Trudeau balances oil, environment in the heart of U.S. oil country

HOUSTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in the heart of the U.S. oilpatch to make the case for investing in Canadian natural resources — while protecting the environment — at an influential global gathering of politicians and oil and gas executives.

“We need to build stronger economies and economic opportunities for citizens while at the same time protecting the environment and thinking about the jobs of the next generations from now as well,” Trudeau said Thursday in Houston as he sat down with business leaders for a roundtable on the future of energy.

The two-day trip is the first time a Canadian prime minister has attended the annual CERA Week conference, which brings more than 3,000 people — including legislators, energy executives, innovators and experts — from around the world. Trudeau was to talk up the connection between resource development and taking care of the environment during Thursday night’s keynote speech. The conference is also giving him an award for his stance in favour of sustainable development.

A question-and-answer session with Daniel Yergin, the vice-chairman of IHS Markit, the Londonbased research firm that organizes the conference, was to follow the speech. The visit comes at a time when the energy industry, buoyed by a recent resurgence in the price of oil, and governments around the world are grappling with a dramatic shift in American politics.

Barack Obama, the former U.S. president, had emphasized the global fight against climate change as he neared the end of his time in the White House. That position aligned smoothly with Trudeau’s commitment to transition to a low-carbon economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump, has vowed to boost fossil fuel production through easing regulations and building more pipelines, including the Keystone XL pipeline project that Trans Canada proposed nearly a decade ago.

That pipeline, which the Liberal government supports, could bring Canadian jobs and help for the struggling Alberta economy.

But Trump’s anti-regulation and tough-on-trade approach could also challenge Trudeau’s vision for a clean-energy future and the carbon-pricing plan he says will help bring it about.

Conservative MP Mark Strahl, the party’s natural resources critic, said he wanted Trudeau to send a strong signal to international investors that the Canadian oilsands are still a good place to put their money for the long haul.

“We need to do everything we can to attract [foreign investment],” said Strahl, also in Houston for the conference.

The Conservatives have been highly critical of the Liberal plan to set a national price on carbon — beginning at $10 per tonne in 2018 — and to require all provinces and territories to have some form of carbon pricing in place by then.

That’s frightening international investors away, Strahl suggested.