Alberta and Ottawa tout a grand bargain on 'decarbonized' oil but some are skeptical
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OTTAWA — 'Grand bargain' was the phrase of the day on Parliament Hill after Prime Minister Mark Carney and his provincial counterparts found common ground on oil and gas development.
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'If (the Conservatives) were listening to yesterday, there is a grand bargain,' Energy Minister Tim Hodgson boasted to the Opposition benches.
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'There is a bargain that the premier of Alberta has signed onto.'
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith left Monday's first ministers' meeting with a new deal exchanging oil sands access to coastal waters for massive investments in decarbonization technologies, but experts warn this could be a costly pipe dream.
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'I'm worried we're seeing (the first ministers) fall into a trap of wanting to have their cake and eat it too,' said Tim McMillan, a partner at Garrison Strategy and the former head of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
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'Let's call it the grand bargain,' Smith told reporters in Saskatoon, referring to the idea of twinning new pipeline proposals with large-scale decarbonization projects.
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Carney said Monday that he'd consider fast-tracking a new oil pipeline to the West Coast if it shipped 'decarbonized barrels' to new markets.
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'There's real potential there (and), if further developed, the federal government will look to advance it,' said Carney.
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But McMillan says the devil could be in the details.
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'I don't know exactly what they're talking about with decarbonization, but… it may be linked to carbon capture, which does not increase our exports (or) investability,' said McMillan.
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The Calgary-based Pathways Alliance, a group of six major oil sands producers, has put forward a $16.5-billion decarbonization network that would reroute carbon emissions from nearly two dozen facilities to an underground hub near Cold Lake, Alta.
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