Western Standard - The Danielle Smith Show - May 18, 2022

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 well greetings friends it's danielle smith welcome again to the danielle smith show

00:00:39.500 let's talk a little bit about uh what's happening today there's so much going on yes of course

00:00:45.560 there's the big game between the calgary flames and the edmonton oilers i'm just going to put it

00:00:49.200 on the record right now that i support daryl setter's attitude on this when he says we do

00:00:55.420 not call this the Battle of Alberta because why are we fighting with each other? We're in the

00:01:00.380 middle of getting through the past two years of trauma and division. This should be a unifying

00:01:06.760 series. I'm looking forward to it. I have said that I support both teams and this is the reason

00:01:12.780 why. So the Calgary Flames, I became a huge fan of them back in the days of Neu and Dyke and Vernon

00:01:19.500 and Doug Gilmore. My favorite player was actually Gary Roberts, number 10 at the time. And then

00:01:25.160 And also, I think it was, of course, an Edmonton Oilers fan going back to the days of Gretzky

00:01:30.880 and Führer and Messier and the bunch.

00:01:33.080 And who couldn't have been an Oilers fan at the time?

00:01:35.700 I remember my brother's going to hate me for saying this.

00:01:38.180 I remember him crying when Gretz was traded to the LA Kings.

00:01:41.600 So here's the thing.

00:01:42.500 Once you become a committed fan of the Edmonton Oilers, you're not going to drop them.

00:01:47.300 And once you become a committed fan of the Flames, you're not going to drop them either.

00:01:49.780 The nice part about this is that, of course, my team's going to win no matter what.

00:01:54.500 So woohoo, go Alberta. That's number one. Number two, there is going to be a vote count today. You've probably heard that is going on of the premier on his leadership vote. Some folks have asked me what I think is likely to happen there. And quite frankly, just like you, I've got no idea. Here's what I am hearing.

00:02:15.240 What I am hearing, just as I process what has happened, is that number one, there were about 32,000 ballots that were counted of about 59,000 that were submitted.

00:02:27.160 There were some duplicates, as we know. So I gather that's about a 62.5 percent turnout.

00:02:33.320 So what does that mean exactly?

00:02:34.900 Well, it means that 38% of the people who could have voted didn't, either because they didn't get their ballots.

00:02:42.420 And I have heard, especially in the last few days, of a number of people who didn't get their ballots.

00:02:46.980 There is also a problem as well, I think, of perhaps enthusiasm.

00:02:54.780 Maybe the party has an enthusiasm deficit at the moment.

00:02:58.000 And they're prepared to let those who did want to participate make the decision for them about which way this goes.

00:03:04.500 The other things that I have heard has been, we've all obviously talked about the Alberta,

00:03:09.080 Elections Alberta investigation, 4,691 ballots that were purchased on what it turns out to be

00:03:14.460 eight credit cards, which appears to be a violation, not only of party policy, but also

00:03:19.100 of the Elections Alberta rules. And so I guess we'll see how that process plays out. But it is,

00:03:23.920 when you look at the larger scheme of things, a relatively small number of memberships that

00:03:29.080 were purchased on behalf of others with or without their knowledge. The other part, though,

00:03:33.120 is that about two-thirds of the ballots I'm hearing were from rural Alberta. Now, I would

00:03:38.800 just put it to you that I don't think that there's a huge groundswell of support for the Premier

00:03:43.700 coming from rural Alberta, but the cities don't seem to have the same problem with some of the

00:03:49.780 issues that rural is raising. So I guess this is just it. Who knows what's going to happen?

00:03:55.020 The Premier is out there saying he's going to get 70%. I think people are skeptical that would be

00:04:00.880 the case that it would be that high. I don't think that would be consistent with some of the

00:04:06.020 polling that we're seeing. And some of the polling that we're seeing has been particularly bad. I

00:04:09.860 don't know if many of you saw the Common Ground. It's a University of Alberta research group that

00:04:16.080 did some polling and asked the question about do you think the premier should stay or do you think

00:04:22.520 the premier should go? I think it was actually worded a different way. Do you think that the

00:04:26.000 united conservative party should keep premier kenny as their leader or do you think they should

00:04:31.600 uh see him go now keep in mind this would have been a general view of the general public which

00:04:39.280 is different than what party members vote on relatively small number of party members are

00:04:43.680 going to be making this decision today but when you ask the general public it uh it gives you a

00:04:49.440 bit of a yikes moment because it didn't seem to matter whether it was urban suburban or rural

