Canada Should Focus On Increasing Its Oil Exports

The conflict in Ukraine is being referenced as a case study by both sides of the Canadian fossil fuel debate.

Oil and gas industry supporters are using Russia’s invasion of a sovereign European country as evidence that Canada must expand its domestic fossil fuel production if it wants to maintain energy security.

After the crisis in Ukraine, Canada’s main oil and gas lobby group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), urged the federal government this week to “clear commitment” to increase Canadian oil and gas production and exports.

According to CAPP president Tim McMillan, Canadian and other western governments’ environmental and climate change policies have caused significant oil and gas projects to be delayed or cancelled in recent years.

Some of these projects, like the proposed Énergie Saguenay LNG facility in Quebec, would have linked Canadian energy to European consumers, reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian supply, McMillan says.

“Over the last decade, issues like energy security and country of supply have not been very high on the public’s radar,” he said that a stronger role in global energy supply is something that Canadian producers are ready for. “If we act on what we now know, we can build the infrastructure to make this a far more stable world.”

An expert on Canadian foreign policy at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute think tank in Ottawa and Calgary, Richard Norris believes there is a segment of the Canadian public that is opposed to increasing fossil fuel production, while another segment understands that more Canadian oil and gas is needed in the world.

“We’re going to see increasing inflation driven by a lack of energy policy at a global level,” Norris said. “That is the problem we’re going to come up against. And I think a lot of countries are going to start doing that math.”

Original source material for this article taken from here