EDITORIAL: Biden's energy plans will impact Canada

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s energy policies are going to have an impact on Canada far beyond his cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, which was a foregone conclusion.

The first question is whether Biden will bring in a national carbon tax for the United States, given that on his first day in office the U.S. rejoined the Paris climate agreement that it withdrew from under Donald Trump.

Unlike Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Biden didn’t campaign on bringing in a national carbon tax.

But he did pledge “an enforcement mechanism that includes milestone (greenhouse gas emission reduction) targets no later than the end of his first term in 2025.”

He’s also said his administration “will impose carbon adjustment fees or quotas on carbon-intensive goods from countries that are failing to meet their climate and environmental obligations.”

Since the U.S. has been far more successful at reducing its emissions than Canada, this raises the question of whether Biden would impose this on Canadian goods exported to the United States, in the name of defending American industries from unfair competition.

Canadian clean energy firms may be able to benefit from Biden’s massive $2-trillion plan to promote green energy in the U.S. in his first term, although Biden’s Buy American philosophy, one of the few things he and Trump agreed on, could hinder that effort.

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Biden and Trudeau agree on reducing their nation’s respective greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Biden has committed to reducing emissions generated by the U.S. electricity sector to net zero by 2035, while the Trudeau government intends to do the same thing by 2030, given Canada’s limited use of coal power to produce electricity compared to the United States.

Biden has also pledged to end fossil fuel subsidies in the U.S. and transition away from oil.

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That’s similar to Trudeau’s commitment to end “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies and his intention to “phase out” Canada’s oilsands over the long term.

With the Trudeau administration having failed to convince Biden to approve the Keystone XL project (just as Stephen Harper was unable to convince Barack Obama), Trudeau’s biggest challenge going forward will be to make sure that Biden’s green energy policies don’t unfairly side-swipe Canada.