00:04:56.880 it didn't seem to matter whether it was male or female didn't seem to matter whether it was a 18

00:05:03.760 to a 25 age group the age group above that or seniors didn't seem to matter if it was calgary

00:05:09.680 or edmonton it's around 25 percent say that the pro that the ucp should keep uh the premier kenny

00:05:17.760 and it's around 75 percent who say he should go somewhere around there so it doesn't matter across

00:05:22.160 any demographic all across alberta and you know maybe this is just the way it goes i've been

00:05:28.160 talking with um my ea about this and laura and one of the things that that we both observed is that

00:05:35.520 when you look at winston churchill and his political history he's got a very interesting

00:05:40.240 political history incidentally he began in politics in 1900 if you can imagine the reason

00:05:46.400 i mention him is because i know that the premier puts him out there as a bit of a role model and a

00:05:51.760 hero so 1900 he got elected and he served four years under the conservatives and then he crossed

00:05:59.200 the floor and joined the liberals and became a cabinet minister for a number of years got

00:06:04.720 disaffected with the liberals and tried to run as an independent a couple of times failed and then

00:06:11.360 got back into politics as a conservative so cross the floor twice if you can imagine that

00:06:16.320 and he spent 10 years out of cabinet by the time we got to 1939 he was kind of a political has-been

00:06:24.080 at that point but because he'd been a strong voice on making sure that we that we were following the

00:06:31.360 german threat and talking about the need for the uk to or great britain at the time to increase its

00:06:38.560 defense spending, it thrust him into the leadership role in 1939 after Neville Chamberlain and his

00:06:46.120 appeasement didn't work. But you know what's so interesting? So look at this history. So by the

00:06:49.880 time he got to 1945, won the war, the citizens were well and truly done with him. And he got 0.79

00:06:57.400 voted out within a few months of winning the war. And so when you look at that political history,

00:07:02.240 it's interesting to me that somebody who is responsible and revered today as having defeated

00:07:07.820 the defeated fascism, defeated authoritarianism. By the time people were done with the trauma of

00:07:14.860 the war, they just didn't want to see his face again. And that may be what we're experiencing

00:07:19.060 here is that regardless of the kind of actions the premier is trying to take to demonstrate that

00:07:27.300 we're moving on from COVID, I think that there's a lot of hardship and a lot of harm and a lot of

00:07:32.160 hurt feelings. And so if it goes against him, that would be the reason why. But I thought you would

00:07:37.500 find that some interesting historical context that even leaders who have a winning record

00:07:44.380 sometimes end up losing. The reason I mentioned this, though, is because the premier has had

00:07:49.380 a good couple of weeks. When you look at the tour that he did of Senator Joe Manchin, the

00:07:56.000 Democrat senator from Virginia, who's been such a champion and ally of Alberta and our energy

00:08:02.700 sector and a very strong voice in the Democrat ranks and trying to get some kind of sensible

00:08:09.100 policy around oil and gas development. He came up here toward the oil sands and then returned the

00:08:14.240 favor by inviting Jason Kenney down to present to the Senate committee. There was a full hearing

00:08:21.280 of the Senate committee on energy and natural resources. And so I want to put this into context

00:08:27.120 for you because when you look at the at the room it looks pretty empty most of the time so he was

00:08:34.800 not presenting to the full senate he was presenting to this this this particular committee and at any

00:08:42.320 given moment it looks like there's about five senators in the room but as the two hour and 18

00:08:50.640 minute hearings went on i think it was maybe two hours until they started a little bit late

00:08:54.480 As it went on, I think what you would observe happening is that senators were sitting in their

00:09:00.660 office, maybe monitoring what was going on, and then it was their turn to come up. They would

00:09:05.820 come down and ask her questions. So he actually ended up getting most of the senators there,

00:09:12.600 even though at any given time, there were only a couple. The other thing you'll notice,

00:09:16.500 which I find just a little bit irritating about American politics, is the grandstanding on the

00:09:22.200 questions. Of course, I love it when Senator Rand Paul does it. I love it when Jim Johnson does it

00:09:28.220 too. But I think if this is about trying to find the common ground so that we can get both the

00:09:37.040 House of Representatives and the Senate and the executive branch all on the same page, that we

00:09:41.420 need to develop our resources. I don't know that that's particularly helpful, if you want the honest

00:09:45.360 truth, that you've got Republicans clearly using the premier's visit to score political points

00:09:52.680 against Biden, especially since they happen to be in an election year. Now, be that as it may,

00:09:57.980 I mean, I had hoped what we would see out of these hearings is that you would end up with both

00:10:03.400 Democrats and Republicans realizing it is an American interest for us to develop the resources

00:10:09.500 in Canada for our collective energy security and for our collective energy affordability.

