While Obama Talks Sun, Wind power, Canada Touts Oil Sands as Key to U.S. Energy

[phuketbound]

TORONTO - On a day when Barack Obama spoke about the sun and wind powering cars and industry, Canada announced it's seeking a binational deal with the new U.S. president to co-ordinate both countries' environmental plans and supply America with the oil it needs.

Washington needs to be convinced that Alberta's oilsands are the answer to depleted oil reserves, Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who is also the minister responsible for pipelines, said Tuesday.



New environmental rules like a common cap-and-trade carbon market system, tougher fuel standards and targets to use more clean energy could be included in the "co-operative, bilateral approach to the environment and energy," Prentice said.


"Energy insecurity is the large and growing gorilla in the room," he said during a speech to a meeting of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
"Canada plays a pretty big role today but we have the capacity to play an even larger role in the North American energy solution."



Other possible environment initiatives could include joining forces to advance carbon capture and storage technology, expanding clean power generation and transmission capacity, and interconnecting the eastern and western regional power grids across the continent, he said. Prentice ensured the executives that the potential deal would "do no harm" to Canadian oil companies and that the government wants "to avoid measures that would cause (the companies) to be not just down, but also out."



Critics questioned how the MP for Calgary Centre-North could faithfully represent both the environment and pipeline portfolios at the same time.
"From what we've seen of our current government it seems like promoting dirty oil is one of their key foreign policy objectives," said Stephen Hazell, executive director of Sierra Club Canada.



"Prentice is the exact opposite of an environment minister, it seems to me."
The environmental group was among seven others to send a letter to Obama a week ago asking that he stay true to his campaign against "dirty oil" and think skeptically about claims of environmental stewardship in Alberta.
Last June, Obama said he believed that renewable energy was not "some pie-in-the-sky, far-off future" and warned against America's addiction to "dirty, dwindling and dangerously expensive" oil.



During his inauguration speech, he said: "We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories."
On Monday, Canada's ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson, suggested the perception of Canada as a purveyor of dirty oil is one of the biggest challenges the government faces with Obama's administration.



Prime Minister Stephen Harper also admitted during an interview last week that "we've got to do a better job environmentally. We hear a lot of pressure on that."
On Tuesday, Prentice defended Alberta's production in the oilsands as a "reality" and said renewable energy is still limited in how much it can replace dirtier forms of fuel.



"We're not going to eliminate the world's use of hydrocarbons in the short term. There'll continue to be a need for them and the oilsands provide a stable North American supply," Prentice said. "We need to make sure that's done in an environmentally responsible way but I think the reality is, for both Americans and Canadians, that source is important."
The oil industry has been working to improve its image with public outreach and a website to provide some context about its pollution record, which it admits could be better.



"What we're trying to do is get the facts out there, demonstrate that people are working on all aspects of the environmental issues around oilsands production, and conventional oil and gas," said Rick Hyndman, a senior policy adviser with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which operates

It's too early to know how eager the Obama administration will be in embracing the oilsands, but Hyndman said he's confident.



"It remains to be seen what policies come out of Washington and what their relative focus is (but) they're still going to need a lot of petroleum to run that economy and I think oilsands is a good source of that."

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I think the reality of using sun and wind power is something that takes time, and money.

Should Obama strike a deal with Canada on the oilsands to help run the economy?

[Jet Gorgon]

^ The tar sands projects aren't doing so well right now, what with low oil prices, the cost to extract and environmentalists whingeing on about pollution and eco stuff.

[Bugs]

The US has fairly large oil sands out west - Utah I think?

And if the US wants to go down that rout they might as well develop their oil shale as well.

Problem right now (and the main reason the US has not developed much along the way of alternative energy or tapped into our own energy sources), is that the price of oil is too low. Last year, and probably in the not too distant future when the price of oil was over $100 bbl then much of this was more realistic.

That being said, I really do hope that Obama does pump the cash into the development of alternative energy as well as moving towards the point were the US is less dependent on energy sources outside of North America. And yes, this includes getting the US back into the nuclear game.

An additional concern as it relates to oil sands and shale are the environmental impacts. Believe me I am anything but a tree hugger, but the world can not afford to continue to put environmental concerns at the general low priority that they have in the past.

[phuketbound]

^I agree with most of what you are saying.

Obama should make do of what he said he would in his speech. Alternative energy is something that everyone including Canada, needs to focus on. Short-term due to the economy I just don't see this possible. Obama will be meeting with the Canadian prime minister this week, and talking about these very issues. It will be interesting to see what happens in regards to the environment which is one of the issues on the table.