Renewable Energy was Bringing Jobs Back to the U.S., ‘Drill Baby Drill’ Will Not – with Ben Jealous

The Environment in Canada Podcast Episode 56 on renewable energy jobs with Ben Jealous. You can also listen to the episode on the Harbinger Media Network, IHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or our website.

An inevitable decline of oil and gas demand is coming rapidly, and the world already has enough oil and gas projects to meet that demand. Sierra Club U.S. Executive Director Ben Jealous discusses lessons that could help us build up Canadian renewable energy and local green manufacturing as well as thoughts on making change in a polarized public climate. Plus we discuss how renewable energy helps bring down inflation while increased oil and gas extraction actually makes inflation worse.  NOTE: This interview was conducted in February, 2025.

Fewer than 2 in 10 Canadians across  want their tax dollars going to largely foreign-owned companies to build more LNG projects – let alone oil projects. 

• Most Canadians (65 per cent) agree that Canada should invest in renewable energy INSTEAD of fossil fuel developments.
• A majority of Canadians (62 per cent) agree that Canada should maintain its climate commitments independent of the United States administration’s decisions, including its withdrawal from the UN Paris Agreement on climate.
• Over two-thirds of Canadians (67 %) agree that the Canadian government should make climate action and protecting nature a high priority as well.

– As of March 10th, 2025 according to polling by Leger.

April 2025 polling from EKOS also shows a majority of Canadians are specifically against subsidies to oil and gas development and a majority want oil and gas corporations held accountable for their pollution.

More on Sierra Club Canada’s calls for a Canadian renewable energy supply chain.

Read an explainer on the three independent Sierra Clubs and our meeting in February, as well as oil and gas advocates’ ties to U.S. interests.

Our previous episodes on Canada-U.S. relations in 2025 are summarized in an article.

Ultra-rich corporations in the U.S. are being given free reign to pollute as much as they like. Canada can, and must, be different – for practical and economic reasons. And Canadians are on board.

Sierra Club Canada Executive Director Gretchen Fitzgerald with Sierra Club U.S. Director Ben Jealous in Montréal

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