00:10:14.420 That's what I was hoping to see out of this.

00:10:16.960 So that's one thing that you should be aware of if you decide to watch the whole thing.

00:10:20.200 And I think you should.

00:10:21.520 The second thing that surprised me a little bit is that Jonathan Wilkinson, the natural

00:10:26.260 resources minister, was there as well.

00:10:28.260 Not in person.

00:10:30.240 He was there in video form and said he had to cut out early, but it didn't look like

00:10:35.360 he cut out early.

00:10:35.980 And so he also provided some perspective and context.

00:10:40.400 And I'm not sure that the Premier's message and Jonathan Wilkinson's message were exactly the same.

00:10:48.300 I want to play for you a few of the exchanges, just so you can see.

00:10:53.760 They both had five-minute statements, so I'm not quite sure if I can play all of them for you.

00:10:57.360 But I want to play for you enough so that you kind of get the tone and flavor of how the proceedings took place.

00:11:02.440 The other interesting guests that were there as well, though, was the Quebec, the Quebec also had representation there. Maybe you won't be surprised by that. But let me just make sure I have the name of the minister correctly here.

00:11:18.860 So Natalie Camden, she is the Associate Minister of Mines for Quebec. And again, I'm not entirely sure her message was consistent with the message that we were trying to get across because she kept touting the electricity grid being 99.8% emissions-free and renewable because, of course, Quebec relies so much on hydro.

00:11:46.420 And it's fascinating to me because, as you probably know, because we've done shows on this before, the difficulty we are having getting pipelines across the border for our two countries, they're having an equivalent difficulty getting electricity transmission lines going across because the Americans don't look at hydroelectric power as being green because it has an impact on the environment.

00:12:10.920 Like, let's be frank about it. If you're going to be flooding vast, vast tracts of land, you're going to be impacting indigenous rights, you're going to be impacting landowner rights, you're going to be destroying biodiversity and habitat, you're going to be having methane production from all of that rotting foliage, you're going to be impacting fish habitat.

00:12:26.900 So they don't look at it as particularly green, interestingly.

00:12:30.860 So Natalie Camden was there to make the case about why it should be considered green if we're looking at non-emitting sources, interestingly.

00:12:38.820 The other point that she was making, though, was that the Americans have in the past looked at Canada as being a strategic provider of defense necessary resources and minerals, which is sort of an interesting way of contextualizing this.

00:12:58.100 And one of the things that she touted was the aluminum that is produced in Quebec and aluminum being produced in Quebec using hydropower as the main source makes it one of the lowest emitting sources for aluminum.

00:13:12.060 So that was the essence of what she had to say. Oh, there's my dog barking. It's photobombing me.

00:13:18.400 And so that was the essence of what she was having to say.

00:13:21.800 But the other part that I think that Quebec brought to him was that they have a process for how they are trying to streamline their development of rare earth metals and minerals for the purpose of battery production.

00:13:38.360 And I'm surprised that we didn't mention that at all because we've got a huge resource in lithium in our province.

00:13:44.080 I'm not actually quite sure what our cobalt and nickel capacity is.

00:13:48.080 if somebody knows, you should send me a text because that is really what they were pushing

00:13:50.960 in Quebec. Because in America, if you can believe it, they think that we have a streamlined

00:13:56.660 regulatory process for our mines and mineral development. Like color me surprised. Aren't

00:14:02.460 we just in the middle of a Supreme Court challenge over Bill C-69 because it adds an extra layer

00:14:08.600 of decision-making process and creates an endless repeat loop where we have no finish line on the

00:14:13.280 project. So that I found a little bit surprising that the Americans are under the impression

00:14:18.500 that it takes as little as two years for us to develop our resources and get permitting

00:14:25.600 for our mines and mineral development. So that's not true. In fact, in Quebec,

00:14:36.220 the Camden said that what they have done is created a process that once you finish all

00:14:42.340 your environmental reports and submitted them. It only takes 48 to 60 months to get it approved.

