Janetta McKenzie of the anti-oil Pembina Institute wrote a media release in response to the announcement of a potential new pipeline to the West Coast, claiming the project was created to appease independence supporters. She states, “This pipeline is about appeasing the separatist sentiment that continues to rock the province and its economy.”

Alberta has been struggling to get pipelines approved and constructed to coastal ports for decades, and it has nothing to do with trying to calm independence supporters. The efforts of the federal government to quash the pipeline expansions have certainly inflamed sovereigntist sentiment, but that movement has roots that go much deeper than just frustration with pipelines.

The Pembina Institute’s ideological opposition to oil and gas production and consumption is based on peak oil theories, which have been thoroughly debunked. While all credible energy experts agree that world demand for oil and gas will rise for decades, the institute claims it will fall and opposes all development of conventional resources based on this.

Their opposition to the pipeline is ideological, though they try to couch it in a false narrative of it being economic. The institute is correct in that private investors have shied away from new pipeline projects in Canada. But they are spreading falsehoods when claiming it’s due to a lack of world demand. Energy leaders have been blunt in pointing out that it’s Canada’s terrible regulatory environment keeping oil and gas infrastructure projects from being constructed.

While pipelines have become a symbol of Alberta’s increasing discomfort within the federation, a new one will do little if anything to ease secessionist sentiment. Keith Wilson, who is one of the predominant voices for independence in Alberta, said of the latest agreement, “The MOU risks turning a hypothetical pipeline into a very real carbon-cost burden. Alberta would pay now through higher costs on existing production, while market access remains uncertain. Independence is the way to free Alberta from Ottawa’s carbon taxes, Net Zero harms, and political control.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government surely hopes the announcement of a new, potential pipeline to the coast may cool independence sentiment in the province, but that isn’t the reason for its creation. The motivation for the pipeline is economic, and if it turns out the proposal isn’t feasible, it will be due to Canada’s regulatory structure. Not a lack of world demand.

The pipeline project wasn’t crafted to appease independence supporters, and if it is built, it won’t stop the movement. The pipeline project may fan the fires of independence further if it fails, however.