Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The U.S. trade war has posed huge challenges, but Canada should take advantage of the time to diversify its economy toward exports to Asia, including shipments of liquefied natural gas, says TC Energy Corp.’s chief executive officer.

After the April 28 federal election, it will be important for the prime minister, premiers, business executives and Indigenous leaders to be aligned and strengthen ties with Asia, François Poirier said in a speech to Canadian Club Toronto that was webcast on Thursday.

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https://www.thefp.com/

A growing band of Canadians say their most oil-rich province should join forces with the U.S. ‘Political disruption is what this country needs.’

Jeff Rath, a Canadian constitutional lawyer, rancher, and racehorse breeder who lives outside Calgary, wants his home province of Alberta to become independent and join the United States. The 60-year-old said he will soon lead a delegation of like-minded Albertans to Washington, D.C., for meetings with senior figures in the Trump administration.

He calls it a “fact-finding” mission to gauge whether Washington sees value in welcoming the resource-rich, right-leaning province into the fold. Although no date for the visit has been set and the White House did not return a request for comment about whether a meeting would take place, Rath told me he is certain he could make the case.

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https://financialpost.com/

Canada is now among the top 10 countries with natural gas reserves. It’s time to take advantage of that

Canadians are starting to understand the Americans ate our breakfast, lunch and dinner when it comes to selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the global market while simultaneously undermining our national security.

They are finally waking up to the importance of the urgent request by oil and gas CEOs to all federal party leaders calling for the removal of legislation and regulation impeding and capping the development of our resources.

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https://financialpost.com/

New pipelines are our ‘trump card,’ and, if given the necessary urgency, they could be built in a matter of years, not decades

There are countries who have successfully leveraged their resource wealth to enrich their citizens, and then there is Canada. Years of policies rooted in energy ignorance and centred around self-flagellation have made us poorer and vulnerable.

From cancelling new pipelines that would have diversified our customer base and shrunk our price discount, to abjectly denying the business case in coal-replacing LNG, we have chosen the path of servitude again and again. As bearer of the third largest oil reserves in the world, it didn’t have to be this way.

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https://financialpost.com/

Two countries should work together to develop oil and natural gas assets as well as nuclear, hydroelectric and renewable energy

Donald Trump postponed his threatened 25 per cent tariff against Canada and other trading partners on inauguration day because of inflation fears. His scheme is designed to pay for deep tax cuts for Americans and their businesses but tariffs are always inflationary for consumers.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon discovered this after imposing a 10 per cent “import duty” on goods. It was scrapped just months later. “Imagine an American corn farmer having to pay 25 per cent more for his potash, or for fuel,” commented Gary Marr on CTV. He’s the CEO of the Canada West Foundation, a businessman, and a former politician. “That’s not what he signed up for.”

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Crude oil tariffs in response to Trump’s threats would cause pain on both sides

In Canada’s arsenal of possible responses to a Trump tariff, the nuclear option is the threat to withhold, reduce or place export tariffs on Canadian energy. Already, the mere suggestion of such a tactic has caused a split between the government of Alberta, on one side, and the governments of Canada and all other provinces on the other.

Tariffs on imports from the U.S. have the potential to cause pain to certain industries and regions, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself has acknowledged that the effect of Canada’s import tariffs would be diluted by the size of the U.S. population and economy.

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https://nationalpost.com/

The Liberals were told to respect provincial jurisdiction, but their update to the federal environmental assessment regime doesn’t

On Thursday, the Alberta government announced that it has asked the Alberta Court of Appeal to provide an opinion on whether the newly amended federal Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is constitutional. The problem? The things that rendered much of the act unconstitutional, which had been pointed out by the Supreme Court last fall, were never addressed.

The flaw that tainted IAA 1.0 was one of jurisdictional blindness: the law didn’t keep the feds in their own lane, and instead gave Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault the ability to veto just about any infrastructure project he likes — even in-province pipelines and roads, as well as gravel pits and mines, which are all within provincial domain.

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https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Chris Wright, who runs a Colorado-based oil and natural gas fracking services company, to lead the Energy Department.

Wright, the chief executive officer of Liberty Energy Inc., has no previous Washington experience. He’s made a name for himself as a vocal proponent of oil and gas, saying fossil fuels are crucial for spreading prosperity and lifting people from poverty. The threat of global warming, he has said, is exaggerated.

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