00:14:49.360 So that's a four to five year process at the best. And that is after you've done

00:14:55.460 all of the environmental work. So if you could imagine, the Americans were excited about that

00:15:00.920 because the American process can take 10 to 15 years. And even then at the end of it,

00:15:05.500 you get all of your approvals and guess what happens? Some extreme environmental group ends

00:15:09.460 taking it to court and bingo bango you're back to the beginning again the americans have a really

00:15:14.740 difficult time in developing their resources so i thought you'd find that interesting um the third

00:15:20.420 person on the panel was francis bradley president and chief executive officer of electricity canada

00:15:26.020 and he didn't get that many questions but he certainly did also tout the interties and

00:15:30.900 interconnectedness between our two markets and especially if you're going to layer on

00:15:35.940 that everyone's going to be need more electricity certainly at ease for electric vehicles plugged

00:15:41.220 into the grid he's clearly making the point about why you need those interties although he did do a

00:15:45.780 bit of a shout out to capital power and the carbon capture a project that they have to be able to

00:15:51.220 capture the co2 from their natural gas power plant and then either bury it underground or oh no

00:15:56.420 actually um they're planning on using it for carbon nanotubes which is a really interesting

00:16:02.180 development. I may have to do a segment on that because carbon nanotubes, as you know, can be used

00:16:08.440 for a new construction material. So I thought that those were all very interesting. A couple other

00:16:13.280 things that stuck out for me is how different our two countries are in how we deal with natural

00:16:19.740 resources. And it makes me understand a little bit more about what's going on with C69. The Trudeau

00:16:27.380 government is trying to make a play for the federal government to assert its right over

00:16:33.800 our resources, our development and management of our resources that the Americans already

00:16:37.100 have.

00:16:37.980 So it was very significant in our country when the federal government decided to transfer

00:16:43.520 crown lands and all the mines and minerals therein to the provinces because they transferred

00:16:50.020 over the jurisdiction and it sounds like they've regretted it ever since.

00:16:53.580 So that was one of the things that was very interesting at the Senate committee is because,

00:16:58.800 remember, senators represent their states. They're looking at Canada and say, golly gee,

00:17:03.100 I sure wish we at the state level had the ability to develop our resources and have

00:17:06.860 approvals the same way you do. At the same time as there's this weird subtext going on that, yeah,

00:17:11.980 we kind of have the ability to do it, but now we've got this layered on process with the federal

00:17:16.380 government. No one really wanted to elaborate on that. So Dwayne Bratt, the easiest way I think if

00:17:21.840 want to get to the the page that i'm going to show you uh the easiest way to get there is i must tell

00:17:29.760 you like duane bratt is the the best resource he tweets things out with their link and then you can

00:17:34.960 just go through so go on to duane bratt and you'll see that he's got a full link to the full committee

00:17:39.280 hearing to examine the u.s canada energy and minerals partnership and part of what i want to

00:17:45.040 try to do here is just i want to play for you a little bit of the the tone so that you could

00:17:50.000 understand what was said how our premier performed because quite frankly i think he performed really

00:17:56.480 well um he i've never had any beef with the premier when he is going abroad and representing

00:18:04.480 our industry i think he does a a really good job of of representing um alberta's interests

00:18:10.880 hold on a second i don't know this is one of the hazards of broadcasting from home

00:18:16.960 and get interruptions. I don't know how many kids or grandkids running around me, but my dog is

00:18:23.240 deaf. And so he is constantly trying to do some guarding to make sure that we know he's doing 0.62

00:18:30.280 his job. So let me just play for you the first opening statements, because I want you to hear

00:18:36.320 how it was responded to by the Premier, as well as so that you can see the different responses

00:18:45.380 that we have from the federal government and our provincial premier. I'm just making sure I got all

00:18:50.980 these up lined up correctly because I've got to do my share screen and make sure that you can hear

00:18:56.260 it. So let me just tell you a little bit of the background here. So Senator Manchin is the

00:19:01.700 Virginia senator who asked the premier if he would come down and give the presentation. And so let me

00:19:10.180 just see if I can get for you the very first response that we have. Hold on. I just want to

00:19:16.140 make sure that I am not missing out on. This is the thing about StreamYard. I shared something

00:19:23.060 last time and we ended up not sharing the audio. So I'm going to just make sure that I share the

00:19:28.340 system audio so that I don't end up screwing that up this time. I think I got it. I think I got it.

