Just as Obama used the Keystone pipeline as a punching bag to pacify the extreme environmental movement while moving into an election, Joe Biden is doing the same. With a current world oil glut and plenty of American shale oil supplies on hand, Creepy Uncle Joe won’t be taking too much flack for blocking Canadian supplies of oil even if it will likely cost the American people billions once the lawsuits are settled. Electoral victory is far more important than economic reality in the world of federal American politics.
The efforts to shut in one of the most ethical oil providers on the planet have been incredibly successful. Justin Trudeau regulated Energy East to death and shut down the Northern Gateway pipeline and was richly rewarded for doing so by voters in Eastern Canada. They are happy enough to buy Saudi Arabian blood oil while virtue signalling through blocking Canadian oil.
Trudeau made such a mess of the Trans Mountain pipeline that he was forced to buy the project with Canadian tax dollars before yet another company could bail out of Canada. So far it remains questionable whether that pipeline will ever be built. Canada managed to let itself become held hostage by criminal blockaders for months over a legal and low impact gas line in BC. I really don’t see this nation having the balls to stand up to illegal protesters on the Trans Mountain.
Through efforts from Trudeau and Obama, the price differential of Albertan oil has been brutal. Due to our really only having one major customer, we are at the whim of that purchaser. They can cut the price we get for our oil as they know that we haven’t anywhere else to sell it in volume and we idiotically appear to be trying to keep it that way.
While the price of oil today is low, world demand for oil is still projected to grow for decades. We would be fools to shut in our resources at the demand of environmental extremists.
Not only will global oil demand be rising for decades, demand will be coming predominantly from India and China. The USA is a fading customer.
With increased pipeline capacity to the West coast, Alberta could wipe out that price differential for our oil within a few years as hungry, growing nations bid for our product and our deposits remain vast.
Anti-energy folks love to squack about how Alberta should be diversifying its economy away from oil and gas. Well, the best way to do so ironically would be to further develop and sell our oil and gas products. This is how we keep our taxes low and maintain a business friendly environment. That in turn is how we draw, develop and retain new and diverse enterprises. The millions of square feet of office space that Calgary is sitting on thanks to Nenshi’s taxation policies are a draw as well. We just need to get our economy rolling enough to look attractive again. In sitting on billions of barrels of oil, we can do that. We just need to get it to the damn customers.
Even if Trump wins and supports the Keystone line to its completion, we still will remain at the whim of the American government when it comes to our energy exports. No business can do well when they only have one client.
We will have to fight tooth and nail against Ottawa and anybody else who may stand in our way, but it must be done. We need to make pipelines to tidewater priority one and can’t accept any more delays.
Otherwise, we will remain economically enslaved to folks like the man pictured below.
