When you crunch the numbers, and include the variety of methods even the smaller players rely on to protect their exposure including long-term supply arrangements, hedging and access to rail, it turns out that only about 20 per cent of oilsands supply is actually affected by the light-heavy differential.

Unless it is weakened before legislation is tabled in the spring, B.C.’s ZEV mandate will be the strongest in North America, leapfrogging California, other U.S. states and Quebec.

Will a price on carbon be a central issue in Alberta's 2019 election? With opinion polls that show Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party has a wide lead over Premier Rachel Notley's NDP, and signs that oilpatch leaders are undermining the government's approach to pollution, the pressure is on for Notley's team to show their work on the economy, climate change and renewable energy issues.

The Alberta Energy Regulator efforts this week at damage control are nonsensical. It’s difficult to overstate the consequences of the predicament that the regulator – assumed to guard the public interest, but long since captured to serve industry – has plunged the province with a staggering unfunded liability for oil and gas cleanup.