The Single Greatest Economic Opportunity Alberta Has…

I am a proud Alberta boy that knows where and how my bread gets buttered, but I have to say that I am getting sick and tired of the whining that is coming from our Oil & Gas Industry.  Enough already about how we are being mistreated by the environmentalists and their “false” accusations and comparisons.  Jumping up and down and saying that they are wrong and pointing fingers at times may be necessary but it is never highly effective.

We seem to think that just because it is oil and that the world is going to continue to need it that the world should shut up, be happy we are developing it and let us look after our own backyard – after all we have the highest environmental standards in the world when it comes to heavy oil. I can’t say that I really disagree with this, except that it is bad practice and bad business.

There is no doubt that our heavy oil reserves are going to be developed but are we missing the bigger and longer term opportunity due to our attitude? I think so.

Environmental Management will become the biggest industry in the world in the next 25 years. Energy will be the largest sub-sector of Environmental Management. We have a global stage that has been created for us by the “evil environmentalist empire” (EEE). If we perform well we will not only ensure our oil has a strong market in the U.S, but also that we are the leaders in the global environmental management industry built on the expertise of our heavy oil reserves and our promotion by the EEE.

This “new” industry will grow as long as the world population grows. This cannot be said for the Oil & Gas industry whose remaining life span is about 150 years, provided no “alternative” energy displaces it sooner.  Don’t scoff at this notion; look at the advances of the world in the last 150 years! Also keep in mind innovation and adoption, (not to mention global population) are only speeding up. 150 years is but the blink of an eye and if we don’t want Alberta to become like a gold rush ghost town or dilapidated coal mining region, we need to face some hard facts.

Dave Taylor, former Alberta Liberal MLA set an inspiring target, (yes you are reading this correctly, “Liberal”) in his 2010 Oil & Gas Policy Platform – to produce the cleanest oil in the world from the oil sands. Crazy! I think not. It is possible we just need to grasp and manage the benefit of doing it.

I know a lot of people here think that global warming…oops I mean “Global Climate Change” is overblown, regardless Environmental Management is the greatest single economic opportunity this province has right now.