Environmental policy makers in United States president Barack Obama's new cabinet – referred to as the "Green Team" – will most likely pursue an agenda that will negatively affect Canada's planned efforts to ramp up energy production and exports, according to a Fraser Institute report released this morning.
The report, Obama's Green Team 2.0: Implications for Canadian Energy and Environmental Policy, argues that the team will take positions on three core issues – climate change, green energy and fracking – that will directly affect Canada's energy plans.
One of the co-authors of the report, Fraser Institute senior director of natural resources Kenneth P. Green, said that the planned environmental regulations in the U.S. are highly restrictive and will lead to Canadian energy producers facing new hurdles. This is due to Canada's policy of harmonizing its environmental regulations with those of the U.S. through NAFTA.
"Obama's new 'Green Team' is expected to maintain the policy playbook from the President's first term: pushing for more aggressive environmental regulations, faster expansion of the renewable energy sector, and heavier regulations on natural gas production via fracking," said Green.
"Because the U.S. consumes virtually all of Canada's energy exports, such policies are a blow to Canada's energy export ambitions, including the Keystone XL pipeline."
Green also argues that one of the biggest risks that will result from the U.S.'s stance on environmental issues will be that it leads to a boom in U.S. oil and gas production – leading to decreased demand for Canadian product.
"U.S.-based environmental groups are already using the energy self-sufficiency argument to campaign against increasing Canadian access to American markets via the Keystone XL pipeline," Green said.
