How Alberta And The Keystone XL Pipeline Can Learn From Quebec's Failed Great Whale Project

Alberta, and by extension Canada, is learning a lesson Quebec learned the hard way 20 years ago.

U.S. opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline has been galvanized by less than favourable attention on Canada's recent environmental record and the manner in which Alberta's tar sands are exploited. The same is somewhat true in British Columbia and Quebec, where there is opposition to new pipeline routes from Alberta to the Pacific and the Atlantic, respectively.

If Albertan oil cannot be exported, then it will be stranded and its price heavily discounted. This will not just affect oil producers, but also Alberta's finances and the Canadian economy as a whole.

It threatens to be Alberta's Great Whale.