CAPP courts B.C. with new sales pitch
Less talk, more listening, and a brand new office in Vancouver
In an era of collapsed oil prices and suspended projects in Alberta’s oilsands, the industry’s key lobby group argues new pipelines to the West Coast are needed more than ever.
And in a renewed sales pitch to British Columbians, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers promises it will talk less and listen more, starting with opening an office in Vancouver, said CEO Tim McMillan.
“Coming from a political background, I think listening to Canadians is important,” said McMillan, a former cabinet minister in the government of Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.
McMillan said lower global oil prices make the price differential between what landlocked Canadian producers have to accept and world prices a bigger part of the industry’s overall economics, “so pipeline capacity, in many senses, is more crucial today, if we want to be competitive.”
CAPP is looking for new ways to bring its message to British Columbians at the same time the industry faces uncertainty over a promised review of royalties and tax changes by Alberta’s new NDP government.
However B.C., the scene of highprofile protests over both Enbridge Inc.’s $7.9 billion Northern Gateway pipeline proposal and Kinder Morgan’s $5.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion, might prove to be more challenging ground at a time other jurisdictions, such as the European Union, are making bigger commitments to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
McMillan said the industry’s challenges in building pipelines for offshore exports are still “often political, or public acceptance,” but on balance, CAPP’s internal polling tells him about 40 per cent of Canadians are generally supportive of energy projects.
The same surveys indicate 25 per cent of the population opposes energy projects, with 33 per cent who are “disengaged.”
“I think trying to engage that middle group is crucial,” McMillan said. CAPP is attempting to do that with more outreach, and he claims the organization has been able to shift more of the disengaged toward support in other provinces.
“Part of our challenge is linking areas that know us really well with areas that don’t.”
CAPP’s engagement team has been on the road meeting with local chambers of commerce and sponsoring events “you normally wouldn’t associate with an energy company,” said Lee Coonfer, CAPP’s B.C. outreach adviser, including upcoming Canada Day celebrations at Canada Place in downtown Vancouver.
Their efforts are linked to a national campaign called Canada’s Energy Citizens.
Their message is that oilsands producers do share values about developing the resource sustainably and transporting it safely, and that “we’re all better off if we develop our resources responsibly,” McMillan said.
Part of demonstrating that, he added, is a culture of “continuous improvement” that has seen producers reduce by 30 per cent, compared with the 1990s, the emissions generated to produce a barrel of oilsands oil, and recycle 95 per cent of the water they use.
From the other side, University of B.C. resource-policy expert George Hoberg is doubtful reducing emissions wins the industry much support when projected expansion of oilsands production is expected to dramatically increase overall emissions from the sector.
“The atmosphere doesn’t really care about emissions rates,” said Hoberg, a professor in UBC’s faculty of forestry. “The atmosphere cares about how much carbon we’re dumping into it.”
Hoberg also questions whether engagement campaigns, such as CAPP’s Canada’s Energy Citizen campaign, will gain it much trac- tion either.
Hoberg argues Canada’s energy industry has been losing social and market license due to its poor track record on the climate issue, which makes it harder for companies to pursue projects such as TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline proposal and the Trans Mountain Expansion.
The world’s energy sector was unprepared for the collapse of oil prices over the last year, which saw prices fall from the range of US$120 per barrel to about $60 today, Hoberg said, and Canada’s oilsands — which produce more emissions than conventional oil at a higher cost — have a particular problem.
Both of those downsides make Canada’s industry more challenging in an environment of lower oil prices; meanwhile, other countries are adopting renewable energy in a bigger way.
“There has been so much focus on the oilsand sector and the world is just moving beyond us,” Hoberg said.
“There is dramatic growth in renewable energy production throughout the world, and we have great renewable resources here in Canada. But we’re letting them atrophy because we’re spending so much time trying to get bitumen to tidewater.”
The atmosphere doesn’t really care about emissions rates. The atmosphere cares about how much carbon we’re dumping into it.