00:19:32.360 Here we go. Let's show this. And this is Senator Manchin putting the question about what the

00:19:37.740 relationship between our two countries could be listen to what he had to say and how our premier

00:19:41.740 responded turn on your uh your mic there's a little button there oh i see he had the same

00:19:47.380 problem as i thank you so much german mansion and to you members of the committee thank you

00:19:51.220 especially for uh having visited us in alberta i'm sorry we didn't offer good weather but uh

00:19:55.660 come back great i thought it was all canada uh senators if you remember one thing from today's

00:20:02.420 hearing i hope it will be this that the province of alberta is by far the largest source of u.s

00:20:08.900 energy imports u.s energy security depends on alberta and alberta can be a huge part of the

00:20:15.540 solution to the problem of american energy inflation and the cost of living crisis senators

00:20:20.980 last year over 60 percent of u.s oil and gas imports came from alberta that's six zero not one

00:20:26.740 60%. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that last year, the United States imported

00:20:33.940 2.2 billion barrels of crude oil, 1.4 billion of which, or 62% came from Canada and virtually all

00:20:42.400 of that from Alberta. Let's put that in perspective. Last year, 13% of U.S. oil imports came from all

00:20:50.540 OPEC countries combined and only 6% from Saudi Arabia. So Alberta supplies the U.S. with 10

00:20:57.600 times more oil than Saudi Arabia and five times more than all of OPEC. The same is true for natural

00:21:04.020 gas. Last year, my province shipped 4.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day to the U.S. That's 63%

00:21:12.000 of your gas imports. And I'm proud to say that Alberta is home to the world's third largest

00:21:17.020 proven in probable oil reserves, about 180 billion barrels worth, and one of the world's

00:21:22.840 largest reserves of natural gas. The province of Alberta owns those resources and has the

00:21:28.400 exclusive constitutional jurisdiction to regulate their production. Now, after your country has

00:21:34.300 spent hundreds of billions of dollars in recent decades defending security in the Persian Gulf

00:21:40.000 area, it turns out that the solution to the challenges of energy security is your closest 0.50

00:21:45.600 friend and ally vladimir putin's brutal invasion of ukraine has proven the danger of allowing

00:21:51.360 dictators to dominate global energy markets and weaponize oil wealth using it to spread violence

00:21:56.880 instability and terrorism around the world and that's why we were frankly so taken aback when

00:22:02.880 president biden vetoed the keystone xl pipeline it would have safely delivered 830 000 barrels a day

00:22:09.120 of responsibly produced Canadian energy to the U.S. more than displacing the 670,000 barrels a day

00:22:16.280 that you all bought from Putin's Russia last year. We were also perplexed with the administration's

00:22:22.960 response to sky-high gas prices was to plead with OPEC to produce and sell more oil while working

00:22:30.820 to lift sanctions on dictatorships like Iran and Venezuela. White House officials have reportedly

00:22:37.240 discussed a presidential visit to Saudi Arabia to press for more production of their oil and

00:22:42.780 their exports to the U.S. Oil that is used to buy cluster bombs dropped on Yemeni civilians.

00:22:49.660 Well, Senators, Calgary is a lot closer to Washington than Riyadh, and you don't need

00:22:54.800 the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet to patrol the Great Lakes. To quote former Montana Governor Brian

00:23:00.640 Schweitzer, we don't have to send the National Guard into Alberta. Chairman Manchin, we truly

00:23:06.860 appreciated as i said your recent visit to alberta to see firsthand the amazing progress that is

00:23:11.740 being made to reduce emissions and improve the environmental performance of canada's oil sands

00:23:16.860 to see also the deep partnerships between our energy producers and our indigenous people

00:23:21.100 and to discuss the development of a north american energy alliance we invite other members of this

00:23:26.300 committee to visit alberta and see for yourself judge for yourself draw your own conclusions about

00:23:31.980 whether Alberta is a preferable solution as a source of imports to OPEC.

00:23:40.460 Between current unused capacity in the North American pipeline system and the prospect of

00:23:46.140 pipeline optimization, plus the scheduled completion of the Trans Mountain expansion

00:23:51.100 pipeline to Canada's west coast next year, Alberta will be able to increase our crude exports to the

00:23:57.420 the U.S. by upwards of a million barrels a day over the next couple of years, helping to reduce

00:24:02.700 prices at the pump. But with political will from Washington, we could also get another major

00:24:08.100 pipeline built that would forever allow the United States to free itself from imports from hostile

00:24:14.420 regimes. Mr. Chairman, where there is a will, there is a way. The government of Alberta is keen to work

00:24:21.360 with you and friends in the United States to get another major pipeline built to achieve the dream

00:24:26.320 of North American energy independence and security. At the same time, we must work together to

00:24:31.780 maintain current supply. And that's why I call on the United States government to join Canada in

00:24:36.680 demanding that the governor of Michigan respect the 1977 Canada-US pipeline transit treaty by

00:24:44.500 abandoning her efforts to decommission the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline that has safely delivered

00:24:49.700 over 600,000 barrels of Canadian energy to the U.S. for six decades. Her plan to do this would

00:24:56.060 only worsen the energy and cost of living crisis at the worst possible time. And we

00:25:00.180 must work on both sides of the border to remove regulatory barriers to the production and

00:25:04.220 shipment of energy. Senators, replacing conflict oil imports with Canadian energy is not a

00:25:10.940 threat to the environment. We take seriously the need to cut emissions and to address climate

00:25:16.660 change. Alberta's oil and gas producers and pipeline companies have some of the world's

00:25:21.400 highest ESG rankings. Alberta was the first place in North America to implement carbon pricing.

