“The Canadian federal government’s decision about Trans Mountain on December 19th will be an important milestone for the nation’s energy business. There are still numerous other policy decisions that must be addressed before Canada develops a full-scale oil and gas export expansion regime, but the first steps appear to have been taken last week.”
“Despite being the ‘environmental’ prime minister, Mr. Trudeau is recognizing that without more oil and gas export opportunities, his nation’s economy, which depends on a healthy energy economy, will suffer with many social and financial repercussions.”
Canada ranks third in the world in total oil resources due to its oil sands. The country, with 95% of its resources located in its oil sands deposits in Western Canada, trails Venezuela, with its huge heavy oil deposits, and Saudi Arabia, with only conventional oil resources, in the world’s oil resource rankings.…
“The environmental battles over energy infrastructure expansions will continue to ramp up…. The bottom line from these examples is that the risk of energy projects is creeping higher and that will filter into energy company spending – hurting both the nation’s future energy supply and its profitability for the companies.”
Energy availability is often ignored until it isn’t available. Whether that is a grid power outage, such as those in 1965 and 2003 that blacked out the Northeast region of the country, or the loss of power at your home or work, the issue of insuring adequate energy availability isn’t a high priority for most people until you don’t have it. Ask the residents of south Australia who suffered a blackout last week.
Two interesting examples – one on each coast of the U.S.…
“Ontario’s government signed contracts with wind generators that guaranteed them 13.5 cents per kWh. Solar generators actually get paid more. So with the Hourly Ontario Electricity Price at around 2.5 cents, someone has to pay for the 11-cent subsidy for wind power. Therefore, the more renewable power generated, the greater the Global Adjustment Tax becomes.”
The love affair between U.S. President Barack Obama and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is largely based on their symbiotic view of climate change and the need to radically alter their respective economies to prevent the hypothesized damage. Some of the Canadian experience with green energy and its cost pre-date Trudeau’s rise to power. Much of the experience comes from power market machinations conducted in the province of Ontario.
Alberta Downturn, Climate Taxation
The most recent Canadian green energy shock is occurring in the province of Alberta where the New Democratic Party (NDP), led by Premier Rachael Notley gained political office a few months ahead of the national election that brought Mr.…