North America needs an energy policy – by Jack M. Mintz (Financial Post – March 18, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Rumours abound that U.S. President Joe Biden will use the Climate Summit on Earth Day (April 22nd) to push forward the Democrats’ left-wing climate-change agenda.

Expect some pretty tough global policy proposals, such as climate-related financial regulation. After the Trudeau-Biden virtual meeting a couple of weeks ago, Canada will be gung-ho, too.

Canada-U.S. co-operation to harmonize carbon policy may well help improve the effectiveness and reduce the cost of climate-change policies in North America. But it is too narrow an agenda. Instead, Canada and the U.S. should seek a sensible North American energy package that pursues multiple objectives.

The expected energy transition will take time. Almost every study of net-zero emission paths to 2050 shows that coal, oil and gas will remain a smaller but substantial part of the energy mix for reasons of technology, not to mention economics.

So the aim of Canada-U.S. energy cooperation should be broader than just dealing with climate-change policies.

For the rest of this article: https://financialpost.com/opinion/jack-m-mintz-north-america-needs-an-energy-policy