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Canadians at odd with Bush on ANWR, mystified by cross-border policy
Gary Park PNA Contributing Canadian Correspondent
Canada has been drawn into the U.S. presidential election on two energy issues promoted by Republican candidate George W. Bush — opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and bolstering cross-border access to energy supplies.
In both cases, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and energy industry officials find themselves at odds with or mystified by Bush’s positions.
In what was described as a “strongly-worded” letter to President Bill Clinton, Chretien put himself on a collision course with Bush on any move to scrap the 20-year ANWR moratorium.
He reminded Clinton of Canada’s staunch opposition to exploration of the reserve, which straddles the Alaska-Yukon border.
ANWR, along with the neighboring Ivvavik and Vuntut national parks in Canada, is the breeding ground for the 150,000-strong Porcupine caribou herd — a major source of food to 7,000 Gwich’in natives in Alaska and the Yukon — as well as being home to polar bears, grizzlies and numerous species of migratory birds.
Chretien, prompted to write the letter because of a mounting pro-oil sentiment in the U.S. Congress and Bush’s proposal to open up 8 percent of ANWR for exploration, urged the United States to follow Canada’s lead and provide permanent wilderness protection for the caribou calving grounds and Arctic coast. Bush’s cross-border policy not needed Bush has also called for the development of a joint North American energy policy with Canada and Mexico and a “comprehensive policy” to approve new pipelines.
But that push to bolster cross-border access to energy supplies left Canadian officials puzzled, with many saying there are few, if any impediments to Canada-U.S. oil and gas trade.
Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said exports are affected mostly by supply and demand issues now that regulatory hurdles have been removed under the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of the late 1980s.
“On the oil side, things are working pretty smoothly, so I don’t know what the policy and strategy (urged by Bush) is,” he said. “I’ve heard they are talking quite a bit in Washington now about a North American energy policy, but we really haven’t seen what they mean.” Half of Canada’s oil goes to U.S. now Canada is one of the top three oil exporters to the United States, with more than half its output processed by U.S. refineries, while Canadian gas meets about 16 percent of U.S. needs.
A spokesman for the National Energy Board, which issues export permits, said he was not aware of any impediments to cross-border energy trade.
“The whole mandate of the board is to not introduce impediments — it’s market-based regulation,” he said.
Stringham said bilateral cooperation will be needed to develop a pipeline to ship gas from the North Slope and Canada’s Mackenzie Delta to the Lower 48 states.
But, even then, regulatory overlap or obstacles would be unlikely to slow approvals and development “because the market wants the gas so badly.”
One official in the federal Trade Department said an approach has been made to the Bush campaign to determine what the candidate is considering.
“Because it is an election campaign, we have to make sure here in Canada we understand full well what he is saying — is this just a slogan he’s using, or what?” the spokesman said.
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