Carney’s Energy Chief Pushes Oil Sands to Build Carbon-Capture Systems-OxBig News Network

(Bloomberg) — Canada’s new vitality minister mentioned it’s crucial to construct carbon-capture techniques for the oil sands and recognized crude and pure fuel exports as a serious precedence for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s authorities.

“Energy is Canada’s power,” Tim Hodgson, who was first elected to Parliament final month after a profession in finance, mentioned in a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Friday. 

“It gives us an opportunity to build the strongest economy in the G-7, guide the world in the right direction, and be strong when we show up at a negotiation table,” he mentioned, based on his ready remarks.

Hodgson’s speech sought to current a brand new strategy to Canada’s vitality business, which has typically complained of being unfairly focused by extreme regulation beneath the Trudeau authorities. The resentment has shaken Canada’s nationwide unity and opened the door for a long-shot secession referendum in oil-rich Alberta. 

Hodgson emphasised the necessity to get main tasks constructed shortly and pressured the significance of a spread of sectors, together with crucial minerals, electrical energy transmission, nuclear, biofuels and forestry.

But in a departure from how Canadian ministers typically spoke throughout Justin Trudeau’s time as prime minister, Hodgson put oil and fuel on the prime of his listing.

“The real challenge is not whether we produce, but whether we can get the best products to market before someone else does,” Hodgson mentioned. “We need infrastructure that gets our energy to tidewater and to trusted allies — diversifying beyond the US.”

But to be aggressive, Canada’s oil must be “produced responsibly,” he mentioned.

Carbon seize is essential to getting this completed, Hodgson mentioned, highlighting the Pathways Alliance mission that will see oil sands corporations associate on a carbon-capture system. Hodgson previously served on the board of a type of corporations, MEG Energy Corp.

He referred to as on each business and the Alberta authorities to work with him to get the mission constructed.

“We need to demonstrate to our customers outside the US, and to our fellow Canadians, that we are a responsible industry – and this government believes Pathways is critical to that reality,” he mentioned.

Pathways has spent months locked in talks over public funding for the carbon-capture system. Trudeau’s authorities created the Canada Growth Fund and gave it a mandate to barter contracts to ensure the worth of carbon credit, with the aim of offering funding certainty for the personal sector.

Although the Canada Growth Fund has signed some offers for carbon-capture techniques, it has been unable to safe an settlement with Pathways.

More broadly, Hodgson introduced himself as a bridge between the federal authorities in Ottawa and Alberta, noting that he grew up on the Prairies. 

“Like Johnny Cash sang – I’ve been everywhere, man,” Hodgson mentioned. “I want you to understand that I will be a voice for Alberta and Western Canada at the cabinet table.”

He pledged Carney’s authorities will goal to make Canada one economic system, not a sequence of separate regional ones, by infrastructure tasks and regulatory reforms akin to harmonizing carbon markets throughout the nation. 

“We will make Canada a true conventional and clean energy superpower,” he mentioned. “That is our promise.”

Rebecca Schulz, Alberta’s setting minister, welcomed the speech however cautioned that conflicts stay with the brand new authorities. 

“This is a very different tone than what we’ve heard from the federal Liberal government over the last 10 years,” she mentioned, however cited Trudeau-era insurance policies akin to web zero electrical energy guidelines and an oil and fuel emissions cap as lingering factors of friction. “If they really want to see quick wins, they’ll abandon some of those problematic and unconstitutional policies that they currently still have on the table.”

A brand new potential distinction additionally emerged when Hodgson talked about the necessity to “harmonize and link” carbon markets throughout Canada to assist cut back emissions. 

“That’s not what our industry has been asking for,” Schulz mentioned. “That’s quite problematic, especially given how linked it is to energy development and production, which of course is an area of provincial jurisdiction.”

(Updates with Alberta setting minister’s response within the 18th paragraph.)

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