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In a report titled The Canadian Oilsands: Energy Security vs. Climate Change, the Council on Foreign Relations: Center for Geoeconomic Studies presented a chart showing the average per-barrel emissions relative to the average barrel consumed in the U.S., showing that indeed, Canadian oil has a higher emissions toll. However, where it is detrimental to climate change, it is enhancing to energy security, and the report concludes with a policy proposal to balance these two issues.

Source: The Council on Foreign Relations: Center for Geoeconomic Studies (more…)

A multibillion-dollar question about the oil sands has been answered with an industrial paint-by-numbers counterpart to the proverbial picture that’s worth a thousand words. Why will exports of Alberta’s crudest product, bitumen, grow despite provincial efforts to snare maximum revenue, investment, jobs and taxes by luring new plants for turning tar to black gold into the budding upgrader alley northeast of Edmonton? (more…)

Scales Capitol Hill

The largest trade delegation in Alberta history visited Washington in mid-January, with public policy events on Capitol Hill and a business session at the historic Mayflower Hotel. The delegates sought to advance cross-border trade ties and highlight the mutual benefits of the long-standing economic relationship between Canada’s fastest growing province and its largest foreign trading partner. (more…)

Oil production at a crossroads

The liberalization of Mexico’s nationalized oil sector is more than just a sectoral or economic concern: its success or failure presents deep implications for both the political stability of Mexico and the economic health of its powerful neighbor to the north. So how to stave off failure? As newly-elected conservative Mexican President Felipe Calderón and U.S. President George W. Bush searched in Mexico City for some kind of grand bargain on oil and immigration this past March, the governments of Alberta and Mexico signed an energy cooperation agreement that could well position Alberta’s private and public sectors at the forefront of efforts to revitalize Mexico’s energy industry – particularly if both Calderón and Bush deliver on their joint commitments. From Washington, D.C., Paul Michael Wihbey provides this take on what the agreement could mean for struggling Mexican and ever-growing Albertan O&G alike. (more…)

That support for the Bush administration has waved in step with world oil prices only raises the question: how long can the responsibility for runaway consumption be deflected by focusing on the world’s energy producers? (more…)