Pelosi to Canadians: I'm Ready to Run Your Economy Too
The Canadian press is humming with gossip that what the powerful House Speaker really wants to talk about is Alberta's "oil sands."
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be in Ottawa to attend a meeting of the G-8 Speakers. But the buzz around town and across Canada has nothing to do with the official summit agenda. Ms. Pelosi, along with Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey (co-author of the House's climate and energy bill), will be having dinner tonight with Ed Stelmach, premier of Canada's energy-rich Albert province.
Mr. Stelmach won't be only the Canadian at the table. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Quebec Premier Jean Charest will be dining too. But while the discussion is officially slated to focus on the broad topic of "energy security," the Canadian press is humming with gossip that what the powerful House Speaker really wants to talk about is Alberta's "oil sands."
A boom is underway in Northern Alberta to extract the gooey, thick tar and convert it to oil for refining into gasoline. But environmentalists hate the oil sands, calling them the worst climate-offending energy source of all, and almost no one expects Mrs. Pelosi is on an intellectually honest mission. As columnist Don Martin wrote in Canada's National Post, "A suspicious observer would think Wednesday's visit to Ottawa will be more about gathering input for a future trash-talking of the Alberta and Saskatchewan oilsands than a unbiased hearing of the facts."
Just a few months ago 50 Democrats signed a letter against a new pipeline to carry oil from northern Alberta to Texas refineries. But despite the giddiness of some of Canada's own environmentalists over the prospect of Madam Speaker dropping her gavel on Alberta's energy economy, reality is certain to intrude. The tar sands not only account for thousands of high-paying jobs in Canada, but 10% of U.S. fossil fuel imports. As Mr. Stelmach made clear at a press conference on Tuesday: "Our goal . . . is to appeal to her sense of reason, to communicate very clearly that we continue to be focused on environmental improvement in developing oil sands."
With just a hint of iron fist, he added: "We are the Number One supplier of energy to the United States and I believe her state of California -- well, we are the Number One supplier of natural gas to California. She may be aware of it, she may be not -- but it's an opportunity to chat."
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