Four of Canada’s largest oil companies have been meeting privately with representatives of major environmental groups, looking for a “compromise” that might pave the way for approval of at least one new tar sands/oil sands pipeline, the Globe and Mail reports.
Senior executives from Suncor Energy, Cenovus Energy Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have held meetings with prominent environmentalists with whom they shared a stage when Premier Rachel Notley unveiled her climate plan last fall, the paper reports, citing Suncor’s vice-president for sustainability, Arlene Strom.
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The meetings began in 2014 and are aimed at breaking “out of the polarized debate” and finding “common ground…around the need for climate action,” the Globe reveals. Strom said she’s “very pleased with where we are right now.”
The reports indicates that the Calgary-based Pembina Institute “has shifted ground since the Liberals were elected on the promise of climate action and Ms. Notley released her policy.” Executive Director Ed Whittingham said the organization is focusing “on what pipelines would do to increase upstream emissions” of greenhouse gases, rather than campaigning against pipeline projects.
Toronto-based Environmental Defence supports Alberta’s climate plan but “maintains its opposition to new pipelines,” the Globe notes, on the basis that “the industry cannot continue to expand emissions if Canada is to meet its international commitments.”
