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Ottawa abandons thermal coal export ban as Alberta mines keep producing
(www.nationalobserver.com)
We're a country of ecocide
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
30 points (96.9% liked)
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Yup BC just elected and majority gov that will finally cut the remaining old growth
Not even the Americans are doing this
No we're not.
Resource extraction is necessary for human survival and progress. Our country does it more responsibly than lots of other places.
We stopped coal fired electricity generation but various other countries can't afford to just yet. They will continue importing coal. They deserve the best coal. 100%, slavery-free, cruelty-free, all-organic Alberta coal.
I hope they nationalize the industry instead of letting private corporations making all the profits from Canadian coal.
I hope they nationalize the industry instead of letting private corporations making all the profits from Canadian coal.
In Alberta? I’ll give you one guess which way they’ll go.
Lol they're still crying about the National Energy Program proposal in Alberta.
Alberta loves 1 Pierre unconditionally and hates another Pierre wholeheartedly. Most Albertans get the 2 mixed up. The detestable Pierre is the favourite and the Pierre that cared about the country is the villain.
While Canada has reduced electricity generation from coal, there are still several plants operating for at least a few more years. Saskatchewan has at least one plant that has no closure date.
Do they use 100% slavery-free and cruelty-free, all natural Alberta coal?
I....I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.
It's mostly sarcasm.
As shitty and harmful our extraction methods are, they're still better than some of the other countries. Which isn't to say "I love clean coal" or some such nonsense.
All our fancy gadgets are using natural resources from "artisan mines" and warlords using slavery to make a dollar and we're still using them. Some of us line up for hours to get the latest Apple Pod 9000+ every year 📱
I think you have been unjustly judged, it's a fair point.
I appreciate that.
Eco-warriors and elitist left wingers don't like hearing counter points any more than those "change my mind..." type of Conservative grifters.
Bro, they want coal cuz they got over a billion people who need electricity. India's gdp per capita in 2025 was $2,702 USian dollars, with massive income disparity.
Sell em coal, not a course on Western values and environmental concerns of privileged westerners.
I think we often overlay our own experiences on to other seemingly similar issues and forget how complex a lot of problems are. Changing energy infrastructure on a global scale is not the same as changing out your oil burning furnace at home.
It can be really difficult to have a rational conversation around these basic topics when they appear easily solvable.
The "build a fence" idea surrounding immigration springs to mind as a incredibley obvious example.
But even in this I'm being far too simplistic about the myriad factors that contribute to the outrage at your suggestion about coal.
I think too there is the matter of a echo chamber. The belief that everyone else's experience is similar or is otherwise not that large a segment of the population and therefore not as deserving consideration.
Also, there is the classic I often fall victim to, the wanting to just be mad and not really have a discussion but go through the motions both understanding that you're not truly having intellectual discorce but just wailing at the void together so as to not be so terrified all the time.
I honestly think this one happens quite a lot here and you largely got hate because you brought the gross part of reality to the table when others wanted to just have a group wail at the void.
I would love to be free of the grip of coal mining, Ive lived in coal towns and have a somewhat more fleshed out understanding then your average joe. The reality is that it's not something that is likely to happen within most of our lifetimes. A movement towards more ethical practices is the direction, as you suggested, that we should be focusing our energy on... But man do I love tossing out an unthinking "fuck you" at the corrupt folks steering the world in self indulgent, misery laden, empaty void directions.
Sorry if I blathered on, I appreciate your time!
Hope it's going well today :))
Our neighbours kicked their president in the nuts. It's a beautiful day! Lol.
Exporting a shit ton of thermal coal for profit and burning coal domestically when there are viable alternatives has nothing to do with "human survival."
The recycled corporate ecocide propaganda in this group is astounding.
I think it's all muddled together. The capitalist economy, individuals emotional attachment to material things, having no sense of moral obligation towards the environment unless it's self-centered (e.g. I like parks to go on walks, to take pictures there, therefore I like parks). We will never be able to convince the majority that we're destroying our planet's ecosystems in a futile quest for materialism, a quest that we were most of us conditioned to believe in from early childhood.
"No, we need those mines for our economy so that we don't become a poorer nation!" All the while, we destroy what, I believe, is the most precious thing in this part of the world: ecosystems that have grown, evolved and survived for millennia. But because that has no value for the common person, who cares?
I will admit that I understand in part why some would want our economy to go at full speed extracting more resources, because they've been promised that it would bring jobs, security and material comforts. IMHO, that is just a naive mindset as we see the global economy being more and more centralized in the hands of a few owners. But who cares when you can buy a 40'' screen for 500$ to watch Netflix all night, right?
Not every country in the world can afford to ditch coal just because you demand that they stop using it this very moment.
We got that sweet sweet cruelty-free, slavery-free, all organic, beautiful Canadian coal. Nationalize it and sell it to the people in need.
Coal causes serious respiratory issues and is carcinogenic. Toronto had regular smog days until they closed the coal plants. It has an immediate impact on health. You pushing for coal sales is like pushing for us to continue to export asbestos. Its an ethics question you are bypassing. Making people sick for profit.
They can survive and thrive without asbestos in every household in India.
They can't thrive without electricity in every household in India.
They want coal. Not lecturers on ethics or environmentalism from us. There's a reason so many developing countries borderline hate us for our concern-trolling, moral grandstanding and virtue signaling. Not us as individuals but our society.
WHO estimates 200,000 deaths each year from asbestos. Let alone diseases and illnesses. You are defending this? You sound like a cartoon character capitalist.
You didn't even try to understand what I said.
They can thrive without asbestos. They can't thrive without electricity.
