The oil sands are downsizing. Alberta's Big Oil CEOs are talking to environmentalists. And proposed oil pipelines are in serious trouble.
Those were the takeaways from a trio of experts who spoke in Vancouver Wednesday at a "Carbon Talks" event hosted by Simon Fraser University with the David Suzuki Foundation and the Centre for International Governance.
And the reasons for them have a lot less to do with vocal activist opposition or the Trudeau government's climate commitments than they do with the brute forces of the global marketplace for oil.
Oil at the first phase of separation from the sand is seen at the Suncor tar sands processing plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta, in this Sept. 17, 2014 file photo.
(Todd Korol/Reuters)
Oil sands producers may have collectively breathed a sigh of relief on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent failure to get the premiers signing on to a national price for carbon emissions. However, domestic measures to reduce carbon emissions are the least of oil sands producers’ concerns when it comes to how actions to mitigate climate change will challenge their industry’s survival.
Canada’s first ministers are meeting today to discuss climate change. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his top cabinet ministers are sitting down in Vancouver with the premiers of all provinces and territories.
On the eve of his meetings with the premiers, Trudeau on Wednesday delivered a keynote address to the Globe 2016 summit in Vancouver on clean energy and sustainability.
The Daily Planet's Ziya Tong grills Justin Trudeau on sustainable energy development in Canada at the 2016 Globe Series launch in Vancouver, B.C. on Wed. March 2, 2016. Photo by Elizabeth McSheffrey
Steadfast in his commitment to getting Canadian oil to market, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said putting pipelines in the ground will pay for the country's transition to a greener future.
But the prime minister said that can’t mean abandoning the oil and gas sector — including plans to build more pipelines.
VANCOUVER—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants Canada to play a lead role in the global fight against climate change, but said that cannot mean abandoning the oil and gas sector — including plans to build more pipelines.
The Quebec government has raised the regional tensions ahead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate summit set to begin Wednesday by requesting an injunction against the controversial Energy East pipeline.
Quebec is asking the court to force TransCanada Corp. to comply with provincial law and submit the Energy East project for a provincial environmental assessment. Provincial Environment Minister David Heurtel said the government is not signalling its intention to block the pipeline, but merely insisting that TransCanada follow provincial law.
[Webpage editor's note: The proposed Energy East pipeline would terminate at the Irving refinery and export terminal in St John, New Brunswick. Just one telling tidbit from this article: Property taxes on the Irving's oil-by-rail terminal are half those of the Tim Horton's across the street.]
The Irvings run New Brunswick like a hermit kingdom. But as the Energy East pipeline catapults the family onto the national stage, the timing is awkward. Now even the Irvings aren’t talking to the Irvings,
Canada’s oil sands sector represents a crucial global supply to meet future crude demand, but only if producers can simultaneously drive down costs and slash greenhouse-gas emissions, the head of the influential International Energy Agency said Thursday.
Feb. 21, 2016 - For a time, it looked as if the B.C. Liberal government’s political challenge with the Northern Gateway pipeline project would be removed with the federal government’s promised ban on oil tankers off British Columbia’s north coast.
Like a persistent stain, however, Northern Gateway is back on B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak’s desk for a decision.
