’s refineries to process American sweet crude never appears to come up… the American refinery upgrades or retrofits are a fraction of America’s annual war budget, a fraction of America’s forever wars in the Middle East and around the globe. Such is the corruption, insanity, and blood lust that is the U.S. empire. So much for the lie that is: Drill Baby Drill.
Trump’s motivations for moving on Venezuela are many & varied. Trump's catalogue of economic, ethical, & political failures is legion... So, like his predecessors, Trump pivoted to foreign policy to demonstrate his power, while underlining & highlighting his failures domestically. What are those failures at home? Trump pivoted to colonialism, foreign policy, war, & violence as a deflection & distraction from: Epstein, the affordability crisis, homelessness & healthcare, debt & deficits, soaring poverty in the United States, prop up U.S. dollar hegemony, push oil as a reserve asset, further oil & gas domination in global energy, and separately, for geopolitical reasons (see China & Russia).
Likewise, Canadian Conservative leadership’s motivations for pushing another oil & gas pipeline to the Pacific Ocean are many & varied, but also provide cover for, and center around, endemic failure of the conservative government in Alberta, presently under investigation (and more generally, the failure of deregulation, financialization, and libertarianism countrywide). Very much like Trump’s motivations, the full story and set of facts have not been provided & presented to the Canadian public. Like America’s conservative leaders… Trump, Dems, & GOP… Canada’s conservative leaders… Carney/Smith/Pierre, Libs, & Tories…are beset on all sides by an array of economic, fiscal, and monetary policy failures. Financialization, crony government, monopoly, oligarchy, billionaires, greed as the paramount economic motivation, privatization scams… drain the economy, kill jobs and opportunity, destroy standards of living, present political instability, and syphon taxpayer money and central bank credit lines out of the state and into the coffers of the billionaire class & major corporations (setting off a doom loop of corruption & decay). It truly is a hideous spectacle and is seen throughout the West. Hence, conservatives clinging to the one true messiah, oil & gas. A bigger lie has never been told and the endless brainwashing & propaganda surrounding this industry is second to none.
With that said, the Canadian oil play and conservative pitch.
As Venezuelan sour crude is a direct competitor and threat to Canada’s/Alberta’s land locked sales to the United States, Canadian Conservatives - surprising no one - made an immediate pitch for more corporate welfare and socialism for an oil & gas industry swimming in profits; that is, yet another pipeline to the British Columbia coast (presumably at taxpayer expense, exactly like Trudeau’s recent pipeline). The idea is Canada oil & gas can ill afford to be dependent solely on a US market (allegedly, soon to be swimming in Venezuelan sour crude, per the alarmist conservatives; Venezuelan oil that is being hijacked & taken over by Trump, the Oil Majors, & the American gov). Canadian Conservatives, Poilievre & Smith, made alarming & shrill pitches on the X platform, attempting to stampede the public into immediate buy-in and support, without giving the full picture, without fully explaining that Canadian oil & gas isn’t what it seems & hasn’t been for some time. In fact, Canadian O&G is complete blasphemy directly aimed at the beating heart of the Canadian economy & federal and provincial governments’ fiscal affairs.
Let’s cut to the chase:
· The oil & gas industry is a blood sucking parasite on Canada & particularly Alberta.
· It sucks up tens of billions in externalities & subsidies from the Canadian public & taxpayer, far more than it pays in taxes & royalties.
· Bleeds Canadians dry, while profits are realized in America.
· Tar sands are American owned.
· The industry murders 1 in 5.
· Entire wars are fought on behalf of this industry, often to control & manipulate supply, markets, and prices.
· Presently, O&G is gutting its Alberta work force.
Moreover, the so-called Alberta Advantage is a lie, particularly when coupled with the “equalization” lie. The equalization lie or myth is that Alberta pays more in taxes to the Federal government, and believes it to be a poor return, but conveniently leave out of the equation the tens of billions of dollars in externalities & welfare paid by the Canadian taxpayer and public on behalf of the O&G industry, annually. That is, if externalities (i.e. known costs & expense) were billed to the O&G industry and/or Alberta (like most other industries in America or Canada), the O&G industry would more than likely cease to exist, almost certainly in its present form, as the impact would be to double retail fuel prices, perhaps even higher. Given the advances in renewable energy, O&G would likely be finished or at the minimum, consumption would be significantly reduced.
Importantly, there is presently no commitment from American owned Alberta oil fields to build another pipeline through British Columbia to the Pacific with their money.
Nor can Canada, to the best of my knowledge, order American companies where to direct Alberta fuel. The Americans are making a killing on Alberta crude by sticking Canada with the bill, while the Canadian oil is sold in America at a steep discount but sold in the retail market, once processed, at a significant profit. By the way, this arrangement… Canadians pay for this abortion of an energy source, while American ownership profits… occurs whether the fuel is sold in Asia, China, or the U.S.
And we could go on.
Notice, the points made above direct our thinking, not only to pipelines, but the sustainability & the viability of the industry, itself. While I fully acknowledge the industry cannot go away, entirely, overnight, why should the public and the taxpayer continue to expand and build out infrastructure? Why continue to support an industry that generates 5 to 7% of GDP, that does incalculable harm to human life, the environment, water, wildlife, and the planet (in the hundreds of billions of dollars, globally trillions in damages). An industry that is a gross misallocation of taxpayer resources, that generates tens of billions in externalities annually… that clearly has zero intention of paying for cleanup, remediation, and bodily injury, economic and physical damage. Why must Canadians continue to funnel money into this lethal and malign industry, when the future… free, clean, affordable renewal energy… is here. A renewable energy industry that actually hires Canadians, versus a lethal & regressed oil & gas industry that is gutting its workforce, despite receiving tens of billions in corporate welfare, subsidies, and externalities annually. If your expecting gratitude from American ownership of the Alberta tar sands… you’ll find zero gratitude from American robber barons, only insatiable greed and Canadian Conservatives willing to do the industry’s bidding.
The argument that King Donnie is using his Venezuelan power play to further harm the Canadian economy and make Canada more ripe for a hostile takeover, only adds up if we continue down the path of spending tens of billions of dollars annually on the ultimate welfare queen, the O&G industry. Canada must pivot investment & subsidies into the future: clean, renewable energy, and stop dumping money into Fort McMurray’s American owned BLACK HOLE.
Perhaps a bigger question still, why are our elected officials afraid to have this conversation? Either they are ignorant as to the issues outlined above or they are shills for the oil & gas sector and just parroting the industry’s talking points… either scenario is entirely unacceptable. As is the dereg, libertarian economic paradigm… a paradigm that stands for: privatized profits, socialized cleanup, expenses, externalities, and infrastructure.
As important why are Canadian Conservatives placing America first, Canadians dead last?
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026
