The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
CALGARY — The way Alberta Premier Alison Redford tells it, if there is one problem with the oil sands, it’s that people love them too much. This was a message Ms. Redford sought to convey this week to anyone in Washington questioning Alberta’s commitment to reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions from its energy production. Sure, the numbers will increase, she says, but her province’s energy industry is just giving the people what they want – more bitumen.
Of course, the talking point stems from a couple of key developments that could affect the eventual U.S. government decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. Adding urgency, it comes as Alberta’s coffers face another hit due to a return this month to deeply discounted heavy oil prices, a function of tight space on conduits carrying it to traditional markets.
One was the recent Environment Canada projection that rising emissions from the oil sands will overshadow reductions in other sectors. As a result, in six years, the country’s carbon emissions will be 20 per cent above the Harper government’s target under the Copenhagen Accord on climate change.
The other was that U.S. President Barack Obama has put carbon – and Canada’s strides in chopping emissions – front and centre as he considers whether to give Keystone XL the nod amid the din of opposition from environmental groups and factions within his Democratic Party.
As it turns out, Ms. Redford told Alberta media in a phone call from Washington late Tuesday, officials with the U.S. State Department and Environmental Protection Agency didn’t ask about that.
Still, she said her response would have gone like this: “One of the reasons that the federal government is saying what they’re saying is that we continue to see demand for the product that Alberta is producing, so that even though on a per-barrel basis we’re having great success with respect to emissions reduction, we see volume increases because of consumer demand that have an impact on those figures.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/albertas-real-oil-problem-too-much-love/article15429346/#dashboard/follows/