There is chatter on the national campaign trail of Canada building new pipelines to transport Alberta crude oil and natural gas to destinations across the country, including BC’s coast, Hudson Bay and Atlantic refineries.

Even though the last thing the world needs right now is more carbon dioxide emissions driving crazier and deadlier fires, floods and droughts, there is one glaring question this conjecture demands: Who do we think is going to buy our expensive, carbon-intensive oil? 

This vexingly obvious question is missing from the current federal election, and it's conspicuously absent from budget discussions in Alberta. Before anyone gets too excited about spending tens of billions of dollars on another pipeline — and before we miss the chance to have a rational conversation about revenue in Alberta — we had better consider this basic element of consumer economics: You need both a buyer and a seller in any financial transaction. 

More than 97 per cent of Canada's oil exports and about half of our natural gas are sold to the United States to be refined, used and........

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