Article content continued

The UN graciously excludes “other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions sources, such as those associated with the construction of equipment (which) are relatively small and therefore not considered.” So, oil and gas producers won’t have to go all the way back to tally up the GHG emissions associated with producing their drilling equipment, trucks, pipeline segments, or the materials used to build the materials used to produce said equipment. That’s a silver lining, since one can only imagine the recursive navel-gazing that would be required to calculate the GHG emissions leading up to the fabrication of the staples used in the administration centers.

Second, set a course to delay. Decisions on the proposed twinning of the Trans Mountain Project will be set back at least four months with additional consultations, community involvement and, critically, this new process that must “assess the upstream greenhouse gas emissions associated with this project and make this information public.”

And what does this mean for Canada’s oil and gas sector? Well, a self-inflicted public relations problem, for one thing. Canadian oilsands do take more energy to produce than many other types of oil, they must be heavily processed before they can be used, and they must be transported long distances to reach markets. The new requirements will almost certainly boost estimates of the greenhouse gas intensity of oil sand production compared to alternative sources of hydrocarbons. Environmental groups will latch onto these upstream estimations with glee, further raising the barriers that Canadian companies must overcome to obtain what is an increasingly Will-O’-the-Wisp-like “social licence” to develop and export Canada’s oil and gas resources.