Surely Jason Kenney, Alberta’s Conservative leader isn’t serious, surely he’s just joshing, when he talks about his latest ploy to promote Alberta oil.
A new report co-written by Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour and co-chair of Alberta's energy diversification advisory committee, suggests the province could reap an economic bonanza from the LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility being developed in northern British Columbia.
McGowan spoke to David Gray about the report on the Calgary Eyeopener Tuesday. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The past year has seen intense political fighting between Alberta and British Columbia centred on pipeline development, the actions of protesters, and environmental issues more broadly. Given the importance of the issues involved, the authors re-examined the results of a survey of residents of Alberta and BC, conducted between February 9, 2017 and March 9, 2017 by the Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta.
VANCOUVER—Indigenous leaders, environmentalists and federal members of Parliament say the National Energy Board is repeating the same flawed process that resulted in its approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion being rejected by the Federal Court of Appeal.
Speaking in Vancouver on Tuesday, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said the Trans Mountain project has been “a real stinker from the very beginning.”
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is proposing Ottawa get into the crude-by-rail business — at least temporarily — so that producers in her province can get a better price for their oil.
“We are in the midst of putting together a specific business case that we'll be taking to the federal government late this week, early next week, where we lay out the specific costs,'' Notley said Monday following a meeting with energy industry leaders in Calgary.
One week ago, the price American refineries will pay for a barrel of Alberta bitumen fell to just below US$30. A seismic jolt raced through the tar sands/oil sands industry, because that price would barely allow even the biggest, most profitable operators to recover operating costs.
[Webside editor: Watch Tzeporah Berman's speach to the Alberta Teachers Conference here.]
To invest in Alberta’s oil industry, or back away slowly, was the question at the crux of a rift between Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and environmentalist and policy adviser Tzeporah Berman last weekend.
In explaining Canada's decision to nationalise the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5bn, Bill Morneau went hard on the economic argument. “Make no mistake,” the finance minister said. “This is an investment in Canada’s future.”
In fact, since 1999, more than $200bn has been invested into the Alberta oil sands for that future. But what if that cash had gone into wind energy instead?
Last August 29 was not just a ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ moment for federal and Alberta politicians pushing to accelerate future tar sands/oil sands expansion plans.
It was a morning where the coffee urn figuratively tipped over and bestowed third-degree burns.
