Montana has stake in resolution of U.S.-Canada issues

February 22,2009

The signal it sent to Canadians is that we're all in this together, and that their issues matter to the new U.S. administration.

No where on this side of the border do those issues matter more than in Montana,which shares economic and cultural traits with western Canada, along with 500 miles of border.

Lately,Canada also has shared in the worldwide recession, and that was a chief topic of discussion between Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

As America's closest neighbors and most important trading partners,Canadians were especially concerned about "buy American" provisions inthe recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Obama sought to reassure them by pointing out that language added to thefinal bill gives precedence to the terms of existing trade deals,including the North American Free Trade Agreement and the older bilateral trade deal with Canada.

Montanans have more reason to be aware of and care about Canadian issues than most Americans.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

First,unlike along most of the U.S.-Canada frontier, there are far more people and industries north of our stretch of border than south of it.

In fact, the entire population of Montana is less than that of each of Alberta's major cities, Calgary and Edmonton.

Second,commerce between Montana and Canada is rich and growing. The border is criss crossed by pipelines and power lines, and the prospect for more is great — including the Montana-Alberta Tie Line to connect the U.S.power grid at Great Falls to the Canadian grid at Lethbridge, and the Keystone XL pipeline to carry Alberta crude oil to Texas refineries.
Obama said such power line hookups offer great opportunity for both nations as wind power is developed in rural areas.

That makes a lot of sense.

"The49th parallel is not a hermetically sealed border," Gordon Griffin,former U.S. ambassador to Canada, told the Toronto Globe and Mail. "We share the air, we share the water, and there is a sense that the Obama administration is interested in working out these problems together."

The United States imports more energy, especially oil, from Canada than from anywhere else.

Critics in the United States complain about the carbon footprint of the massive oil sands development in northern Alberta, which is the source of much of the oil Canada sends south.

In fact, a small player up there is Connacher Oil and Gas, which owns the Montana Refinery here in Great Falls.

Critics say the process by which the Alberta oil is extracted contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than other oil sources, because the oil sand is, in effect, mined, and the oil is cooked out of it.

Congress is considering legislation that would limit importation of such oil,and Harper has been seeking exemption from the limits.

Among other things, he says Canadians would see that move by Congress as hypocritical protectionism in light of the relatively unregulated carbon footprint of coal generation in the United States.

He has a point.

Harper and Obama didn't get deeply into the subject during Thursday's whirlwind visit to Ottawa, but it clearly is on both leaders' agendas.

Howit develops — regarding both oil and coal — is likely to have a major impact on Montana, because of the state's proximity to the oil sands and the state's huge coal deposits.

Other issues exist between Canada and Montana — security and beef and lumber exports among them — but based on this week's discussions in Ottawa,energy promises to be on the front burner in the coming years.

It will behoove us all to pay closer attention to what's happening north of the border.