THE OILPATCH’S FAVOURITE GREENS.
THE OILPATCH CAN WORK WITH
After years of fighting the oilsands sector about its aggressive growth plans, environmental movement leader Ed Whittingham met with Murray Edwards, Canada’s billionaire oil entrepreneur, for the first time in late 2014.
It was not a pretty meeting. Anger and resentment had built up, the result of “an endless shouting match” between developers and environmentalists over the oilsands’ future and its impact on the climate, recalls Whittingham, executive director of the Pembina Institute, one of Canada’s most influential green organizations.
But both sides were also concerned they were going nowhere. Environmentalists were actively opposing the oilsands and proposed pipeline projects, but it wasn’t getting them the climate change policies they were after. And the industry wasn’t winning many battles either.
“And so in the time- honoured Canadian way, instead of throwing buns at each other, (we decided to) actually get in the room and talk it through,” Whittingham said in an interview at the group’s modest Calgary inner- city headquarters.
To be sure, Pembina had been as loud as the rest of the green movement. But it always had an edge on the anti- oilsands crowd: born and bred in Alberta, it had collaborated with industry for decades to improve environmental practices rather than demand its demise, had deep knowledge of the business based on science, and knew its way around executive offices. It meant great drama sometimes, but also made Pembina — and Whittingham by extension — the green group that industry could work with.
As former Suncor Energy Inc. executive and Alberta climate change panel member Gord Lambert put it: “It comes with the territory that tough debates and conflicts arise about our energy and environment future. But Pembina advocates effectively, is sought out for its opinion and helps everyone to be more aware of why differences exist and where opportunities for creative solu- tions might arise. That’s very important on what is often a polarized playing field.”
The resulting high- level talks between Whittingham and three other environmental leaders and Edwards, chairman and a top shareholder of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and the chief executives from Suncor, Shell Canada and Cenovus Energy Inc. culminated a year later in a compromise: the industry execs agreed to a cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the oilsands to 100 megatonnes a year, while the environmentalists agreed to back down on opposing pipelines.
The deal was incorporated into Alberta’s climate change leadership plan and announced by Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley last November.
It also put the spotlight squarely on Whittingham, 43, a former community theatre actor with a commanding stage presence who was instrumental in getting the two sides together.
Today, with most provincial governments and the federal Liberal government making cl i mate change policy a top priority, he and some of his Pembina colleagues are increasingly part of the establishment and working on solutions.
More aggressive activists, meanwhile, remain on the sidelines. Some have given Pembina grief for breaking ranks and continue to denounce export pipelines, much like the oil companies that didn’t participate in the talks have denounced the oilsands cap.
“Definitely, there is some tension in the environmental community, and there is a lot of tension within ( industry) as well,” Whittingham said. “We all have scars to show for that. It’s about taking a stand on something.”
In addition to his role on the oilsands emissions cap, Whittingham co- chaired a technical group with Greg Stringham, former head of oilsands at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, as part of the Alberta government’s climate change plan consultation process. He is also providing feedback to the federal government on its climate change plan and is on a World Economic Forum advisory council looking at the future of the oil and gas industry.
Whittingham acknowledges these are good times to be an environmentalist, and Pembina staffers, past and present, are getting important positions.
Jesse Row left Pembina to be the executive director of the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance. Matt Horne, Pembina’s associate director in British Columbia, is on Premier Christy Clark’s climate leadership plan team. Marlo Reynolds, a former executive director and senior adviser at Pembina, was hired as chief of staff by Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna.
“In Canada, the policy window on energy and environment issues doesn’t open often, but when it does, it tends to be wide open, and there is a lot you can get done before it slams shut,” he said. “It’s a really exciting time for all the actors across the sector — industry, academia, NGOs, First Nations — to be working on this issue. ( It’s) once in a lifetime.”
Whittington reckons the window will stay open for the next 12 to 24 months. As tough as conditions are for oil and gas now, he said it’s also a time of new thinking and renewal, which is a good thing.
“I think you are going to see a lot of strategies from some of the big players shift in the next few years, and I think it’s very healthy,” he said.
Like the corporate world, the environmental movement is made up of players, big and small, competing for funds, hearts and minds. Many of those focused on fossil fuels see the oil industry as public enemy No. 1 and aggressively undermine it. They include 350.org and Oil Change International, both based in the U.S. and active in Canada.
