Energy in Canada (review)

This book, one of a series on Canadian issues, argues that Canada, despite its energy endowment, faces a situation that is "unsustainable" because it "is rapidly facing two key issues: climate change and 'peak oil'" (p. x). Its author, sociologist Peter Sinclair, crafts an admirably brief and interesting work that goes well beyond these two key energy issues to examine energy security, energy equality, federal and provincial energy developments and policies, patterns in government intervention versus liberalism—especially in a Canada-U.S. context—and competing and changing energy technologies as they relate to carbon-based and alternative energy sources. The analysis is sound, and its discussion of peak oil is better than most energy books in that it treats the idea seriously but also cautiously, which is appropriate given the problems of estimating when the peak might occur—a difficult task indeed considering Canada's vast oil sands reserves.

Despite its brevity, the book has remarkably good historical depth, not only nationally but also with respect to provincial and northern territorial policies and sources of energy. Because of Sinclair's earlier work as a sociologist, the analysis is also especially insightful regarding issues of energy, equality, and inequality. His chapter on these dimensions centers on Newfoundland and offshore Labrador, but focuses not only on normal Canadian issues of regional inequality but also on unequal power relations within the region between oil companies and small-boat fishers. Sinclair's examination of some of the social impacts in his chapter on the oil sands of Alberta is equally strong and convincing.

It is fair to say for the readers of Technology and Culture that there is no single technology-focused chapter per se, though energy technology issues and choices and stalemates are woven in throughout the book, albeit briefly. Curiously, but also interestingly, Sinclair begins his concluding chapter seemingly as an afterthought, with a discussion of John Urry's concept of automobility—an assemblage of vehicles, drivers, energy forms, regulations, certification processes, and the like that embodies a particular culture or a way of life. An earlier discussion of this concept might well have strengthened an already very good book.

There are some missing elements in the book's treatment of the Canadian energy story. The chapter on energy security treats security mainly in terms of historic issues of security of supply. But since 9/11 the physical security of energy plants, pipelines, reactors, and data has loomed large in an age of global terrorism, including cyber terrorism. In short, energy security now has a second meaning. The effort of Albertan interests and the federal Conservative government to peddle the concept of "ethical oil" also warrants brief mention since its aim is to portray Canada as a "democratic" source of energy, thus contrasting it both nationally and in U.S. eyes with undemocratic (and therefore insecure) sources of oil. Given the environmental controversies associated with securing oil from the oil sands, the reader would appreciate Sinclair's take on what a truly "ethical oil" might be.

Finally, in this reviewer's view, the book underplays the discussion of Canadian national energy politics since 2006 when the Conservative Harper government came to power. There is some mention in purely descriptive policy terms, but little that picks up on Stephen Harper as an Alberta-based, pro-market Conservative politician leading a government with a very pro-carbon policy. Indeed, from its first days in office, the Harper government has cast Canada as an energy superpower. Harper has weakened Canada's already weak GHG-reduction targets and performance, he has centered his carbon policy on technologies such as carbon capture (of dubious practical value), and he has moved in lock-step with whatever weak American policy is on offer in the energy policy window.

Overall, this is a book well worth reading. Its central argument is well developed, and the book has many a sharp sociological insight into energy in Canadian society.