Alberta’s belated ‘Green shift’

US resistance to Keystone pipeline spurs interest in cap-and-trade, emissions limits for tar sands.

by Gillian Steward 

Alberta Premier Alison Redford was in Washington last week trying to convince legislators and other decision-makers that the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline should get the green light despite a well-organized and liberally funded campaign in the US to stop it.

This was Redford’s fourth trip in 18 months, a sign of just how desperate the Alberta government is to get this project approved so diluted bitumen from the oilsands can be delivered to refineries on the US gulf coast.

Not surprising then that, on the eve of this trip, word leaked out that government and oil industry representatives were discussing an increase in Alberta’s carbon emission taxes that would see them more than double. The move is obviously designed to prove to pipeline opponents in the US that Alberta is serious about reducing greenhouse gases associated with the production of bitumen and their impact on climate change.

At this point it’s all talk, but certainly timely talk given Redford’s visit to the US. It also signals that perhaps the Alberta government and the oil industry are finally recognizing that their view of the world outside the province’s borders has to change if they want to get the tarry bitumen to market.

Both the Alberta and federal governments often dismiss environmentalists as obsessed fanatics who simply want to stop all economic development, particularly if it involves oil. They seem sure that their “reasoned” view of the world will prevail and that environmentalism, the push to arrest climate change, and the trend toward renewable energy are just fads that will soon disappear.

So much so, that in March the Alberta government paid $30,000 for a half-page ad that ran in the New York Times and was designed to boost support for the Keystone XL Pipeline. The headline read: “Keystone XL: The Choice of Reason.” Not difficult to figure out that in the government’s view everyone who opposes the pipeline is unreasonable or irrational.

“Certainly the Sunday Times is a critically important audience to speak to, and I think Alberta has a good track record, a very good story to tell, and it’s important that we’re out there telling that story at this very critical time,” said a spokesperson for the premier.

Needless to say, the story told in the ad didn’t include the fact that bitumen is more difficult to transport because it is thicker and harder to clean up should there be a spill, compared to regular crude oil. Nor did it mention that the production of bitumen is so carbon-intensive, requiring huge amounts of fossil fuels (and water), which in turn produce huge amounts of greenhouse gases, that oilsands operations are Canada’s fastest-growing sector for domestic greenhouse gas emissions.

Instead, the ad points out that oilsands greenhouse gas emissions account for “just over one-tenth of 1 percent of the world’s emissions.” Another version of the same truth.

Since 2000 the issue of greenhouse gases and their effect on climate change has become a key global issue. As a result, the oilsands have become an easy target for those who like to point out that Canada and Alberta in particular are laggards when it comes to seriously addressing climate change.

It is this issue that is now driving much of the opposition to the oilsands in the US; opposition that received quite a boost when President Barack Obama said he was going to tackle climate change during his last four years in office.

Alberta did introduce a cap-and-trade system in 2007 in order to curb criticism of oilsands development. Under the program any company that emits more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases must either reduce the intensity of their emissions or pay a $15-per-tonne penalty.

Critics say the penalty is much too low and essentially gives industry a free ride. But now there is talk of doubling that tax and the rate of reduction for emissions.

Even Alberta Venture, the province’s leading business magazine, put a positive spin on carbon taxes in its most recent issue with a cover story entitled The Business Case for a Price on Carbon.

All this sounds a lot like Stéphane Dion’s ill-fated “Green Shift,” except this time around it’s the Alberta government that is pushing the idea.

It appears that public pressure, especially when it comes from Alberta’s biggest customer, really does make a difference.

© Copyright 2013 Gillian Steward, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca