"I’d Love To Double Canada’s Oil Production" Featuring Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta

Today we were thrilled to welcome Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta. Premier Smith was elected in October 2022 and previously served as MLA for Highwood and as Leader of the Official Opposition in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly. Most recently, she was President of the Alberta Enterprise Group. Before re-entering politics, Premier Smith spent several years as a talk radio host and has a diverse background spanning media, public policy, and business. As Premier, she has prioritized economic growth, energy development, and the defense of provincial jurisdiction. It was our honor to host the Premier for an insightful conversation on recent developments in Alberta and across Canada, the future of Canadian energy, and the evolving U.S.-Canada energy partnership.
 
In our conversation, we explore Canada’s historical energy policy challenges, including tensions between federal and provincial jurisdiction over natural resources, and Alberta’s vast oil and gas endowment. Premier Smith discusses shifting federal attitudes and growing recognition that national energy policy needs rebalancing and also outlines Alberta’s recent legislation aimed at streamlining energy project approvals and restoring international investment confidence. We discuss the need for durable, cross-party support to ensure long-term infrastructure investment, Alberta’s experience with Keystone XL, the risks posed by sudden policy reversal, and the recent surge in proposals for AI datacenters in Alberta. Premier Smith shares her perspective on the two sides of Prime Minister Carney (the pragmatic banker versus the GFANZ advocate), the history and impact of international campaigns to defund Canada’s oil sands, and Alberta’s “all of the above” approach to energy abundance. We examine Canada’s lagging economic growth relative to other developed countries, the hope for a shift back to a growth-oriented mindset toward energy development, and the potential for U.S.-Canada pipeline collaboration, particularly if projects are structured to reduce political risk by involving U.S. companies. We cover Canada’s LNG development, including the first shipment from Kitimat and growing momentum in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, natural gas’s long-term role as both a transition and destination fuel, the importance of integrating with the U.S. pipeline network, the need to resolve U.S.-Canada tariff disputes to unlock investment and advance cross-border energy partnerships, and more.
 
As mentioned, the letter from Canadian energy CEOs to the Prime Minister, “Build Canada Now: An Urgent Plan to Strengthen Economic Sovereignty,” is linked here. Premier Smith’s list of nine priorities for Alberta presented to the Prime Minister linked here. We greatly enjoyed the discussion and appreciate Premier Smith for joining.
 
Mike Bradley kicked off the show with commentary on U.S. markets, noting that both bond and equity markets were being negatively impacted by the rise in the 30-year bond yield above 5%. Despite June CPI printing slightly below expectations, U.S. bond yields moved higher on Tuesday. He added that June PPI, set to be reported on Wednesday, could pave the way for a rate cut at the September FOMC meeting if it too prints below expectations. On the crude oil market front, WTI price has pulled back ~$2/bbl (to $66.50/bbl) this week. Oil traders were hopeful that President Trump would impose new sanctions on Russian oil (as high as 500%), but he instead proposed a 50-day wait period before imposing a 100% sanction increase. Turning to energy equities, he highlighted that SLB will kick off Oil Services Q2 reporting on Friday, with the other Big 3 OFS names and pressure pumpers reporting