Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not only causing grievous harm to the Ukrainian people but is also triggering the need for a sensible recalibration of energy policy, especially by western democracies that are manifestly obsessed with climate change.

Canada and the United States should both hit the pause button on climate orthodoxy so they can unleash their extensive oil and gas resources to help staunch inflation, bolster growth at home, and seek to displace Russia as the key supplier to Europe and other markets. The wrong climate policy at the wrong time gave Russian President Vladimir Putin an undeserved financial bonus (in the form of higher oil and natural gas prices) enabling his brutal assault on his neighbour. Oil and gas are vital to our mutual security and our energy advantages should not be frittered away to geopolitical adversaries or sacrificed to illusory climate change prophecies. Geopolitical realism and energy realism go hand in hand.

Our two countries should adopt a common strategy. Canada cannot act unilaterally on climate change oblivious to what the United States, our largest trading partner, is doing. A carbon tax is not part of President Joe Biden’s plan for America. When combined with subsidies for exclusively American-made electric vehicles, Canada’s competitiveness would face a double whammy.

President Biden has been forced by rampant inflation and the war in Ukraine to prioritize energy security at least partially, unleashing record amounts of crude oil from strategic reserves, urging drillers to pump harder to meet demand and lifting sanctions on Venezuelian oil while ignoring supply opportunities from Canada. His climate change policies are stymied in Congress.