Business As Usual

Up, Down.

2001 Monster's Ball, Marc Forster,
     Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry.
1963 Irma la Douce, Billy Wilder,
     Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine.
1994 Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone,
     Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis.
1991 Cape Fear, Martin Scorsese,
     Nick Nolte, Robert De Niro, Juliette Lewis.
1998 Wild Things, John McNaughton,
     Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, Bill Murray.
1980 American Gigolo, Paul Schrader,
     Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton.

Obama's Green Team (?)

General James Logan Jones Jr. USMC (Retired).

When he accepted his role in the Obama administration, Gen. Jones was chairman of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, a business-backed think tank that has several Canadian oil companies as supporting members.

Among its lengthy list of proposals aimed at boosting supply and reducing U.S. energy demand, the group warns against aggressive climate change policies that would undermine energy security or impose undue costs on the economy.



TRANSITION AT THE TOP - OBAMA'S GREEN TEAM, Shawn McCarthy, January 16, 2009.

OTTAWA -- After eight years of Republican rule, environmentalists now believe they have a keen ally moving into the White House next week, and Canada's oil sands are high on their list of targets.

But they'll have to deal with General James Jones.

As a monumental battle over energy policy shapes up within the new administration of president-elect Barack Obama, Gen. Jones, a former NATO supreme commander who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, may turn out to be Canada's best ally.

After next week's historic presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., he will be the new president's national security adviser, and has sent clear signals that he considers energy security to be a key part of his mandate.

The fate of Canada's carbon-heavy oil sands projects hangs on the outcome of the fight over U.S. energy policy and climate change, which pits the "hawks," pushing for tough new standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions, against the "pragmatists," urging a go-slow approach to ensure nothing undermines the economy or energy security.

Gen. Jones, as it turns out, delivered a message to closed-door meeting of business and government elites in Banff this fall that was music to the ears of his Alberta hosts.

Energy security is a critical and growing concern for American national security, Gen. Jones said in his keynote speech to an audience that included Americans and Mexicans, as well as Canadians.

His message in Banff this fall dovetails with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's pitch to the new administration for a continental climate change agreement that reflects the need for energy security and growing oil sands production.

When he accepted his role in the Obama administration, Gen. Jones was chairman of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, a business-backed think tank that has several Canadian oil companies as supporting members.

Among its lengthy list of proposals aimed at boosting supply and reducing U.S. energy demand, the group warns against aggressive climate change policies that would undermine energy security or impose undue costs on the economy.

And it advocates that the United States look to Canada and Mexico as strategic partners in providing growing sources of crude oil as it attempts to reduce its reliance on Middle East supplies.

Soon after his inauguration, Mr. Obama will travel to Ottawa to visit with Mr. Harper, his first foreign visit as president. The Prime Minister will make similar arguments to those put forward by Gen. Jones - that Canada is a critical source of secure energy and that the two countries need to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without hamstringing either the economy or Alberta's oil industry.

But while Gen. Jones and Mr. Harper will be urging caution in Mr. Obama's right ear, the new president will be getting a very different message from environmentalists in his left.

Mr. Obama has promised aggressive action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by boosting low-carbon sources of energy, improving energy efficiency and adopting national emissions standards that could penalize high-carbon sources like oil sands projects.

He has loaded his cabinet with advocates of action, including former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner in a new post as adviser for energy and climate change, and his energy secretary Stephen Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who has urged adoption of national emission caps.

But Gen. Jones and several economic advisers are expected to urge caution in moving ahead with costly regulations that could weaken an already fragile economy or interfere with the country's energy security agenda.

Included in that group is Lawrence Summers, Mr. Obama's top economic adviser, who clashed with Ms. Browner over environmental rules when he served as former president Bill Clinton's treasury secretary.

Gen. Jones's Institute for 21st Century Energy is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has provided one avenue for Canadian oil companies to use to help counter the opposition in the United States to oil sands development. At the same time, Canada's Ambassador Michael Wilson and Alberta's representative Gary Mar have aggressively lobbied senior members of the U.S. Congress and senior advisers surrounding Mr. Obama.

Alberta is spending $2-billion to develop the means of sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide underground, and the federal government is expected to unveil new incentives in its upcoming budget.

At confirmation hearings this week, Ms. Browner, Mr. Chu and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson vowed to move quickly on climate legislation, in some cases granting states the right to impose their own standards.

This week, a group of Canadian and American environmental groups wrote to the president-elect and key members of his cabinet, urging them to resist Ottawa's push to grant "a pass" to the oil sands in meeting greenhouse gas emission targets.

Congress is expected to tackle climate change legislation in the first half of this year, after Mr. Obama's stimulus package and a broader energy bill, says Liz Barratt-Brown, a senior attorney at Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council, whose group was a signatory to the letter.

She expects the new president to rebuff any Canadian effort to water down emission targets to protect the oil sands.

"This is a president who instinctively gets how serious the climate change threat is," Ms. Barratt-Brown said.

Even some business groups are pressing for climate legislation that could force oil companies to spend on costly emission reductions programs, far beyond what the Alberta or federal government are requiring. Yesterday in Washington, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership issued a call for action that would include tough emission targets - including on imported oil - and low-carbon fuel standards that environmentalists insist would disadvantage the oil sands.

The USCAP includes blue-chip companies like General Electric Co. and Dow Chemical Co., and even heavy emitters like utility giant Duke Power Co. and oil major ConocoPhillips Co.

*****

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

CAROL BROWNER Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change. Former EPA administrator under president Bill Clinton supported U.S. signing on to Kyoto Protocol, and was active in environmental groups backing a national cap-and-trade system.

STEVEN CHU Energy Secretary. Former head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, he directed research on renewable energy. A staunch advocate of national greenhouse gas emissions standards.

LISA JACKSON Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency. New Jersey state environmental administrator, chairwoman of the northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which established a cap-and-trade system among northeastern power utilities.

*****

NATIONAL SECURITY

JAMES L. JONES National Security Adviser. Former NATO supreme commander, Marine Corps four-star general, CEO of business-backed Institute for 21st Century Energy, which backed offshore drilling and energy trade with Canada and Mexico and opposed aggressive emission caps.

HILLARY CLINTON Secretary of State. Former first lady and senator, who supported Senate legislation for national emissions standards, but insisted foreign countries must also embrace standards. At confirmation hearing said climate change and energy security are joint challenges.

ROBERT GATES Defence Secretary, served as President George W. Bush's defence secretary. Department is world's largest consumer of fuel, and was prohibited in 2007 energy bill from buying unconventional, high-carbon fuel as secure alternative to imports. Many see it applying to oil sands.

*****

ECONOMY

LAWRENCE SUMMERS Director of the National Economic Council. Former Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Opposed the Kyoto accord, is a backer of a carbon tax, rather than the cap-and-trade system proposed by most of the Obama team.

TIMOTHY GEITHNER Treasury Secretary. Former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (part of the U.S. central bank), participated in bailout of financial institutions last fall. Lobbied heavily by businesses who say new carbon emission caps would hurt weakened economy.

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