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There’s plenty of uncertainty in the world, so perhaps there’s a strange comfort in any kind of stability.
It might be hard to discern at first, but that does exist in Alberta.
The United Conservative Party has never pretended to be anything but a significant booster of the oil and gas industry and has shown it is willing to actively suppress technologies that could hamper that sector’s growth — most notably with its recent pause and ensuing restrictions on renewable energy.
It has also demonstrated it is willing to directly intervene and take control of more levers of power to achieve its ends, whether through political intervention in independent agencies or inserting itself more directly into the economy.
All of those signals have been evident during the past week (and then some) as the government unveiled a budget with promised tax cuts despite a gloomy economic outlook and deficits, also increasing its own direct sales of oil and gas.
Oh, and it wants to allow kids as young as 12 to shoot guns without grownups present. That was unexpected. Or was it?
Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean were down in Texas last week to promote the province’s favoured industry at an annual gathering of fossil fuel heavyweights.
While there, the government announced it has recalculated its gas reserves, putting Canada in ninth place for global reserves, from its previous perch at 15th.
According to the government, the new data doubles the province’s natural gas reserves.
The government also says it has found an additional seven billion barrels of oil. Which seems like a lot.
“Alberta’s global ranking for oil has not changed, however the increase of seven billion additional proved barrels does result in extending the province’s total years of overall oil supply to 137 years,” the government said in a release.
The study was commissioned by the Alberta Energy Regulator and undertaken by McDaniel and Associates Consultants, which said the work isn’t quite finished and there could be more reserves than its current estimates.
That’s all good news if you’re a government looking to directly sell the stuff. And as luck would have it…
The Alberta government has long collected barrels of oil in place of royalties, stockpiling and selling oil on the market through the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission.
But until recently, that was conventional oil. Now the province is getting into the heavy oil market as well, which it says will make it a “significant player in the global oil market” and enable it to “obtain the top prices for oil resources.”
The government boldly claims it will spur private investment, increase the need for new pipelines and, with a not-so-subtle nod to the chaos down south, the ability to diversify markets.
The announcement by the province also said Smith met with an undisclosed “global oil and petrochemical multinational” to talk about maybe selling some of Alberta’s public oil.
The government claims that would involve “the overseas transport and sale of approximately two million barrels per month” of government-owned heavy oil.
The move is the latest in a series of government interventions in the oil and gas economy as it seeks to double oil production. Earlier this year, Alberta said it was working with Enbridge to push for more pipeline construction to spur and/or accommodate that hoped-for gush.
Which could explain a thing or two about its staunch opposition to the federal government’s planned emissions cap, if that’s still a thing under the new guy.
The federal government’s emissions cap has been a boogeyman in Alberta since it first appeared as a mere wistful look in then-environment minister Steven Guilbeaut’s eyes. The provincial government has labelled it a production cap and an attack on the oil and gas industry.
That cap is back in the news following a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office, which says growth in the oil and gas sector will slow down as a result.
Or, as the Alberta government puts it: a “scathing analysis” that says an emissions cap will cause oil and gas production to drop by five per cent.
The report actually says production will be 11 per cent higher, just not as high as it could be if the oil and gas sector did not have to keep emissions below a maximum threshold.
The government says the cap will “eliminate 54,400 jobs from Canada’s economy and cut $20 billion from our GDP by 2032, all while global emissions increase at the same time.”
Another view on the issue comes from the Pembina Institute, which says the analysis presumes oil and gas companies do not invest in emissions-reduction technology as promised.
“Instead, it assumes that companies choose to not produce as much oil and gas instead of investing in technology that would cut emissions in the future,” Janetta McKenzie, the director of Pembina’s oil and gas program, said in a statement.
That same statement outlined billions in public dollars earmarked for those sorts of technologies and says the analysis is only correct if the Pathways Alliance — a consortium of the largest oilsands producers — does not invest billions in carbon capture and storage as it has vowed to do.
The whole spat might be for naught, depending on the new prime minister who was sworn in on Friday, or whoever wins the upcoming federal election. The province called on whomever that is to scrap this legislation, and, of course, pointed to the chaos down south as justification for abandoning emissions targets and expanding production.
At least if that happens, there could be the opportunity for freedom-loving Alberta children to fire off some shots into the air in celebration.
Hunting has become a recurring theme in Alberta all of a sudden, and that’s not about to change.
The government announced changes to hunting policies last week, including helping to improve access for hunters with disabilities. There’s a lot in there that will have to be properly parsed, including wildlife management changes and residency requirements for some hunters. But there’s also one tantalizing little bit in the new legislation that wasn’t in the government’s news release subject line: kids with guns.
The legislation would allow children as young as 12 to use guns without adults around, ensuring we’re ahead of any changes required for American statehood.
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