Kyoto sparks fear,loathing in Canada oil heartland
Date: 07-Oct-02
Country: CANADA
Author: Jeffrey Jones
But the arguments, over the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, are on the western front this time, and not in Quebec, where a push by French-speaking Quebecers to create their own nation long created painful divisions.
The wealthy oil-rich province of Alberta, led by Conservative Premier Ralph Klein, says Kyoto's tough rules on the environment could devastate its oil industry, and it vows to fight the protocol every step of the way.
It has threatened court action and even raised the specter of separation, despite opinion polls that show most Canadians support the international climate change treaty.
Klein and a battalion of oil and business executives charge that Ottawa has no plan to meet Kyoto commitments, has not consulted adequately and will push billions of dollars of energy investment out of Canada to countries not bound by the accord.
The pugnacious Klein made waves this week with published remarks that Albertans were not ready to leave Canada over Kyoto, but he warned, "don't push us too hard."
He later softened his comments in a statement saying his government will not consider separation and that support for such a move is limited to "relatively few Albertans." But he said separatist sentiment would grow if Kyoto is ratified.
Under Kyoto, which Prime Minister Jean Chretien promises to put to a vote in Parliament this year, Canada is committed to cutting emissions of such gases as carbon dioxide and methane by 6 percent under 1990 levels by 2012. Such emissions are largely caused by the production and burning of fossil fuels.
But Parliament's role is only consultative and it will be up to Chretien to decide if and when to ratify it.
Alberta and its energy interests say they are concerned about climate change. But they say Canadian industry will bear the costs of cuts and its competitiveness will suffer, especially since the main buyer of Canada's oil and gas, the United States, has backed out of Kyoto.
OIL BARONS ON THE WARPATH
Oilmen like EnCana Corp. chief executive Gwyn Morgan and Nexen Inc. CEO Charlie Fischer have warned they may scale back big-ticket energy investments in Canada.
These are chilling thoughts for a province that derives one-third of its revenues from nonrenewable resources.
Environmental groups, meanwhile, decry Alberta's tough talk as fear-mongering, saying Canada's economy will actually benefit from increased energy efficiency and new technology.
Klein's has set up an anti-Kyoto advisory committee led by a veteran of battles with Ottawa, Peter Lougheed, who was Alberta's premier from 1971-1985.
The blue-ribbon group of business and government leaders will advise Klein's troops on Kyoto's impact and possible responses like legal action and new laws to "protect" Alberta.
It will also try to spread the message that all of Canada will suffer under Kyoto and a less-stringent "made-in-Canada" solution to cutting emissions is the way to go.
Lougheed earned his stripes fighting the Liberal government of then prime minister Pierre Trudeau over the 1980 National Energy Program (NEP) that regulated domestic oil prices, taxed revenues and sent foreign oil interests fleeing just as world crude prices were sinking.
The hated policy stirred separatist rumblings that still linger on the fringe of the province where oil is a way of life. Now some are calling Kyoto NEP II.
Lougheed dismissed polls showing that even most Albertans favor ratification, saying there was no way to understand the implications without a plan from Ottawa. The situation was similar when the NEP was first proposed amid the oil price shocks of the 1970s, he said.
"We had our work cut out for us - we had to turn that public opinion around. It took us about a year but we did turn it around, both in Alberta and in Canada," he said.
Chretien said his government has consulted with all regions since signing Kyoto in 1997, and will have costs assessed when federal and provincial