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Green the oil sands or kill the oil sands?
Those are the clashing views of two clean-tech advocates — Jim Balsillie, the Canadian co-founder of Research In Motion, now BlackBerry Ltd.; and Tom Steyer, the U.S. clean-tech promoter, former hedge fund billionaire and leading man in the campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline.
Both were hard at work this week. In a speech in Vancouver Wednesday, Mr. Balsillie, now chairman of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), said framing the debate as “for or against the oil sands” is unproductive and will “keep us from moving forward in a meaningful way.”
It’s innovation that will “truly put ourselves on a path towards sustainability,” he said. “Given our current capacities, radically reversing our natural resource policies is tantamount to economic and political suicide.”
Of course it is. The oil sands grew in the past couple of decades to become a Canadian economic stalwart. How? Through innovation that turned oil-soaked sand into a resource that could be sold to an energy-hungry world at an economic cost.
In 2012, oil sands production supported more than 478,000 direct, indirect and induced Canadian jobs — 3% of all jobs in the country — contributed $91-billion of Canada’s gross domestic product and involved annual capital spending that is greater than the GDP of half of the Canadian provinces, according to a study released in February by IHS CERA.
Oil and refined petroleum products make up a quarter of Canadian exports and perceptions that production will be constrained by lack of pipeline capacity is weighing down the Canadian dollar, according to Scotiabank commodities analyst Patricia Mohr.
Oil sands innovation is hardly at a standstill. Industry is deploying more capital than ever to lessen the environmental impact through organizations such as Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, investments in carbon capture and storage, and the organization Mr. Balsillie represents, SDTC, a government fund that supports 246 companies in the clean-tech sector with a market value of $2.2-billion.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://business.financialpost.com/2014/03/26/oil-sands-clean-tech-clash-jim-balsillie-looks-to-innovate-as-tom-steyer-sticks-with-pipeline-putdowns/?__lsa=90b5-3e4b