With oil prices falling, much of the runaway expansion planned for Alberta's oilsands has been put on hold for now. Could this be an opportunity. Globe and Mail energy reporter Shawn McCarthy explores that question.

From the Jan. 30 Globe and Mail:

In the absence of a headlong rush for development, there is a chance for the industry and governments to reassess their approach to the oil sands, to make projects more environmentally and commercially sustainable.

For companies, that means a sharp focus on driving down costs, in some cases by adopting new technology that will reduce energy use and therefore greenhouse-gas emissions.

For federal and provincial governments, it means concluding a North American agreement on climate change that will drive major emission reductions in greenhouse gases, not merely impose a small tax on polluting — and at least asking whether there should be a more orderly pace, and even limits, to oil-sands expansion.

For both governments and the industry, there is now an opportunity to demonstrate and commercialize new technology — from carbon capture and storage to new extraction processes — that are now more promise than reality.

What is needed is nothing less than a national energy and environment strategy.

Such a plan, developed by Ottawa in consultation with the provinces, would place the oil-sands development in a broader energy strategy — one that acknowledges the need for secure sources of transportation fuel, but also the reality of a carbon-constrained world in which the price of emitting greenhouse gases will have to be reflected in energy use, from the wellhead to the tailpipe.