CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta Premier Smith has called out the Liberal environment minister for “appalling” climate hypocrisy by negotiating with China.
During an August 28 interview with iHeart Radio, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith condemned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault for working with China to phase out natural resources like oil, coal and gas by 2060 while forcing Canadians to make the switch by 2035.
“The Minister of Environment doesn’t know a single thing about our power grid,” she said. “I find it appalling as do most Albertans that he is co-chairing a committee with China that has a 2060 target.”
“China, that is adding two coal-fired plants a week. So, he is working with China on a less aggressive target than that he is trying to impose on Alberta. And that is unacceptable,” she continued.
I find it appalling that our federal government is willing to accept that China is building the equivalent of 2 coal power plants per week, while stifling cleaner energy exports from Alberta and attempting to impose unrealistic expectations on our power grid.
Our province stands… pic.twitter.com/M5xJom1IL8
— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) August 28, 2023
Guilbeault has faced intense criticism after he accepted a personal invitation by China Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu to attend a China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCIED) conference earlier this month.
Smith’s comments came amid her ongoing battle with Guilbeault and Trudeau over the planned forced implementation of extreme “green” environmental electricity regulations.
Despite holding Communist China to lower standards, the Trudeau government seems bent on forcing Canadians to abandon their use of natural resources in short order, even threatening to withhold billions of taxpayer dollars in funding for provinces which continue to use resources such as oil, gas and coal past the year 2035.
Both Alberta and Saskatchewan have repeatedly promised to place the interests of their people above the Trudeau government’s “unconstitutional” demands, however, consistently reminding the federal government that their infrastructures and economies depend upon oil, gas and coal.
Most recently, on August 30, Smith condemned Guilbeault, saying, “While advising the Chinese Communist Party about its environmental policies, Minister Guilbeault stated that, due to an Alberta oil and gas company’s decision to focus on oil and gas production, he has increased his resolve to introduce an emissions cap that will effectively force energy companies to cap their oil and gas production.”
“Under no scenario will the Government of Alberta permit the implementation of the proposed federal electricity regulations or contemplated oil and gas emissions cap,” she declared.
“Ottawa has no constitutional authority to regulate in these areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction,” she warned. “We would strongly suggest the federal government refrain from testing our government’s or Albertans’ resolve in this regard.”
The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil-fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
While Trudeau’s plan has been pushed under the guise of “sustainability,” his intention to decrease nitrous oxide emissions by limiting the use of fertilizer has been criticized by farmers. They say this will reduce profits and could even lead to food shortages.
Moreover, experts are warning that the Trudeau government’s new “clean fuel” regulations, which come into effect next year, will cost Canadian workers – many of whom are already struggling under decades-high inflation rates – an average $1,277 extra annually.