With gas prices soaring, Washington fighting for more oil and the US midterm elections around the corner, the appearance of Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenny before a U.S. Senate committee to offer oil to his province cannot come. at a better time.
The prime minister, who defended his province as a reliable source of energy for the United States, will address the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources today. He was invited by its chairman, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, a critical choice in the split Senate, who visited Alberta just over a month ago to tour the oil sands and meet with leaders and key players in the province’s oil industry. .
“This is definitely the right time to try to get the message across to the United States,” said Andrew Campbell, executive director of the Berkeley Haas Energy Institute.
“It’s hard to know if he will be receptive.”
It comes as demand for oil exceeds supply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced some Western countries to sever energy ties with Moscow, prompting the United States to consider looking for other oil suppliers, including unfriendly regimes such as Venezuela and Iran.
But it will take “years or decades” for a country like Venezuela to increase production, according to James Coleman, a professor of energy law at the Southern Methodist University in Texas.
Senator Joe Manchin, a critical choice in the divided Senate, recently visited Alberta to tour the oil sands and meet with leaders and other key players in the province’s oil industry. (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
“So, how much better is Canada?”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Biden officials are looking for ways to increase oil imports from Canada, but with one big warning – they do not want to resurrect the Keystone XL pipeline.
Shortly after taking the oath of office as president, Joe Biden fulfilled his campaign promise by signing an executive order to demolish the 1,897-kilometer pipeline as part of the administration’s efforts to combat climate change.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been in a position of greater influence over what exactly US energy policy is,” Coleman said. “Obviously we have an administration that came in at that time [Democrats] it seemed reasonably unified in terms of limiting oil and gas production.
“The first step was obviously the killing of Keystone XL. It’s just a very different time now.”
The Committee has an important role to play in energy expenditure and policy accounts.
A customer pumps gas at an Exxon gas station on May 10 in Miami. High gas and oil prices are expected to be a major problem for voters in the US midterm elections this fall. (Marta Lavandier / Associated Press)
“It’s one of the most bipartisan commissions and has been for a long time,” and that’s why it’s often a source of successful omnibus energy bills, Campbell said.
“This is the reputation of the commission. Both leading members on both sides tend to be at the center of their respective parties.”
The commission will also hear virtual testimony from Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. Natalie Camden, Quebec’s deputy minister of mines, and Electricity Canada president Francis Bradley are also due to testify.
Regarding energy policy, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is “not getting more influential,” according to Meriscott Greenwood, chief executive of the Canadian American Business Council in Washington, D.C., who is helping Alberta prepare for this trip to DC.
“On top of that, you have a chairman of the commission and a member of the ranking [Wyoming Republican John Barrasso] … together they are interested in hearing the Canadian commission, including the prime minister, “she said.
Despite the bipartisan nature of the committee, Republican members voiced support for Keystone, while almost all Democrats opposed it, except Manchin.
In fact, the West Virginia senator, who thwarted the Biden administration’s plans by rejecting a major spending bill, said canceling the pipeline was a mistake and considered rebranding it in some form.
But high gas and oil prices are a “major concern for voters” in this fall’s by-elections, which have so far been effective for Republicans in joining Democrats, said Christopher Sands, director of the Wilson Center Canada.
Kenny’s presentation to DC is “an opportunity for Democrats to soften their stance against fossils and perhaps improve their chances,” Sands said in an email to CBC News.
And unless interim mandates change the balance in the Senate, Biden and Democrats must have Manchin’s support, he said.
“What will they admit to get it?” This is where a visit to Kenny can be an opportunity: if Democrats see the service of Canada and Alberta as not the worst concession they could make … the hearing could be the beginning of some constructive negotiations, Sands said.
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