How the Battles over Oil Sands Pipelines have Transformed Climate Politics

• In Event: Energy and Environmental Policy in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Organized resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure has become a formidable political force in North America in the 2010s. Climate activists, struggling for influence within the political process, have allied themselves with place-based interests, including indigenous groups, to block new coal plants, coal port expansion, and more recently oil sands pipelines. This paper provides a synthetic overview of a mutli-year research project examining the origins, influence, and challenges of this social movement strategy. It addresses four core research questions:
(1) How effective has the strategy of project-based resistance to fossil fuel development been at promoting climate action and the reduction of global warming emissions?
(2) Does the strategy risk the unintended consequence of feeding place-based resistance to the clean energy transformation? This section distills the literature on the so-called “resistance dilemma”, where strategies to empower local communities frustrates the adoption of renewable energy facilities and supportive infrastructure.
(3) Is there hope in more innovative processes of regulatory review and facility siting that can promote social acceptance of the rapid transition to the clean energy system but avoid the confrontational politics that have characterized fossil fuel resistance? An expansive literature from a variety of disciplines shows that investment in more intensive public engagement processes improve project design and public acceptance.
(4) If innovative approaches have been demonstrated to reduce conflict, why are they so rarely used? Examining the incentive structure of government decision-makers, project proponents, and project opponents will help explain this dilemma and help inform the process reform to facilitate the energy transition. Each of these three actors has a different strategic calculus underlying their preferences for different forms of process. Advocates of innovative approaches tend to underestimate the policy-makers perceptions of political risks of more meaningful public engagement.

This paper will use process tracing, government documents, and personal interviews to address these questions. It is part of a larger book project on fossil fuel resistance and the transition to sustainable energy.

Author

• George Hoberg, University of British Columbia