Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

Dreams collide for Trudeau as First Nations bet big on oil and gas – by John Ivison (National Post – December 4, 2023)

December 5, 2023

Climate zealots will likely have more influence on deciding project loan guarantees than the wishes of Indigenous communities will

Justin Trudeau’s top priorities ever since his election in 2015 have been action on climate change and a “renewed nation-to-nation relationship” with Indigenous people. But what happens when your top priorities crash headlong into one another?

In the recent fall economic statement the government said it is “determined to ensure that Indigenous communities can share in the benefits of major projects in their territories on their own terms” (emphasis mine).

Ontario’s plan to build new gas plants just got more complicated – by Marco Chown Oved (Toronto Star – November 30, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.thestar.com/

At a meeting on Monday evening, Loyalist Township declined to support a new gas plant. On Tuesday, Napanee council endorsed a bid by Atura power to build a new gas plant in their community.

Local municipal councils in Eastern Ontario rejected one new gas plant but welcomed another this week, complicating the province’s plan to build new fossil fuel projects. At a meeting on Monday evening, Loyalist Township declined to support a new gas plant, with councillors saying they could not support energy projects that both pollute local air and make climate change worse.

Smith says she’ll reveal details next week on threat to invoke sovereignty act (Canadian Press/Toronto Star – November 26, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.thestar.com/

Premier pledges to move on sovereignty act

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she will reveal details next week on her threat to invoke her government’s sovereignty act over federal clean energy regulations.

Smith told her provincewide radio call-in show on Saturday that she’s “had it” with federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, saying he “doesn’t care about the constitution” and noting Ottawa has recently lost two court cases dealing with disputes over federal-provincial jurisdiction.

Trudeau’s Green Jihad holding Canada back – by Joel Kotkin (National Post – November 20, 2023)

November 20, 2023

https://nationalpost.com/

As the Spectator recently reported, over the last ten years, Canada has had the most persistently slow growth of any major economy — the worst in the nation’s history since the Great Depression. Between 2016 and 2022, Philip Cross, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, noted in May, “real per capita GDP rose 11.7 percent in the US, but only 2.8 percent in Canada.”

Coming from a country that may soon choose to be led by either a cognitively challenged second-rate codger or a vengeful lunatic, one would like to look north, to Canada, for some inspiration.

This is an idea many Canadians no doubt find inspiring. A decade ago, The Globe and Mail published an essay that made the case that Canada was a better role model than the U.S. due to its approach of “mutual accommodation” — what the late Quebec premier Robert Bourassa called “one of the world’s rare and privileged countries in terms of peace, justice, liberty and standard of living.”

Liberal net-zero agenda is a plan to kill the economy – by Chris Sankey (National Post – November 13, 2023)

November 14, 2023

https://nationalpost.com/

Chris Sankey is a former elected Councilor for Lax Kw’alaams Band, businessman and Senior Fellow for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

The federal government is pushing an aggressive emissions reduction strategy that could devastate the Canadian economy and threaten our way of life. This isn’t just about the oil and gas industry. Port-related industries, transportation, infrastructure, health and education, and countless other sectors will be collateral damage. As will the standard of living of everyday Canadians.

And, yet, it isn’t even clear the government’s green agenda will do much of anything to lower emissions. I recently had a chance to listen to Adam Waterous, the CEO of the Waterous Energy Fund and former Global Head of Investment Banking at Scotia Waterous. He is, I may add, an incredibly intelligent businessman who lives and breathes energy.

Ottawa unveils interim plan for environment agency after court rules it unconstitutional – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – October 26, 2023)

October 26, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ottawa is suspending the environment minister’s authority to force major energy or mining projects to be judged for environmental impact as part of a temporary operating plan for the Impact Assessment Agency after the Supreme Court ruled it encroached on provincial jurisdiction.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced a series of provisions for the agency that will be in force until the government makes amendments to the Impact Assessment Act. The interim operating plan is aimed at making sure projects now in the process of seeking approvals will have “have an orderly and clear path forward,” he said in a statement.

Chasing Big Mergers, Oil Executives Dismiss Peak Oil Concerns – by Clifford Krauss (New York Times – October 25, 2023)

October 26, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/

Exxon Mobil and Chevron are spending tens of billions of dollars buying oil and gas assets, betting that the International Energy Agency’s predictions of declining oil demand are wrong.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest U.S. oil companies, this month committed to spending more than $50 billion each to buy smaller companies in deals that would let them produce more oil and natural gas for decades to come.

But a day after Chevron announced its acquisition, the International Energy Agency released an exhaustive report concluding that demand for oil, gas and other fossil fuels would peak by 2030 as sales of electric cars and use of renewable energy surged. The disconnect between what oil companies and many energy experts think will happen in the coming years has never been quite this stark.

TC Energy’s B.C. pipeline route bolstered by deal with Ksi Lisims LNG – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – October 20, 2023)

October 20, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

An Indigenous-backed project seeking to export liquefied natural gas has signed a deal to support TC Energy Corp.’s pipeline plans in northern British Columbia, leaving Enbridge Inc.’s competing route in limbo.

