Alberta is invested $1.5 billion in the disputed Keystone XL pipeline, a project that Kenney said is crucial for the province's economy.
Let’s be clear: this is, like every conspiracy theory, a steaming pile of nonsense. Kenney expresses his fondness for the industry so often, and so enthusiastically, that it might as well be classified as a common-law relationship. But the decisions his government have made lately have done material damage to said industry’s interests, and put the province’s $1.5 billion investment in the Keystone XL pipeline at far greater risk than it needs to be.
But whether this policy change leads to more investment in the province’s coal industry is secondary to the damage it’s already done to Alberta’s oil and gas industry. As former journalist and current oil and gas worker Ian King noted on Twitter, “Alberta’s government is doing a far better job of trashing the province’s image than any swarm of ENGOs could do.”
Earlier this month, meanwhile, the Alberta Energy Regulator quietly announced that environmental monitoring requirements had been suspended for the entire energy industry . As the Canadian Press reported, “companies no longer have to monitor fumes released by burning, or look for and repair leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Surface waters need no longer be tested, unless they escape into the environment, and that water need no longer be tested in a lab.