A Practical & Logical Canadian Energy Policy Benefits All Its Citizens...and the Planet - Cody Battershill - Canadian Energy News, Top Headlines, Commentaries, Features & Events

by Cody Battershill

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Canadians are accustomed to watching our American friends and business partners pretty closely. It comes with sharing a border with an economic powerhouse ten times our size.

On the other hand, most Americans lack much more than a superficial knowledge of our energy sector, often assuming OPEC countries are their largest oil supplier. Americans, we’re told, tend to look inward, and away from the country with which they share the world’s longest undefended border.

As a Canadian, businessperson and resource advocate based in Calgary, I can’t help but think we have to work harder to educate our neighbours about the mutual importance of the cross-border energy relationship. Americans generally express support for advancing environmental protection, energy security, for human rights, and for job creation in both countries. As partners, we have a lot to offer each other.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Canada is already the largest energy-related trading partner to the US, based on the combined value of energy exports and imports.

In short, Canada and the US are key energy allies. Keystone XL, which was recently scrubbed by the new administration of US President Joe Biden, could have further strengthened that relationship, since pre-covid global oil demand has increased by 10 million barrels per day since the Keystone XL project was first proposed and the United States is home to the largest concentration of heavy oil refining capacity in the world.

Yet the recent cancellation underlines the fact Canada simply must continue advancing its own pipeline infrastructure, including the Trans Mountain expansion project (TMX), currently under construction. Oil demand in Asia has continued to grow, in spite of the loss of the ill-fated Northern Gateway project. And oil imports to Canada have continued since Energy East, which could have displaced some of those imports, was cancelled.

My concern is Canada’s energy sector – and therefore Canadians themselves — are missing out. Keystone XL, Energy East and Northern Gateway are perfect examples of what happens when anti-pipeline groups successfully advance a fear-based narrative through misinformation and polarization, and then celebrate their so-called win while ignoring the big picture.

Every Canadian family should consider the cost to our social programs when we’re prevented from getting our energy products to global and more diverse markets. We miss opportunities because we lack control over our own destiny, and are unable to unlock the full value of our resources.

The loss of Keystone XL jeopardizes thousands of good jobs and, for five Indigenous communities, an ownership stake of about $785 million. That’s seen as devastating by many in Indigenous communities in Western Canada who already struggle, and it comes at a time when the industry is garnering progressively more positive feedback for its environmental commitments.

A recent study by life cycle analysts at Stanford University, University of Calgary and University of Toronto found upstream Canadian oilsands emissions intensities are significantly lower than previously reported – up to 35 percent, with more technological driven reductions to come.

Canada’s commitments to clean energy and climate action align well with our neighbours to the South. Canadian oil and gas companies are some of the largest investors in clean technology and environmental protection in the country, and they’re also constructing some of the wind, solar, biofuel, and other renewable R&D projects across the nation.

Similarly, Canada’s been the only top oil supplier to the USA with carbon pricing initiatives in place since 2007, and our resource companies are supporting electric vehicle initiatives across Canada. There’s no doubt Canada’s commitment to renewable energy is as solid as bedrock – and leads worldwide.

From a financial perspective, oil and gas pays much of the freight in the Canadian economy as our largest export. Between 2000 and 2018, the oil and gas sector also contributed nearly $500 billion to government revenues. Today it supports hundreds of thousands of jobs from coast to coast.

It’s no exaggeration to say Canada tops the world’s largest ten oil exporters on virtually every environmental, social and governance (ESG) metric. From the Sustainable Development Report published by Sustainable Development Solutions Network to the Women, Peace, and Security Index, of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the rankings are remarkably consistent.

Meanwhile, during a decade when Keystone XL and other projects have been cancelled, the US purchased hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from jurisdictions with inferior records of ESG performance.

My hope is these enormous advancements toward Indigenous reconciliation, emissions reductions and other Canadian ESG milestones can result in an even stronger Canada – US energy partnership as well as more diverse global markets for Canada — and the prosperity that follows.

But for that, we have to convince citizens here and elsewhere to view the bigger energy picture, one that will see oil remain a critical part of the global energy mix for decades to come with plenty of room for responsibly produced Canadian supply.

Cody Battershill is a Calgary realtor and founder / spokesperson for CanadaAction.ca, a volunteer-initiated group that supports Canadian energy development and the environmental, social and economic benefits that come with it.