The Nisga’a Nation, Western LNG and a group of natural gas producers called Rockies LNG are partners in their proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project near Gitlaxt’aamiks, which is home to the Nisga’a Lisims government led by elected president Eva Clayton.

Canada court ruling on key environmental law risks deterring investments – by Nia Williams and Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – October 19, 2023)

October 20, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

Oct 19 (Reuters) – A Canadian court ruling that voided most of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s environmental assessment law for resource projects has sparked fresh policy uncertainty and risks deterring investments, company and industry executives said.

Canada’s Supreme Court dealt Trudeau’s Liberal government a blow last week when it ruled the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) was too broad in designating which major projects should fall under federal environmental assessment.

Supreme Court’s ruling leaves resource companies uncertain of environmental regulations on projects – by Naill McGee, Emma Graney and Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – October 14, 2023)

October 17, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that Ottawa has overstepped its constitutional authority in how it regulates major resource projects in Canada, throwing the sector into deep uncertainty as companies wait for clarity from the federal government in its legislative response.

Since 2019, Ottawa, under the Impact Assessment Act, has had broad authority to approve or deny large-scale mining, oil and gas and pipeline projects in Canada on environmental grounds. Alberta, which wants to see oil and gas projects approved at a faster clip, won a legal case in a provincial court in 2022, challenging the constitutionality of the act. That ruling was subsequently appealed by Ottawa to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court rules environmental impact legislation largely unconstitutional – by Joel Dryden (CBC News Calagary – October 13, 2023)

October 13, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/

Majority of top court agreed that act’s ‘designated projects’ scheme exceeds bounds of federal jurisdiction

Canada’s top court has delivered a highly anticipated judgment, writing in a majority opinion that Ottawa’s Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is largely unconstitutional. The IAA, previously known as Bill C-69, allows federal regulators to consider the potential environmental and social impacts of various resource and infrastructure projects. It was enacted in 2019.

The IAA has long been controversial among conservative politicians in Alberta, including former premier Jason Kenney, who frequently referred to it as the “no more pipelines act.”

Fossil Fuels Aren’t Going Anywhere – by David Gelles (New York Times – October 12, 2023)

October 12, 2023October 12, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/

Exxon’s $60 billion acquisition doubles down on oil and gas.

It wasn’t long ago that big fossil fuel companies were making bold claims about their plans to embrace a low-carbon future. Yet over the past year, many of those companies have walked back those commitments as they reaped outsize profits and made ambitious plans to expand their production of oil and gas.

On Wednesday, Exxon Mobil signed a $60 billion deal to buy Pioneer Natural Resources, a company that made its fortune through fracking. The acquisition — Exxon’s biggest in almost 25 years, and the biggest corporate purchase of 2023 — represents a very expensive bet that fossil fuels will remain a central part of the global economy for the foreseeable future.

Canada could have been an energy superpower. Instead we became a bystander – by Heather Exner-Pirot (MacDonald Laurier.ca – October 3, 2023)

October 3, 2023

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Government has imposed a series of regulatory burdens on the energy industry, creating confusion, inefficiency, and expense

Oil arguably remains the most important commodity in the world today. It paved the way for the industrialization and globalization trends of the post-World War II era, a period that saw the fastest human population growth and largest reduction in extreme poverty ever. Its energy density, transportability, storability, and availability have made oil the world’s greatest source of energy, used in every corner of the globe.

There are geopolitical implications inherent in a commodity of such significance and volume. The contemporary histories of Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are intertwined with their roles as major oil producers, roles that they have used to advance their (often illiberal) interests on the world stage.

[Alaska] Direct Payment Update: Americans in One State to Get $3,000 Check – by Jon Jackson (Newsweek.com – August 15, 2023)

September 21, 2023

https://www.newsweek.com/

Some residents of Alaska will soon receive payments of up to $3,284 as a result of oil and gas revenues from 2022. These residents will be paid from Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend. Revenue the state generates from its energy resources goes into the PFD. Created in 1976 to invest oil proceeds for future generations, the Permanent Fund is managed by a state-owned corporation.

Alaska began sending out 2022 payments from the state’s PFD last fall and recently disbursed a portion in July. The latest batch of residents to be paid are scheduled to receive their checks Thursday.

Alaskans Receive Record Dividends of $3,284 – by Maryalene LaPonsie (Forbes Magazine – November 10, 2022)

September 21, 2023

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/

Alaska residents have been receiving annual dividend payments from the state’s Permanent Fund for 41 years, but the 2022 payout is one of the largest in history. Every resident received $3,284 this year, with most payments issued in September and October.

Permanent Fund Dividends (PFD), are larger than normal thanks in part to the addition of a $662 energy relief payment. Rather than send out a separate payment, as other states have done, Alaska rolled the energy relief payment into this year’s PFD payout.