U.S. Consul General Laura Lochman acknowledged the importance of the oilsands to her country when she visited the Lakeland region last week.
“Canada is our strongest, safest, most reliable foreign supplier of energy,” Lochman said. “In that regard obviously the oilsands play an extremely important role.”
Lochman, Consul General of the U.S. for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, visited Cold Lake last week to learn more about oilsands development in northeast Alberta, as well as to catch some of the Maple Flag training at 4 Wing.
While here, Lochman toured operations with Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil Resources, and on the bombing range.
She said the purpose of her visit was to report back to Washington on developments in northeast Alberta and what technologies are being developed to reduce environmental impact. At a press conference in Cold Lake she said the tours showed her the amount of progress made toward developing technologies to reduce environmental footprint.
“The U.S. administration is very focused on the necessity to reduce our carbon emissions and to transition to a less carbon intensive economy. That transition is beginning but it will be slow and we will be reliant on fossil fuels for decades, so we do need to have a secure supply as a matter of economic and national security and Canada plays a key role in that regard.”
She said although there are environmental impacts with energy development, she would like to see the countries work together to address and mitigate environmental concerns.
She said she noticed that the difference between cyclic steam stimulation and steam assisted gravity drainage technologies employed in the Lakeland region versus oilsands mining is that CSS and SAGD have less of an environmental footprint. Another area of improvement, she noted, is the Canada U.S. Clean Energy Dialogue started in 2009 to develop clean energy technologies.
“It's getting a bit more of the facts out on the table,” said Keith Chiasson, Cold Lake operations manager for Imperial Oil Resources. He said his company has reduced freshwater use by 85 per cent in recent decades and that the company is reducing its environmental footprint, an accomplishment it is eager to share.
Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said a reason he organized the visit was his dissatisfaction with oilsands branding coming out of the U.S. He said if the provincial government isn't willing to lead, he's willing to try his best to improve the image of the energy industry.
“We're in a unique situation here in Cold Lake where we have something that I don't think exists anywhere else. We have a large fighter base with the oil industry right in our backyard… We're not the tarsands. We're not part of the duck situation.”
He said considering the amount of money that goes to Ottawa and Edmonton from the oil industry in royalties, local politicians need to stand behind 4 Wing and the oil industry.
4 Wing invited Lochman to the base for a briefing on the relationship between the base and the oil and gas industry.
“We worked hard with the oil companies to make sure that the impact is minimal,” said Col. David Wheeler, commander of 4 Wing.
“We use oil and gas in our operations so we understand how this is very important to Canada and to Alberta to extract oil and gas out of the range.”
Cameron Kopansky, spokesman for Cenovus Energy, said he welcomed the visit as a way to demonstrate the company's commitment to community.
“This is a way that we can get that message out. Transparency is really the key to winning the public's trust.”
For Kopansky, the more people visiting Cenovus Energy's operations, the better. He said the company aims to find new ways to increase energy efficiency and lessen the impact on the environment. He said Lochman's visit provided the opportunity to challenge misconceptions about SAGD operations.
“It's a continuous reinforcement of what we believe is a proper way of operating and a good way of moving forward.”
Lochman said Alberta's relationship with the U.S. is strong in energy and agricultural trade. She noted longstanding ties culturally between Alberta and the U.S.
Alberta is the largest supplier of energy to the U.S. in oil and gas.
