{"id":41318,"date":"2018-12-05T09:01:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41318"},"modified":"2018-12-05T09:01:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:01:39","slug":"albertas-problem-isnt-pipelines-its-bad-policy-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41318","title":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s Problem Isn\u2019t Pipelines; It\u2019s Bad Policy Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2018\/11\/23\/Alberta-Policy-Problems\/\">Alberta\u2019s Problem Isn\u2019t Pipelines; It\u2019s Bad Policy Decisions<\/a><\/h3>\n<p data-bind=\"teaser\"><strong>Bitumen prices are low because the province has ignored at least a decade of warnings.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2018\/11\/23\/COVER.Oilsands.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Notley in front of an oil rig\" width=\"960\" height=\"573\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">In 2007, an Alberta government warned that bitumen prices could eventually fall so low that the government\u2019s royalty revenues \u2014 critical for its budget \u2014 would be at risk. <span class=\"caption__media--credit\">Photo via Government of Alberta.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p>The Alberta government has known for more than a decade that its oilsands policies were setting the stage for today\u2019s price crisis.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside hide-on-narrow-vp\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\"><\/aside>\n<p>Which makes it hard to take the current government seriously when it tries to blame everyone from environmentalists to other provinces for what is a self-inflicted economic problem.<\/p>\n<p>In 2007, a government <a href=\"http:\/\/www.andrewnikiforuk.com\/Dirty_Oil_PDFs\/BitumenPriceReview07.pdf\">report<\/a> warned that prices for oilsands bitumen could eventually fall so low that the government\u2019s royalty revenues \u2014 critical for its budget \u2014 would be at risk.<\/p>\n<p>The province should encourage companies to add value to the bitumen by upgrading and refining it into gasoline or diesel to avoid the coming price plunge, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the government has kept royalties \u2014 the amount the public gets for the resource \u2014 low and encouraged rapid oilsands development, producing a market glut.<\/p>\n<p>With North American pipelines largely full, U.S. oil production surging and U.S. refineries working at full capacity, Alberta has wounded itself with bad policy choices, say experts.<\/p>\n<p>The Alberta government and oil industry is in crisis mode because the gap between the price paid for Western Canadian Select \u2014 a blend of heavy oil and diluent \u2014 and benchmark West Texas Intermediate oils has widened to $40 US a barrel.<\/p>\n<p>Some energy companies have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/calgary\/production-oil-cuts-government-companies-husky-cenovus-suncor-price-differential-1.4909036\">called on<\/a> the government to impose production cuts to increase prices.<\/p>\n<p>The business case for slowing bitumen production was made by the great <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/business\/2017\/01\/17\/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-financial-impact-reaches-almost-10b-study-says.html\">Fort McMurray fire<\/a> of 2015.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alberta\u2019s Problem Isn\u2019t Pipelines; It\u2019s Bad Policy Decisions Bitumen prices are low because the province has ignored at least a decade of warnings. In 2007, an Alberta government warned that bitumen prices could eventually fall so low that the government\u2019s royalty revenues \u2014 critical for its budget \u2014 would be at risk. Photo via Government [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[1082,5549,1642,23364,103,594,3540,1476,10739,5499,21136],"class_list":["post-41318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","tag-alberta","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-bitumen","tag-bitumen-refining","tag-canada","tag-oil-prices","tag-oilsands","tag-pipelines","tag-policy","tag-the-tyee","tag-western-canadian-select"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41319,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41318\/revisions\/41319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}