Wagering huge sums of public money to expand the oilsands at a moment when the business case for oil could be entering terminal decline “is an absolutely idiotic waste of capital.

Bond is recent author of the report “Decline and Fall: The Size and Vulnerability of the Fossil Fuel System,” and argues that due to the economic wreckage of coronavirus we may have already passed global peak demand for oil, coal and gas. In an exclusive interview with The Tyee he explains why that is potentially very bad news for oil producers and the governments that support them.

Let me cut to the chase here. Our view would be that expanding the fossil fuel system at the end of the fossil fuels age is an absolutely idiotic waste of capital. That’s throwing good money after bad and it’s like building a canal in 1850 when the railway system is already up and running. It’s like connecting a new city to the gas lighting network in 1920 when someone has already invented electricity or it’s like trying to prop up Nokia after Steve Jobs has put out the iPhone.