EDMONTON - Premier Ed Stelmach has a message for United States president-elect Barack Obama: You need Alberta's oilsands to provide cheap energy to help the sagging American economy.
Stelmach has been trying for months to convince U.S. policy makers that the production of oil and gasoline from tar-like bitumen in northern Alberta is no more harmful to the environment than other conventional sources of energy.
Obama and his advisers are among those who have condemned the U.S. reliance on "dirty" oil from various sources, including Alberta's oilsands.
But Stelmach is hoping that the president-elect will have a change of heart.
"Obama has moved millions of people and given them so much hope, especially those that are on the lower socio-economic ladder," he said Thursday.
"To provide that hope and to provide progress that is going to ease some of the pressures that people are experiencing today, he's going to need affordable energy."
Stelmach is emphatic in stating that Alberta expects a seat at the table during any talks aimed at reaching a climate change deal between the federal government and the United States.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government indicated this week that it will be making overtures to Washington about a climate change pact now that Obama has been elected president.
Stelmach said Alberta's voice needs to be heard because any deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would have a significant impact on major energy projects in the province.
"Whatever the agreement is it has to be fair to Albertans, who own the resources, and that's why we have to be at the table," he said.
Stelmach said Harper should not make the same mistake that former prime minister Jean Chretien made in negotiating the Kyoto climate change pact without consulting the provinces.
"Quite frankly, I have great confidence in Prime Minister Harper not to do what former prime minister Chretien did, and that was to just sign a deal and not tell the provinces anything about it."
The premier also suggested he won't support any deal that cools investment in Alberta's energy sector or one that ends up boosting the prices of fuel, electricity and home heating.
Any deal must provide "affordability" for consumers and "predictability" for businesses that will have to adapt to the new climate change rules, he said.
For years, Alberta has bristled at the prospect that tough federal climate change rules could dry up international investment in its multibillion-dollar oilsands projects.
Stelmach takes this type of investment so seriously that he's skipping next week's premiers meeting on the economy in favour of a 10-day trade mission to Europe to bolster investor confidence in the oilsands.
One of Alberta's biggest concerns in the negotiation of a climate change deal with the U.S. is that the federal government will agree to have Canada join an international trading system in which industry buys credits to offset its emissions.
This would send money out of Alberta that's needed for research on reducing emissions, said Stelmach.
"How does this encourage investment in new technology if the plan is to just send money some place else and you don't have any money left ... to actually invest in technology."
