Alberta is about to get blind-sided by China.

No matter the question, the answer for Alberta’s oil and gas industry is always the same: more pipelines. Worried about the Trump administration’s ongoing threats to Canada’s economic and political sovereignty? Just build a pipeline. Nervous about the long-term impacts of the war in Iran on global energy markets? Just build a pipeline. You almost have to admire the message discipline, even if that message was created in — and for — a world that no longer exists. 

David Knight Legg, a former principal adviser to Jason Kenney’s government and longstanding industry booster, offered a reminder of that in a recent piece for the National Post. In it, he suggests that “China is in the middle of an urgent search for diversified, dependable supply to reduce its energy vulnerability. Canada is perfectly positioned to meet Chinese demand.” Implicit here is the notion that Chinese oil demand will continue to grow for decades to come, since it would make no sense to build a new pipeline — an asset that needs decades to pay off its investment — to supply a market where demand is declining. 

Ramping up oil exports to meet Chinese demand might have made sense a decade ago, when China’s embrace of renewable technology was still in its infancy and the economic and geo-strategic dividends it creates weren’t as obvious as they are today. It makes absolutely no sense today, when China is in the midst of re-wiring the entire global economy with its solar panels, electric vehicles,........

© National Observer