Oil sands or tar sands? The economy or the environment? The issues are divisive. How can the Mennonite church helpfully engage them constructively?
Controversies over energy production and distribution are rampant, as groups express concerns over spills and the economy, and Alberta struggles to negotiate pipeline route possibilities. Discussions have recently hit the pages of Canadian Mennonite, with articles such as “Crossing the (pipe) line,” Jan 21, page 4, and, “Where oil flows beneath our feet,” April 29, page 20.
Canadians depend heavily on the oil and gas industry: to heat and light their homes, fuel their vehicles, provide their plastic products, pay their wages, and, quite directly, fill the offering plates in many churches. Many Alberta Mennonites earn a living in and around the Oil Patch, care deeply about the environment, and strongly support the church. For them, the issues are neither oil black nor grass green. Could these untapped perspectives, as insiders in both the industry and the church, help as the church seeks to respond to pressing environmental issues?
“It’s difficult not to feel defensive when media and critics portray people like me and my colleagues in the energy industry as irresponsible, incompetent, or even willfully negligent,” admits Karl Blank, a manager with responsibilities for Enbridge’s field operations. “This is where I feel Canadian Mennonite has a responsibility to go beyond the narrow-minded rhetoric of either side of any particular issue, where there are often broader causes and implications that are linked to real people.”
Brian Hildebrandt has been involved in the Oil Patch since 1982, working for British Petroleum, ExxonMobil and TransCanada over the years. He shares Blank’s viewpoint.
“I have been surprised by the amount of negativity towards the oil industry that has been in Canadian Mennonite,” he says. “The environmental movement relies on depicting large oil companies as greedy uncaring corporations, bent on destroying our planet for profit. Yet these corporations are made up of people like you and me. You will find more oil stains on the yards of many farms on the Prairies than you will at the three gas plants I have worked at.”
Trevor Wiens has worked in the oil industry as a power engineer for more than 20 years in Alberta and the Middle Eastern countries of Yemen and Qatar.
“The reaction against the oil sands companies has been too harsh, with no recognition of all the research and effort companies have made to reduce their environmental impact,” he says. “I find it strange that the protesters have focused entirely on the environmental aspect of the Canadian oil sands, and have almost completely ignored not only environmental concerns, but particularly the human rights violations of the industry in other oil/gas-exporting countries, especially Middle Eastern countries.”
Complicity beyond the oil companies
In May 2009, Abe Janzen, director of Mennonite Central Committee Alberta, participated in a Kairos-led learning tour of Alberta’s oil sands. The tour brought church leaders together with aboriginal groups, oil industry representatives, governments, local churches and community groups.
The secular media assumed tour members would condemn the industry, but that is not what happened. According to Janzen, tour members saw that, while environmen-tal concerns are real, so is the caring and effort put into working at them. “The picture is just not clear,” he says. “All of us use the oil. We are completely complicit. . . . In our own backyard we should at least recognize our ambivalence before we say so much about something we know so little about.”
Some industry insiders echo Janzen’s complicity statement, and point directly at society.
“The biggest concern is the rampant consumption of energy by society,” Wiens says. “There is a lot of pressure on industry to reduce their environmental impact, but the public seems to get a free pass on this issue.”
“If each of us takes more personal responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint, and then we encourage each other to do the same, over time the numbers grow and grow, and we can make a difference,” Hildebrandt says. “If individuals in a church feel strongly led to get involved in the environmental issues of the day, that should be encouraged.”
But one acknowledges that the companies themselves can do better.
“Ethical companies follow the rules and regulations, but they generally don’t go the extra mile to exceed these expectations unless it has potential to give them a competitive edge and increase revenue,” says Marlene Janzen, who has designed and managed processing facilities and pipelines for more than 20 years.
“There is always room for improvement,” she says. “Rather than saying no to oil sands development or pipelines, it would be more helpful to ask, ‘Is it possible to do this better?’ so that innovative and creative people are encouraged to develop new technology, whether that is new fuels, more efficient vehicles or safer pipelines.”
Sacrifice: Easier said than done
“If it was as easy as stopping the flow or production of oil, it would have been done,” Blank says. “The entire world is dependent on energy to continue in a civilized manner. Not only is North America ‘addicted’ to energy . . . it won’t be long before the developing nations . . . reach the same desire for comfort and stability. Are we enjoying our standard of living, and at the same time denying it of them?”
Willard Metzger, executive director of Mennonite Church Canada, met with a Natural Resources Canada policy staff person in Ottawa on May 23 and was left wondering the same thing. He says the conversation left him understanding that “the Canadian Government’s priorities of job creation and economic growth are values seen as reflective of the Canadian population. I think, as a faith community, we must engage this assumption. . . . It is not admirable for us to criticize the government priorities while joyfully benefitting and subtly expecting or demanding the continuation of these benefits. How ready are we to embrace sacrifice for the sake of a healthier global economy?” he muses.
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