September 6, 2013
...Sources say Mr. Harper (click here) sent a letter in late August that urged joint action to reduce emissions in the oil and gas industry, and said Canada would work with the United States to provide political cover for the controversial pipeline project.
Mr. Obama is facing staunch opposition to the long-stalled, $5.3-billion (U.S.) project from the environmental movement and the left wing of his own party, and has said he won’t approve it if the pipeline leads to an increase in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.
The Prime Minister’s Office refused to confirm the existence of the letter on Friday, but said Mr. Harper raises the subject of Keystone XL every time he speaks to the President. The two were together at the Group of 20 meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, this week.
Ottawa has long pushed for a bilateral strategy on climate change, and is concerned that costly new regulations on the oil and gas industry will drive investment south to the booming American sector in the absence of similar U.S. rules....
Demonizing Coal and offering a solution through it's abandonment as a fuel source is only going to make people angry. Everyone involved with the brutal barrons of carbon fuels knows the coal mines will export. What difference will that make?
Latin America? The petroleum industry hates Latin America. The companies are owned by the government, NOT private industry. Everyone can look to Nigeria and see what happened there. The oil companies in Latin America are controlled by political pressures and that is the way it should be.
Why trust Wall Street to drain every drop of a nation's assets and leave nothing but tragedy in it's wake; ie: Ecuador. Harper knows nothing of what he speaks yet he speaks it as if an authority on selling Latin America oil. Mismanagement is in the eye of the beholder. What Wall Street calls mismanagement, others call prudent.
Energy monopolies in Latin America (click here) have proven highly susceptible to politicization, mismanagement, and corruption.
Three energy companies in particular—Brazil’s Petrobras, Mexico’s Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), and Venezuela’s Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA)—are instructive examples of how government intervention can render oil companies uncompetitive and unsustainable.
Professional management, transparency, free competition with private companies, and openness to foreign capital and technology can help state-owned energy companies maximize their potential and deliver optimal long-term dividends for their nations.