00:25:27.720 Through massive investments in clean tech, we've reduced the carbon footprint of an average barrel

00:25:32.360 of Alberta oil by 36 percent since the year 2000 to below the global average for heavy oil.

00:25:39.300 Our oil sands producers are committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions in their

00:25:45.300 operations by 2050, in part through a big expansion of our world-leading carbon capture,

00:25:51.140 utilization, and storage infrastructure. We're on track to reduce methane emissions by at least

00:25:56.340 45 percent. We're leading Canada right now in renewable energy investments, and we're set to

00:26:01.900 become a global hub in the production of net zero and low-emitting hydrogen. So thank you,

00:26:06.920 Mr. Chairman. I look forward to your questions and ongoing collaboration on developing a North

00:26:12.000 American energy law. So you see what I, you see what I mean? Hold on. Let me see if I, uh, I'm

00:26:18.140 still, hold on one second. I'm still hearing this in my ear. So I got to make sure that you guys

00:26:24.580 aren't hearing it. So here's the thing, like, uh, premier is at his best when he's talking about

00:26:30.200 energy issues. And I thought that was an excellent presentation. What I, if you go through and you

00:26:34.900 watch the full hearing, what you will see is that the senators were particularly interested

00:26:40.120 in everything that we've done to reduce our methane emissions by 45 percent there I mean

00:26:44.920 I would have liked if the premier talked about some of the ways in which we're doing that there's

00:26:48.720 all kinds of really interesting technology where they're especially with bitcoin mining where

00:26:53.660 they're capturing the methane turning it into energy so that they can then mine bitcoin and

00:26:59.080 then then turn it essentially into a different product that can be exported but there's also

00:27:03.960 another company that's working on capturing the methane and turning it into protein for animal

00:27:07.760 feed. We also have a drone technology that is able to spot methane emissions on pipelines from,

00:27:15.240 I think, 150 meters away, and then you can plug them. So there's some fantastic technology. That

00:27:20.020 was of great interest to them. The other, of course, was the hydrogen piece. And the interesting

00:27:27.240 thing that I found about the response there is that the Americans seem to want to be going towards,

00:27:32.580 as they called it, one of the senators called it dual purpose pipelines. So this, I think,

00:27:38.620 sows the seed of a potential breakthrough for us in future. I remember one energy company executive

00:27:43.920 I've talked about saying maybe the way to restart the Keystone XL pipeline process

00:27:48.360 is to not propose it as a heavy oil pipeline, but propose it as a natural gas pipeline that

00:27:55.240 can ultimately be repurposed to hydrogen as the Americans build out their hydrogen economy and

00:28:01.480 hydrogen infrastructure and that may be a way in i so i would mention that to you because that

00:28:07.320 that was also one of the things that came out in the in the question and answer and then there was

00:28:11.880 also the uh the displacement of russian oil they were pretty keen to uh and i thought that was a

00:28:20.040 pretty good hit to mention that we had six that the americans had 680 million uh 680

00:28:26.040 be a thousand barrels per day coming in from Russia and that we would have been able to

00:28:31.560 displace that a hundred percent if we had built the Keystone XL pipeline. So there were a bunch

00:28:35.400 of barbs going back and forth between the two. The other thing that he got asked on twice and

00:28:39.940 was able to reiterate twice was the ways in which we would be able to increase our pipeline capacity

00:28:46.260 in the next few years. So obviously Trans Mountain Pipeline, which is going to be finished

00:28:50.960 in 2024 is one aspect. But we also have the ability to do optimization of our pipelines.

00:28:58.460 As I understand, there's a couple of things that they would do there. Some of them are line

00:29:02.360 reversal. Some of it is using different additives to make sure that you reduce the drag so that you

00:29:08.680 can end up having more throughput. We also currently have, I guess, 300,000 barrels per

00:29:14.920 day of additional capacity that has yet to come on stream. So that, I think, perked everybody's

00:29:20.000 interest. And also just that earlier point that was made by the Quebec minister about how you

00:29:28.520 could fast track these processes if you got approval under federal policy for defense policy.

