Troubles with Seven Decades of Canadian/United States Oil Trade

Abstract

In May 2023, we described the complexities of the energy market links between the United States and Canada due to national politics, US federal permitting policy, and the power of special interest groups.¹ Yet, for more than a century, the US and Canada have worked through those challenges to develop an integrated North American energy market. Major energy infrastructure projects—pipelines and electric transmission lines—and an institutional ecosystem to foster competitive development of resources mean that energy trade between these two countries remains essential. Recent legal woes related to Enbridge Line 5 strain that relationship.²