(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Quebec's energy minister Pierre Arcand made the rounds with
Obama administration officials yesterday pushing for the EPA to allow
states to take into account imports of Canadian renewable energy - see:
Quebec-based hydropower - in complying with the agency's proposed
greenhouse gas controls for power plants.
"Our message was very simple:
Here in North America, we are at what we call the epicenter of energy
where we have gas, we have green electricity coming from Quebec...we are
fighting climate change," Arcand told ME, between meeting with Sens.
Jeanne Shaheen and Angus King. "We can provide solutions to many U.S.
states and the U.S. states can provide solutions for us," he added,
noting Quebec could start importing shale gas from the U.S. instead of
Alberta in the next five years.
"It's much closer. It's much more good
for us to have that," he said. Arcand also met with FERC Chairwoman
Cheryl LaFleur, the Energy Department's Jonathan Pershing and officials
at the White House and State Department. "In all of those exchanges I
think that what we need is a better understanding and more win-win
situation," Arcand said.
