22 LEXPERT
|
2017
|
WWW.LEXPERT.CA
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
Seldom, says Vivek Warrier, has there been a more interesting — or
challenging — time to be a corporate lawyer working in Canada's oil
and gas sector. Put aside, for a moment, that oil prices shrivelled from a
2014 high of US$112 to, at the time of this writing, US$49.50, putting
a severe revenue crimp on the Canadian oil and gas sector.
In North America's energy sector, the only thing more volatile and
unpredictable than fossil fuel prices has been US President Donald
Trump's protectionist rhetoric and his promises to strip away environ-
mental and other regulatory regimes burdening the US energy sector.
President Trump — whose rhetoric is different than that of Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau's on climate change — has oen tweeted his
skepticism about global warming.
He stated as much in 2012 when he tweeted, "Record setting cold
and snow, ice caps massive! e only global warming we should fear is
that caused by nuclear weapons - incompetent pols." As a result, the gap
in the philosophical and regulatory factors shaping US and Canadian
energy policies have been widening rapidly since the respective elec-
tions of President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau.
President Trump's concerns over the weight of environmental regu-
lations on US energy productivity and profitability is clear: between
US-CANADA POLICY
As US President
Donald Trump
moves to
deregulate the US
energy industries,
will Canada's
environmental
concerns in oil
and gas hurt
or help our
competitiveness?
By Anthony Davis
Neighbourly
Differences
