Increasing North American Energy Security (2004)
FORGING NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY SECURITY
Monterrey, April 1-2, 2004
EXCERPT:
Bob Taylor
Assistant Deputy Minister, Oil Development Division, Department of Energy, Alberta
During 30 years working in industry, Bob touched most aspects of the exploration and production business from offshore drilling and production operations through to managing the full spectrum of oil and gas activities in Alberta. His last industry role was leading a major oil growth initiative in Alberta’s oil sands. Bob Taylor joined the Department of Energy as Assistant Deputy Minister in May 2000, leading Business Units responsible for Oil Sands, Conventional Oil, Resource Land Access and Energy & Aboriginal Relationships. He is a professional engineer and sits on the board of directors of the Alberta Energy Research Institute and the Canadian Energy Research Institute.
ABSTRACT
Alberta’s Role as Reliable Energy Source and Hub
The province of Alberta has been the main source of conventional oil and gas from western Canada for the last 50 years and continues to be a significant supplier of natural gas to both Canada and the U.S. In recent years, production of bitumen-derived crude from Alberta’s oil sands has been increasingly important, with production recently surpassing that of conventional crude. As natural gas from Arctic sources is pipelined south, the existing Alberta pipeline hub will be a natural distribution node for North America. Continued growth of production from the oil sands will create a similar oil hub in Alberta providing products ranging from diluted bitumen through petrochemical feedstock. To ensure the integrity of these supplies to North America, Alberta has been pro-active in developing plans regarding the physical security of the related assets.
What questions should Alberta Premier Danielle Smith be asked about her true motives in planning to take Alberta out of Confederation? In a podcast with Jordan Peterson, Smith said a “coalition of the willing” would be formed of western provinces and northern American states. Smith also declared that all the provinces should be “prepared” “to follow Quebec” out of Confederation into a “more European” system. That sounds like a step toward North American Union, which makes Danielle Smith a chief instigator of the dismantling of Canada to complete this liberal project.
How have Smith and the Liberals played the good cop/bad cop script over Alberta’s oil and gas in order to give Smith a pretext to “secede” from Canada to facilitate the full integration of Canada’s dismantled remains, and the full realization of Alberta’s role in the energy picture of North American Union painted above by Bob Taylor?