Pembina would rather work with business and governments to push for improvements. It also be- lieves fossil fuels will be a part of the economy for a long time and will be needed as the world transitions to cleaner energy sources. But it’s no pushover and won’t shy away from advocating stretch targets, whether in the oilsands or liquefied natural gas, carbon taxes or greenhouse gas emissions.
Less progressive in the oil industry stay at arm’s length, as they see Pembina as part of the enemy camp, but Whittingham said it would have been hard for those climate change discussions in Alberta to happen in the absence of the right relationships that the organization has developed over many years with oil and gas players, especially the biggest ones.
“It’s ultimately people who trust people,” he said. “The work we do with the oil and gas industry, especially in (Alberta), has us spend a lot of time with key executives right up to the highest levels. That was very useful.”
Edwards, though, was among the harder ones to win over. A billionaire among the millionaires, much of his capital is on the line and his company had never really presented itself as a green leader.
But as the talks went on, he came around, understanding that he couldn’t keep ignoring climate change, or climate and environmental policy, Whittingham said.
Like the other oilpatch leaders, Edwards joined Notley on stage in November to show support for the climate change plan.
“I still, from time to time, sit around the table with Murray, but I wouldn’t dare call myself a friend,” Whittingham said. “I don’t know him well, but from what I have learned, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.”
The discussions also changed perceptions of the oil industry among the environmentalists in the room. The two sides discovered they had mutual interests and goals: both wanted a prosperous Canada and both wanted meaningful action on climate.
“It stopped them in their tracks,” he said. “They didn’t expect that.”
Lambert called Whittingham “a great listener and thoughtful contributor. He has established constructive relationships with industry at the company and sector level, governments across Canada, other environment groups, opinion leaders and with think tanks.”
It certainly helps that Whittingham understands business.
Born in Newmarket, Ont., he did his undergraduate degree in East Asian Studies at McGill University in Montreal, spent a year studying in Japan, and planned to attend graduate school to become a diplomat.
But a detour to Banff, Alta., put him on a different track. He fell in love with the mountains, took up work as a guide for Japanese tourists and got involved in the conservation movement.
His entry point was a community theatre group that staged plays in support of the environment. In exchange for room and board, Whittingham acted, produced, directed plays and sewed costumes.
One of his big causes was to stop construction of a convention centre at Chateau Lake Louise, the iconic hotel on the shore of the emerald-tinted lake in Banff National Park.
In the thick of it, he flew to Toronto to meet with Bill Fatt, then chief executive of Fairmont Hotels, to make his argument. He came out of the meeting realizing he’d lost because he didn’t understand what motivates and drives business.
“Walking out of that meeting, I said I need to learn more about business. And at that moment, I set out to do an MBA. Ironically, I chose the same school that Bill Fatt went to, the Schulich School of Business” at York University.
Whittingham has run the Pembina Institute since 2011. Today it has 47 employees, almost all of them full time. The group’s birthplace was Drayton Valley, in central Alberta, where a group of residents in the early 1980s united to force a public inquiry into the blowout of an Amoco Canada sour gas well along the Pembina River.
They felt the emergency response was inadequate and that authorities downplayed the health and environmental impacts. The inquiry produced a series of recommendations that resulted in safer drilling.
From its early days, Pembina believed that “common ground existed with some players in the energy industry who sought higher standards of practice, and could see a bigger-picture competitive advantage to taking public involvement and environmental protection seriously and getting it right,” it said on its website.
With a budget of roughly $ 4.4 million, the group derives about a third of its revenue from consulting services, and the rest largely from foundations in Canada and elsewhere. In addition to Calgary, it has offices in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver, each employing communicators, consulting specialists and policy analysts advocating improvements appropriate for their areas.
The oilsands compromise Whittingham helped strike remains controversial, with many of those who did not participate in the talks, whether oilsands players or environmental organizations, fighting it or ignoring it. The government has yet to announce how it will administer it.
But Whittingham believes the perception of Alberta has changed for the better. Protests, lawsuits, celebrity tours against the oilsands are on the wane, replaced by a “constructive phase” about getting policy right. Even the federal NDP’s embrace of the inflammatory Leap Manifesto, which calls for keeping fossil fuels in the ground and barring new pipelines, doesn’t worry him, as it will mean more reliance on Pembina’s science- based, constructive approach.
DEFINITELY, THERE IS SOME TENSION IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITY, AND THERE IS A LOT OF TENSION WITHIN (INDUSTRY) AS WELL. WE ALL HAVE SCARS TO SHOW FOR THAT.
— Executive director Ed Whittingham of the Pembina I nstitute