Alberta government continues with vague economic pronouncements
From the Canadian Press comes the announcement that the Alberta Government feels that it has the oilsands problem figured, since they announced that they have a 20 year plan. Directly from the Canadian Press:
The report says the energy industry should be required “to use best available technology” that is “economically achievable.” The fine print doesn’t cast much more light when it explains that this “refers to technology that can achieve superior performances and has been demonstrated to be economically feasible.”
Economically, such vague statements should be interpreted as advocating extremely uncertain outcomes, since available technology and costs are very difficult (if not impossible) to predict. If they actually advocate this idea as policy it means that they should mandate an acceptable rate of return on oilsands projects and hold companies to it. If so, then companies will have a very clear benchmark to compare to projects in other jurisdictions.
Even though they’re not well loved by the public right now, Ed and Mel should hire an economist. Not even for policy making but - kind of like experts do for technical subjects in films - at least critique the ideas so that the government doesn’t come off sounding incredibly stupid when they open their mouths. At minimum they should have someone with slight acumen that can determine what pronouncements add to economic uncertainty and which ones do not.
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