00:29:34.820 That was also suggested as a way to get more pipeline infrastructure approved as well. So

00:29:40.240 I thought, so I think the premier did a great job in representing that position. There is one more

00:29:47.740 thing that i wanted to play for you though because i thought that this was a little bit concerning

00:29:52.860 because you're not going to get anywhere in uh in the us if you don't have some kind of support on

00:30:00.380 the executive branch it's it's beginning to make me realize uh i i always thought that the in the

00:30:06.380 u.s the congress and the senate had a lot more power but if the federal government is in control

00:30:14.300 of all resource development on all crown lands and they own most of the crown lands and they're

00:30:19.260 in control of this permitting process you really do need to have executive buy-in if you're going

00:30:25.020 to to make any progress and so there was an interesting exchange here that happened i think

00:30:29.900 i can play both for you the uh the response that the premier gave as well as the response that the

00:30:37.020 uh our um our federal minister of natural resources jonathan wilkinson gave because i think there's a

00:30:42.140 little bit of air between the two of them so let me play this for you as well this is uh joe uh

00:30:46.460 senator barrasso who's the uh the ranking member for the republicans he's from wyoming so he

00:30:52.140 obviously has a lot more affinity to us and our our energy projects and the relationship that

00:30:59.660 we've established than the current biden administration but i want you to hear this

00:31:03.500 question and hear the answer you ask the question about how what kind of of progress we're making

00:31:09.500 on the executive branch in the in the biden white house and i thought you'd want to hear this answer

00:31:13.260 too have you been in contact with our administration here or your counterpart minister wilkinson or

00:31:19.580 premier uh kenny uh any other than us speaking to you from the from the legislative branch

00:31:28.220 from the executive branch anybody speaking to you all concerning increasing oil natural gas

00:31:33.820 the things that we're going to need in order to help our allies you can start with yourself and

00:31:38.780 and now I'm going to miss it. Thank you, Senator. The answer, well, I don't have a counterpart in

00:31:45.840 the U.S. government as I'm the leader of a sub-national government, but yesterday I did

00:31:51.900 have meetings with officials at the U.S. State Department that we initiated. I will say we found

00:31:58.840 it passing strange that following the invasion of Ukraine, there were clear efforts by the

00:32:05.040 administration to reach out to OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran. But we have no record of any

00:32:12.560 effort by the administration to reach out to Alberta, which, as I said, provides 62 percent

00:32:18.200 of U.S. oil imports. Minister Wilkinson, did you all have any conversations or anyone reach out

00:32:23.240 to your counterparts from the U.S.? Yes, thank you, Senator. Yes, we have had ongoing conversations

00:32:28.600 with the administration. Certainly, I have spoken with Secretary Granholm many, many times

00:32:33.720 since the invasion of Ukraine, and I was at the White House last week having similar conversations.

00:32:39.320 As you know, we have had a number of in-person meetings to discuss how to address this.

00:32:44.580 I think you and I actually met in Paris at the International Energy Agency when Secretary Granholm was there.

00:32:50.880 And the focus very much in terms of increasing production was our announcement of 300,000 additional barrels a day,

00:32:58.400 which we worked with premier kenny and the industry on um was partly the product of those

00:33:03.200 conversations because of course the offtake uh to get it to the gulf has to come from the united

00:33:07.360 states and we continue to talk about issues like lng exports for example have you all have you all

00:33:12.080 increased your production well yeah for the u.s for us to be able to help our allies around the

00:33:17.760 world i'll say yes last year was a record year uh for production and exports we had i think in

00:33:24.320 December, 4.1 million barrels a day. But Senator, we believe, frankly, we frankly don't agree with

00:33:34.200 the 200,000 barrel estimate just offered by Minister Wilkinson. We have about 300,000 barrels

00:33:43.700 of daily unused capacity in the North American pipeline system, which we expect to fill this

00:33:50.840 year through increased production. Once that's filled, the economics will probably work for

00:33:57.440 additional shipment by rail, which could be upwards of an additional 200,000 barrels a day.

00:34:02.680 In addition, if midstream companies get serious about it, and if regulators approve it, we could

00:34:07.940 see a series of technical improvements through pipeline optimization and line reversals over

00:34:13.620 the next year or so that could add upwards of another 400,000 barrels a day of potential capacity.

00:34:20.440 And then finally, in Q4 of 2023 and Q1 of 2020.

