Commentary
There may not be a private investor in sight yet to build a new bitumen pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast, but Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney have invested a great deal of political capital into the concept. The signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Alberta and Ottawa doesn’t guarantee that a pipeline will be built, but it offers a glimmer of hope to proponents that hasn’t been visible in nearly a decade.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made battling climate change a hallmark of his administration. While he never outright banned new pipelines, he imposed layers of regulation that made it clear that no pipeline would be economically feasible in Canada. Between the tanker ban on B.C.’s northern coast, an emissions cap on oil and gas development, and the Impact Assessment Act (dubbed the No More Pipelines Act), investment in Alberta’s conventional energy industry was chilled….