Your elitist opinion doesn't even factor into their life or mine.
I misread sorry. You dont think its okay to sell asbestos but is fine to sell carcinogenic coal. Fine. Stop calling me elitist because I think its bad to push coal exports. The folks who benefit from coal exports are energy elites not every day people. You are the one pushing elitism.
They got the infrastructure in place already and they don't have the money to switch over to greenner options. They will, and they are making efforts. Don't boil it down to coal being dirty. They got different challenges than us.
They are getting that coal wherever they get the best deal. If Canada refuses to sell it, they'll get it somewhere else. One way or another, they need that electricity. Canada has a much better mining standards, labour standards and human rights standards. We're not using slave labour. Some of the other places in the world are.
Don't just focus on carcinogenic and polluting aspects of coal. Their life without stable energy grid makes their life more miserable. They get a stable supply, away fron wars and conflicts. They get to grow. We get work for our citizens. It's a transaction, not exploitation. Developing countries can't afford to make the switch as quickly as we can. We're still burning coal for electricity.
I'm not pushing elitism. Just saying that India buying coal from Canada is good for both countries.
"Resource extraction"
Never say "resource". Always be clear as to what "resource" you're talking about. You are in your next sentence. That is fine but I'm sick of people saying "resource" and "energy" to greenwash their fossil fuel promotion, sound clean while polluting, change climates forever and unpredictably, and cover up their own shame and guilt about it all.
Saying "resource" instead of "thermal coal" is like confusing '"food" with "fried bacon double cheese burger dipped in gravy". Eat that 3 times a day and see what happens.
That poor serf in China or that outcast "untouchable" in India would have a much more difficult life without their shitty government using dirtyass polluting coal to generate electricity. Just 2 countries are 35% of the world's population.
Wealthy countries agreed that we'll reduce out footprint first because we are the ones who contributed in destroying the environment more than the global majority. We didn't change anything significant by the looks of it. That's on our government and our consumerism.
Those guys over there still need their coal.
"Those guys over there still need their coal." - That is exactly the kind of thinking, framing it as a "need", that keeps worsening the problem decades after decade. A transition was never meant to be a joke. Supplying thermal coal creates and promotes a dependency. A gradual transition, decreasing supply of thermal coal to replace it with a sustainable source, is the way out of that dependency. That is what they "need" help with.
No argument there from me.
I'm not saying we should keep them dependent and let our shitty multinational corporations continue making bank selling them coal forever. I'm all for nationalizing it and using the profits to transition to a better solution.
I'm just saying that they won't stop using the only means of electricity generation they've already invested into just because we tell them it's bad for the environment. Especially since we're still burning coal for electricity in Saskatchewan.
I thought we had stopped but someone corrected my stupid assumption.
"they won’t stop using the only means of electricity generation they’ve already invested" - That is not a Canadian problem. Canada either helps with combustion or doesn't.
"just because we tell them it’s bad for the environment" - India doesn't need Canada to explain the effects.
"we’re still burning coal for electricity in Saskatchewan" - That is a Canadian problem.
Yeah.
They need coal. We got coal. They either buy slavery-free Canadian coal or they look elsewhere. Refusing to sell coal changes nothing.
India doesn't need our elitist, entitled, supremacist lectures. They need coal.
India is willing to buy energy so instead of giving them elitist, entitled, supremacist lectures and coal, you could be building and selling them renewables. Your goal here is to profit off fossil combustion and that is the reason you are choosing coal customers that happen to be in India. I seek to minimize emissions while you try to increase emissions, that is how we differ.
India: hey, I need coal to generate electricity.
PotatoMuncher: Hey. Lemme teach all about potato-batteries. We got all the potatoes you need.
India: I got potatoes. I need coal for my power plants as well as foundries.
PotatoMuncher: We've got world's best aluminum and steel. Produced with renewable energy.
India: I don't want to rely on you. I got power plants and furnaces. I want to produce my own. Sell coal.
PotatoMuncher: I seek to minimize emissions. I know what's best for everyone else. No coal for you.
India: Were you dropped on your head? Or just an ignoramus elitist with a colonial worldview?
PotatoMuncher: I got all organic, gmo free, pesticides free, fair market, 100% Canadian potatoes.
Boil em. Mash em. Stick em in a stew...
India: Stick em where the poutine don't shine.
So Ottawa should have the right to cancel mining projects, but not the right to ban thermal coal mining?
Why this bias?
(https://ca.news.yahoo.com/premier-main-says-ottawa-cancel-154822984.html)
There was no complete ban in place to begin with.
It was a promise by the former prime minister. Like election reforms.
I really hope Mark Carney government does reverse the ban on horse exports for slaughter.
Alberta has a lot of all organic, free range, cruelty free, grass-fed, free grazing horses running around feral and the government has to pay to keep their population in check. Crate them up and ship them for people who wish to eat all natural lean animal protein.
That's a better use of resources than shooting them and letting them go to waste. Instead of banning it just because it hurts the feelings of a few horse-people.
Feral horses aren’t organic or grass fed as their diet is not controlled. Exporting feral horses is very cruel, the stress of transport and long distance shipping on a feral prey animal is brutal and the places we ship them to have weaker standards for humane slaughter. It would be better to just treat them as game and hunt them here.
Okay, lets hunt them here. As well as catch them, take em to an abattoir and export the meat as well as sell it within Canada.
What about farmed horses? Can we get the ban lifted on exporting those?
You sure love throwing incorrect adjectives like "organic" at things, don't you?
I do. It just started one morning organically. It wasn't always like that...
Totally, lets torture and kill more animals! This is definitely the best use of our time and energy! 🥳