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Stelmach will meet U.S. Speaker
News Articles | Edmonton Journal | Archie McLean | September 04, 2010
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Premier Ed Stelmach will meet next week in Ottawa with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to talk about the oilsands.
Pelosi, one of the most powerful lawmakers south of the border, is in Canada on Wednesday and Thursday for a summit of G8 speakers, but is making time for a series of meetings with energy players and environmentalists.
“It’s an opportunity for us to cut through some of the rhetoric that’s out there and the hype and get straight to the facts,” said Jerry Bellikka, a spokesman for the premier.
The province will detail efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of the oilsands, including investments in carbon capture and storage.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson invited Stelmach, as well as other premiers, including Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Quebec Premier Jean Charest.
Pelosi will be joined on her trip by at least two congressmen, including Rep. Ed Markey, the sponsor of a climate bill stalled in Congress.
The politics of energy and the environment are particularly contentious after the Gulf oil spill. The U.S. government is weighing the approval of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry product from the oilsands to American refineries.
Environmental groups have paid for billboards in a handful of American cities, urging tourists to rethink a trip to Alberta.
But the province has been active in Washington, lobbying politicians and others on the benefits of what the government says is a safe and stable supply of oil.
Pelosi won’t hear just one side of the oilsands story. She will also meet with First Nations representatives and environmentalists.
Marlo Raynolds, the executive director of the Pembina Institute, will be part of those meetings Thursday. He plans to tell Pelosi the oilsands may not be such a stable supply of petroleum without better environmental performance.
“If we try to grow the oilsands too fast and cause too much environmental harm, we are going to get a public backlash,” Raynolds said. “And that puts at risk oilsands development and it puts at risk energy security.”
As buyers of the oil, the Americans have a lot of influence over how it’s developed.
“The customer is always right,” Raynolds said.
