U.S. oil thirst seen threatening Canada's supply

U.S. oil thirst seen threatening Canada's supply


Archie McLean, Edmonton Journal
Published: Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Canada needs a new oil sands strategy to protect itself from the United States’ unquenchable thirst for oil, a new report says.

The report, released today by a trio of left-leaning research organization, warns that Canada’s ballooning oil and natural gas exports to the United States threatens energy supplies for Canadian citizens.

“This is a matter of survival for Canada,” said Gordon Laxer, director of the Parkland Institute, one of the sponsors of the study.

It proposes a five-year suspension of oil sands development to allow for a more planned approach.

The flurry of multi-billion-dollar oil sands projects in northern Alberta have been criticized for not providing for the social needs of people in communities like Fort McMurray, which is facing the highest housing prices in Canada and a shortage of other services because of unprecedented growth.

The report, titled Fuelling Fortress America: A Report on the Athabasca Tar Sands and U.S. Demands for Canada’s Energy, outlines the social, environmental and economic costs of continuing current levels of oilands development.

It says Canada is risking it’s energy self sufficiency by increasing exports to the U.S.

But Alberta Energy Minister Greg Melchin denied that claim.

He said Alberta and Canada are not sacrificing energy security in any way with.

He said trade in energy has done nothing but benefit the province.

“There’s such a massive amount of undeveloped oil and gas and coal in the world,” he said. “We’ve only produced a very small percentage of it.”

But he said Alberta would tighten exports to the U.S. if domestic oil and gas supplies were threatened.

“We have the resources,” he said. “If there ever came really a question that we were at risk of not being able to supply our own energy needs, then you would take different directions - you would implement potentially different policies and we have the latitude over those issues.”

Melchin said Alberta has oil, gas and coal supplies that would last for centuries even with increasing exports to the U.S.

Other forms of renewable energy will eventually be developed, he added.

Among the report’s recommendations are:

-A five-year moratorium on further oil sands development.

-Increasing royalties on oil sands development and production.

-A moratorium on the MacKenzie gas pipeline until environmental concerns and aboriginal land claims are settled.

The Journal’s Archie McLean will have a full report on the study in Wednesday’s Journal.