Premier Stelmach is off the Washington DC today with his Ministers of Agriculture and Food and Sustainable Resource Development. This is an important meeting and even with the Washington heavy hitters on the Primary Hustings he has still arranged an impressive set of meetings. Gary Mar as the Alberta’s Envoy in Washington is already earning his keep.
One focus is on the food safety and that is important given the new BSE case just discovered. The other even more critical elements are investing in Alberta and continental energy supply and security.
The Americans are woefully ignorant of the Alberta oil sands and its potential for resolving their fossil fuel energy demands without going to war or being beholden to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. We have the oil sands recognized as the second largest reserves in the world behind Saudi Arabia and that is with current technology that only allows for us to utilize 10% of the potential.
The emerging American awareness over the oil sands is that it is environmentally speaking “dirty oil.” That is a concern in perception and there is some truth as well because of the GHG emissions inherent in the current mining techniques. The Americans, like most Canadians, have no clue as to what is being done to address those ecology issues in the province and industry.
Are the issues resolved? Not by a long shot! Are they being attended to? Yes but a greater and more energized focus has to be brought to bear on the concerns – by all concerned.
Premier Stelmach is seeing the right people in Washington on the energy and investment concerns for sure. He is meeting on Wednesday with the likes of the U.S. Energy Association, and participating in the U.S. Senate energy forum entitled “Alberta: Leading the Way on North American Energy Security.” He will participate in a briefing at the U. S. House of Representatives on “Trade and Investment Opportunities Between the U.S. and Alberta.”
On Thursday he speaks to food safety with the Canadian American Business Council then on to meeting with the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and the Acting Secretary of Agriculture. He also attends a business forum on expanded U.S. - Alberta – Canada relations and expanded trade opportunities. He has individual meetings with House of Representatives people like the Chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, another with a ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Finally, after an extensive and impressive two days of meetings Stelmach has a bit of fun at the hockey game watching the Edmonton Oilers defeat the Washington Capitals.
One focus is on the food safety and that is important given the new BSE case just discovered. The other even more critical elements are investing in Alberta and continental energy supply and security.
The Americans are woefully ignorant of the Alberta oil sands and its potential for resolving their fossil fuel energy demands without going to war or being beholden to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. We have the oil sands recognized as the second largest reserves in the world behind Saudi Arabia and that is with current technology that only allows for us to utilize 10% of the potential.
The emerging American awareness over the oil sands is that it is environmentally speaking “dirty oil.” That is a concern in perception and there is some truth as well because of the GHG emissions inherent in the current mining techniques. The Americans, like most Canadians, have no clue as to what is being done to address those ecology issues in the province and industry.
Are the issues resolved? Not by a long shot! Are they being attended to? Yes but a greater and more energized focus has to be brought to bear on the concerns – by all concerned.
Premier Stelmach is seeing the right people in Washington on the energy and investment concerns for sure. He is meeting on Wednesday with the likes of the U.S. Energy Association, and participating in the U.S. Senate energy forum entitled “Alberta: Leading the Way on North American Energy Security.” He will participate in a briefing at the U. S. House of Representatives on “Trade and Investment Opportunities Between the U.S. and Alberta.”
On Thursday he speaks to food safety with the Canadian American Business Council then on to meeting with the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and the Acting Secretary of Agriculture. He also attends a business forum on expanded U.S. - Alberta – Canada relations and expanded trade opportunities. He has individual meetings with House of Representatives people like the Chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, another with a ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Finally, after an extensive and impressive two days of meetings Stelmach has a bit of fun at the hockey game watching the Edmonton Oilers defeat the Washington Capitals.
Hey Ken - how is Stelmach going to solve problems that don't exist?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080116.wstelmach0116/EmailBNStory/energy/
Typical parsing of a sentence from the main-stream media (MSM). Read the ENTIRE text of the speech and judge for yourselves.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.premier.alberta.ca/speeches/speeches-2008-Jan-16-AB_Enterprise.cfm
Oh, yes, this would be the website of the guy some allege doesn't know about the internet.
Thanks for posting the speech, I just read it, and I'm definitely not convinced. Just because we say Alberta is an environmental leader in North America, doesn't make it true. Anyone with half a brain can calculate that a 12% reduction in emissions per unit of production doesn't mean a whole lot when oil production is set to increase five-fold over the next 20 years. Other jurisdictions in the US and Canada (Quebec and the New England states come to mind) are going to reduce their TOTAL emissions by 6 per cent below 1990 emissions. So I'm not sure how our policies make 'a leader' in any sense of the word. We don't even have an overall blueprint for managing the industrial growth in Fort McMurray or the greater Edmonton region (Upgrader alley). This is actually laughable.
ReplyDeleteWe Albertans need to pull our weight and contribute to a meaningful solution to climate change. Comments like the Premier's in Washington in front of international media are just embarrassing. It makes Albertans look like a bunch of greedy idiots, and I think we can do much better than that.
"Other jurisdictions in the US and Canada (Quebec and the New England states come to mind) are going to reduce their TOTAL emissions by 6 per cent below 1990 emissions."
ReplyDeleteNeither Quebec nor New England have any measurable reserves of hydrocarbons... yet they sure use a lot. Also, saying you are going to reduce your emissions by 6% below 1990 levels is not the same as actually doing it. Ontario Premier McGuinty has been bleating incessantly about how he is going to reduce emissions... but he has yet to shut down any of the coal-fired plants he committed to closing... once he realized Ontario was facing a severe power shortage.
I don't disagree that we "need to pull our own weight" and suchlike, but a person should not be penalized for calling a spade a spade. Fact is, Alberta is the only jurisdiction in Canada, and I believe North America, that actually places a fee on carbon emissions. Whether you agree that $15/tonne is enough or not, or that the calculation of how much you are allowed to emit is appropriate, at least having something in place is better than just yakking about "what you are going to do... someday". Better to get the ball rolling first.