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Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday designated a proposed West Coast oil pipeline a project of national interest. But with no confirmed route, no private-sector builder at risk, and a multibillion-dollar carbon capture project attached as a condition, critics say the announcement adds little.

On Thursday's Rebel Roundup livestream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Tamara Ugolini broke down the announcement, in which Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith touted the proposed pipeline as a step toward making Canada an "energy superpower." 

Sheila pointed out that the project has no firm route and no real private-sector builder. Pembina Pipeline, she said, is in for 10 percent or even less, mostly for consulting.

"This feels like the reannouncement of the MOU, you know, where you're like, okay, but what?" she said. "This isn't a success story. This is a story of desperation."

Carney said Alberta and Ottawa will advance the Pathways project, one of the largest carbon capture and storage projects in the world, which he said will cut 16 million tonnes of emissions a year, create 40,000 jobs and add more than $16 billion to GDP.

Sheila argued that no one is asking for that. Buyers want reliable oil as cheaply and quickly as possible, she said, not "net zero oil."

"Nobody else in the world cares about carbon capture. This is magic beans. You're taking invisible plant food and then stuffing it underground," she said.

She also raised the double standard, with Alberta's Oct. 19 referendum looming. Imagine, she said, telling Ontario it had to pull the equivalent of most Toronto cars off the road before it could develop the Ring of Fire.

"No one would ask them that," Sheila said. "But they ask that of us. And that's why people are so disgruntled with Confederation."

With what she described as 90 percent government funding, Tamara asked how much the project would cost taxpayers and how much it would add to the deficit and inflation.

"Carney was supposed to be this big banking bro mastermind who was going to rein it all in and perhaps finally for once balance the budget," she said.

Tamara went on to say that Ottawa's "green zealot" demands scared off a private sector that would otherwise be "all over it," leaving government to "make it rain taxpayer dollars."

Sheila compared that with the United States, where she said an energy renaissance is underway because there are no comparable restrictions.

"In Canada, we have to beg the feds and then tell the feds, okay, we'll do this crazy magic beans project of carbon capture… And then pretty please, will you let us build but one pipeline? But also, by the way, you have to pay for it because nobody else wants to do it," she said. "This is just clown town."