00:34:26.020 This would also reduce the American, United States' reliance on OPEC or Saudi or?

00:34:30.880 Well, I would certainly hope that American, yeah, I think American refineries, I know,

00:34:35.480 would prefer to buy locally, partly because they get our energy on a discount,

00:34:39.360 since we are currently largely landlocked.

00:34:42.260 And so we are price takers.

00:34:45.220 And I do know that Gulf refineries are very keen to get more access to our heavy supply.

00:34:51.280 OK, so what I found what I found interesting about all of that as well is that the it appears that our relationship with the Joe Biden White House is 100 percent centered around Jonathan Wilkinson's reach out.

00:35:05.260 And that should leave us very, very concerned, because as you go through and you see how he frames this, he is our ally, definitely, when it comes to hydrogen. And that is really positive, because there's lots of ways that we can get hydrogen to market. You can either do it through LNG export, through natural gas export, through ammonia, extract the hydrogen, and I think that that's likely going to be the future.

00:35:29.060 but that still requires a huge amount of infrastructure to build out. What do you do in

00:35:34.380 the meantime? And that's where I feel like the federal government is a bit hostile to our

00:35:38.420 interests. One of the things that you should know, just so you understand the vision of the federal

00:35:43.620 government of where they're going, one of the things that they said is that even after 2050,

00:35:49.220 when we reached the net zero targets, he went on to say that we're going to have to continue to use

00:35:56.760 one quarter of the current production of oil and one half of the natural gas for non-combustion

00:36:05.440 purposes. So if you're going to, and I personally think that those are probably quite low. So one

00:36:13.360 of the things I think we're seeing with the federal government is that they're going to

00:36:17.580 continue to grind away on making sure that we do not use oil or natural gas for combustion purposes.

00:36:25.740 It means we can use it for petrochemicals.

00:36:27.800 Bitumen, this is perhaps a rebranding opportunity for us.

00:36:31.160 Bitumen can be repurposed for carbon nanofiber, which can be used for construction materials,

00:36:36.000 but more importantly for asphalt.

00:36:37.740 And look, if we're going to be having electric cars, we're still going to need some roads

00:36:41.780 to drive them on.

00:36:42.880 So that, I think, is the direction that the government is going.

00:36:45.740 But the idea that our power grid could be completely off of natural gas by 2035, which

00:36:53.680 the aggressive target that the federal government has put forward um it it's not going to happen

00:36:58.560 especially this is what doesn't make any sense actually is that if we're going to be moving

00:37:04.160 towards a hydrogen economy out of which uh methane is going to be the principal feedstock for that if

00:37:10.320 you're capturing the co2 we shouldn't be um bent on trying to completely eliminate this source of

00:37:16.480 fuel from our from our electricity grid so i would say that there is not 100 simpatico with our 0.60

00:37:21.920 federal and provincial governments on that. And I thought you'd want to be interested in knowing

00:37:26.240 that context. But I think the premier did a good job there. And it's always great when we can go

00:37:30.740 abroad, talk about our message. My only concern is that did the message get out to enough people

00:37:36.760 and enough decision makers? If you've got a small Senate committee on energy, does that information

00:37:41.180 get widely disseminated to the other senators? Do you end up having the House of Representatives

00:37:47.180 weigh in on it? Are any of the candidates for future presidential campaigns paying attention

00:37:54.260 to that? It's great information, but are we getting it widely disseminated enough?

00:37:58.740 Sonia Savage was down there, the Energy Minister. Jason Nixon was down there, the Environment

00:38:03.200 Minister. Let me just give a little shout out to James Rajat, who's really done such a tremendous

00:38:07.900 job on our behalf. At the federal level, he was an MP, and I think he was also chair of the Natural

00:38:13.020 Resources Committee when he was elected with the Conservatives, but he has since been appointed to

00:38:17.660 be our representative for Alberta in Washington, and he was also there as well, so he clearly

00:38:22.860 arranged the trip. All right, friends, so clearly the Premier's ending on a high note before he

00:38:29.620 goes into the vote tonight. We will find out at, I think, five o'clock today which direction that's

00:38:34.980 going to go. Would be interested in hearing your feedback. You'll hear a little bit more from me

00:38:38.760 later today. I'll be doing a little bit of commentary with Corey Morgan as we get into

00:38:43.540 getting some of the results. And I'll be watching very closely, just as you will as well. Thanks so

00:38:49.300 much for tuning in today. I'm Danielle Smith. This has been the Danielle Smith.

Western Standard - May 19, 2022

The Danielle Smith Show - May 18, 2022

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