The Frontier Centre for Public Policy is a Winnipeg based, independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit, research and educational institution whose mission is to explore options for the future by undertaking research and education that supports economic growth and opportunity. FCPP does not accept government funding.
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New Canadian and U.S. Policies Must Incite Better North American Collaborations
By Maureen McCall
At the start of January 2025, new potential U.S. policies were being announced daily in the lead-up to and following the presidential inauguration on Jan 20, 2025. Most are a sharp departure from the Biden administration’s policies and are stirring up public and political reaction north and south of the Canada/U.S. border.
For example, on Jan. 7, 2025, in a press conference following his Jan 6th certification, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump suggested Canada should become the 51st state of the United States, declaring that he’s open to using “economic force” to acquire Canada. This suggestion seemed far from becoming policy, but it incited a strong reaction in Canada, especially from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who posted, “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” on the social media platform X.
Already on day seven of the new year, 2025 was developing as a year of heightened political bluster and conflict which begs the question – Can new policy incite collaboration rather than inciting conflict? Can effective energy policy emerge in this environment of escalating competition?
Energy policy reflects the bias of the political party in power for the most part. Globally, 2024 was a year of change in the attitudes to energy that have prevailed for the last decade. It was a year where sixty-four countries plus the European Union were electing governments and the results reflected a global dissatisfaction with incumbent governments and economic decline. Many left-leaning governments that were associated with strong policies of energy transition and Net Zero fell to right-leaning representatives. It was possibly the year that the infatuation with the music of Net Zero died. In this climate of dissatisfaction, how effectively can Canada and the U.S. adjust energy policy – some of it entrenched after a period of four to seven years?
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2024 was a year in which some of the assumptions of Net Zero theory were discredited. The idea that an energy transition won’t reduce prosperity is in question as many of the countries in the EU that have enthusiastically embraced energy transition policies are currently suffering economically. The idea that the Net Zero agenda will have no negative effects doesn’t ring true. Despite the growing consensus that economies must turn away from Net Zero, there is still a very loud and well-funded media and activist class that has been built up over the last decade and is continuing to oppose messages that run counter to the Net Zero climate agenda.
U.S. energy policies
In the U.S., analysts have detailed how the energy transition to Net Zero which promised a transition to greener sources of energy is causing governments to run massive deficits according to Doug Sheridan, Founder of Energy Point Research Inc. The U.S. government is no exception so far in 2025, having already spent $624 billion more than it has collected in fiscal year (FY) 2025 (since Oct 2024), resulting in a national deficit according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Support is collapsing for the Net Zero Bank Alliance (NZBA) which was formed to leverage financial sector support to decarbonize the world’s economies in alignment with the Paris Accord. America’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co. was the last of the giant U.S. banks to exit NZBA on Jan. 7th, leaving just three small American banks in the alliance as U.S. congress members warn U.S. banks that their participation in NZBA and other climate alliances raises antitrust concerns. NZBA is part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) which is co-chaired by Mark Carney, former Bank of Canada governor, advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister and possible Canadian Liberal party leadership candidate together with the founder of Bloomberg L.P., Michael R. Bloomberg.
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There is a growing suspicion that deficits and negative economic impacts may be an inevitable outcome of the climate agenda and are not a miscalculation or a misapplication of policy principles.
Champions of more traditional energies are emerging in the U.S. such as Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy who is now appointed to lead the Department of Energy. Wright is a strong defender of the oil and gas industry and says an emphasis on “all of the above energies” is unproductive. He sees a more important emphasis for messaging and focus on energy that is “affordable, reliable and secure.” Understandably this would steer U.S. policy focus toward traditional hydrocarbons that are plentiful as well as affordable, reliable and secure. In Liberty Energy’s publication entitled “Bettering Human Lives”, there is a chapter on the four pillars of civilization which are listed as cement, steel, plastics and petrochemicals, and fertilizers. Wright describes how as demand continues to rise globally there’s been pressure for policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with wealthy countries attempting to hit their emission targets by displacing energy-intensive manufacturing to other countries. He points out rather wisely that this has not changed the demand for the products but rather it has pushed energy-intensive manufacturing to lower-income countries that have higher GHG emission emitting energy sectors. He cites a statistic that in 2024 China consumed 70 exajoules for manufacturing annually compared to the United States’ annual consumption of 20 exajoules in the two years from 2020 and 2021. (Note- 1 exajoule (EJ) is a quantity of energy equal to 947.8 trillion British thermal units (TBtu) 277.8 terawatt hours (TWh) 23.88 million tonne(s) of oil equivalent (Mtoe) 34.12 million tonne(s) of coal equivalent (Mtce).)
