Parliament Today: "You will never believe what Elon Musk said about Oil and Gas"

"I'm going to read you a quote from Elon Musk, one of the most famous renewable energy entrepreneurs," Poilievre noted in Parliament today, "...and he says the following: if there was a button I could press to stop all hydrocarbon usage, I would not press it. It would cause human civilization to come to a halt. Every hospital would have to close, it would be ridiculous. What does need to happen, if we can, is to accelerate the transfer to renewable [energy.]"

Speaking to the CEO of Whitecap, Grant Fagerheim, Poilievre continued: "That seems to be what you're doing. You've invested in carbon capture/storage. You have the biggest carbon sequestration deposit in the world. And I understand you're the head of the only carbon-negative company on Earth. In other words, if your company didn't exist, there'd be more emissions that not. Do you agree with Musk's claim that shutting down all oil and gas would bring civilization to a halt without a just and sensible transition?"

Fagerheim responded: "Civilization is extremely linked to hydrocarbon products. We're talking about oil and gas into the future, whether hospitals, chemical production, anything we're doing in everyday society. We need a measured approach into the future which relies on science and technology. We're going to transition for an extended period of time."

Poilievre continued: "Even with the most draconian policies to restrict use of hydrocarbons, there will still be at least 60 million barrels of petroleum consumed. The question is: do we want it to be produced by Saudis, Venezuelans, Algerians and others, and then imported into Canada, or our own Canadian industry, as exemplified by your own company, which employs Canadians, empowers First Nations communities and actually reduces greenhouse gases, or hostile foreign polluting nations to make our energy for us?"