Video: Oil Patch Canadians Wary of Obama's 'Anti-Hydrocarbon' Policy

A public forum at NYU's Center for Global Affairs last week provided a snapshot of how oil patch Canadians view the Obama administration's concern about about climate change and President Obama's upcoming visit this Thursday: warily, and perhaps even with barely concealed hostility.

Canada's Consul General in New York, Daniel Sullivan, introduced the panel discussion with these words:

Canada, not Saudi Arabia, is the #1 foreign supplier of crude oil to the United States. ... I think the United States can feel very secure that it has Canada as a secure and very reliable source of energy.

That was a bit of diplomatic code that really meant this: Why would the U.S. want to mess up a good thing by worrying too much about climate change and restricting the development and the vast profits that could flow from the tar sands?

Indeed, that was the theme that all the speakers touched on, including Edward Morse, who characterized Obama's energy policy as "anti-hydrocarbon." He suggested in so many words that Obama's advisers should think about whether dirty oil from Canada is better than bloody oil from the Middle East, Venezuela or Russia.

Morse hails from a firm called LCM Commodities. It's an independent brokerage firm that focuses on energy markets. It touts its own discretion this way:

Our clients can open positions without declaring their intentions to the open outcry market. For example, we can take a specific interest from an independent oil company directly to a large hedge fund without alerting the pool of middle men — who might otherwise affect the price or size available.

Morse promoted a cover story on resource nationalism that he just published in a journal called the Geopolitics of Energy, published by the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI). On the panel with Morse was Carmen Dybwad, a vice -president from CERI, whose industry-heavy Board of Directors can be viewed here. Also on the panel was Joseph Doucet, the Enbridge Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Alberta School of Business. Enbridge operates, in Canada and the U.S., the world's longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system.

Missing from the panel was anyone who could speak with authority or true concern from an environmental perspective — all the main panelists were thoroughly oil-soaked in their experience and thinking. They paid lip service to "environmental issues" but not a peep emerged about the devastating and comprehensive environmental critique of the tar sands contained in a widely-acclaimed book by Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk.

Still, it was a very revealing evening as these oil patch Canadians sat upon the stage flanked by the flags of both Canada and the U.S., bracing themselves for Obama's visit. They regard climate change as a "U.S. problem" — a bothersome concern suddenly thrust upon their petro-state from a new American administration.

Their presentation failed terribly in one fundamental regard: in recognizing that climate change is a real global problem requiring a global response  — including Canada's — and not merely a passing customer issue coming from their biggest energy client.

Have a look at the video and see for yourself.