He also cites that in those two years 2020 and 2021, China produced as much cement as the U.S. did in the entire 20th century. The displacement of manufacturing from the U.S. or Europe where natural gas is the dominant industrial fuel to Asia’s coal-dominant manufacturing sector increases global greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter and other global air pollutants. He concludes that while this transfer has reduced the overall production cost of the four pillars of civilization and their countless derivatives, the carbon footprint of that combined production has increased. He points out that manufacturing of everything- not just of those four pillars of civilization is the largest consumer of primary energy. Thus, we have the challenge of finding policies that provide sufficient energy to meet increasing demand that truly reduce emissions instead of just offshoring them. In addition to issues of emissions, affordability and reliability, sound energy policy has to address issues of national security and geopolitics. A bi-partisan approach to policy could be the solution.
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Five well-advised energy policies to address these issues promoted recently by Roger Pielke Jr. Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder are as follows:
1 The U.S. restart of LNG permitting to increase exports of natural gas for the geopolitical stability of their allies and trading partners in Europe and Asia.
- The core of existing legislated U.S. energy provisions that provide energy tax breaks for energy-related related investments-including those for low emissions technologies should be preserved.
- A national policy to modernize the U.S.’s power grids should be adopted because, after years of stagnant electricity demand, the grids are outdated. With the U.S. urgency to electrify the economy, policies to speed up permitting for transmission lines and infrastructure should be implemented with bipartisan legislation.
- Policies to increase investment in American workers, especially in trades to remedy drastic shortages should be implemented with partnerships between high schools, technical institutes and universities to advance training.
- Policies that tackle global energy poverty are needed. Climate change and energy security concerns are overshadowed globally by energy poverty. Policies to expand access in developing countries for basics – cleaner fuels for cooking, heating and lighting beyond minimal levels should be sought.
In his press conference on Jan 7th, Trump also proudly announced a new $20 billion foreign investment from the company DAMAC Properties to build new data centers in the US and true to his intentions to promote industry he declared he will expedite the environmental approvals process. Overwrought permitting regulations have become a roadblock to energy development projects in the US and in a greater extent in Canada. Policies to achieve this end would benefit both countries. Trump also promised to immediately reduce Biden’s ban on offshore drilling on day one as well as reverse spending/subsidies for new green energy projects which Trump colourfully identifies as “the green new scam”. All exaggeration aside, the case has been by many analysts and economists that subsidies for green energies are not sustainable and that many green energy companies will not be able to survive without them long term.
Coming next- Part 2- Possible Canadian energy policy directions to pursue
Maureen McCall is an energy professional who writes on issues affecting the energy industry.
- 0088 WBPC_2025_30SEC_PROMO0088 WBPC_2025_30SEC_PROMO
- 0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
- 0086 Sask Gov Oil and Gas Incentive Programs0086 Sask Gov Oil and Gas Incentive Programs
- 0085 Turnbull snow removal call office0085 Turnbull snow removal call office
- 0084 EMP Metals Pipeline Online0084 EMP Metals Pipeline Online
- 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
- 0076 Latus only0076 Latus only
- 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
- 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
- 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
- 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
- 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
- 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
- 0022 Grimes winter hiring
- 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
- 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
- 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
- 0011
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- 0002 gilliss casing services0002 gilliss casing services
- 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
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