In his Globe and Mail column of Wednesday, April 18, 2012 (What if the U.S. becomes an oil exporter?), Jeffrey Simpson points out that, with abundant natural gas, the Bakken field, and better fuel efficiency, the USA may, by 2030, not want Canadian (Alberta) oil. (Further, the world may wake up and decide that fossil hydrocarbons are better used to manufacture things than burn for energy.) Then what of Harper's and others hell-bent drive to develop the oil sands? Better to follow the Alberta NDP's plan to process the bitumen here.  Further, we should also export the resulting synthetic crude to Eastern Canada. Finally, we need to develop Alberta's abundant renewable energy--sun, wind, biomass, geothermal. See this link.