Canadian premiers strike deal on energy strategy

Canada’s provincial premiers have reached an agreement on a national strategy designed to support the country’s energy industry. 

The Globe and Mail reported Friday that the deal balances some premiers’ desire to focus on environmental issues with others’ support for expanding oil and gas extraction from Alberta’s oil sands region. 

{mosads}The agreement calls on the country’s provinces to “strive to move toward a lower carbon economy” and sets out “some options for pricing carbon and ways of getting there,” though it doesn’t set hard greenhouse gas reduction targets.

It also notes that the nation is a major energy producer, especially in the oil and gas industry, and it details how to move those products throughout the country via pipeline. 

The document also details what regulations provinces such as Alberta must follow to open up access to new markets besides the United States, the country’s biggest energy trading partner. 

“We have a path to pursue two critical national priorities — how are we going to keep building our energy industry and how are we going to address climate change?” an Alberta official told the newspaper.

A Canada-wide energy strategy was originally proposed by former Alberta Premier Alison Redford to help her province’s oil industry. Redford’s party, the Progressive Conservatives, lost power in Alberta in May when voters installed a left-leaning government that has already taken steps toward more environmentally friendly policies the province.

The final energy strategy wasn’t sufficient for some green groups. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) called the agreement “tepid” and said Canada should move away from the oil industry. 

“Facilitating pipelines means committing to expand tar sands development, which is utterly inconsistent with Canada’s professed commitment to join the international community in combatting climate change,” Anthony Swift, the director of the NRDC’s Canada Project, said. 

“Canada needs to reduce, not increase, its carbon pollution. And that calls for a serious commitment from every province to make absolute reductions in carbon emissions.”