This article states that due to new technology available, the US is now able to access and drill previously unavailable oil. This put’s our large neighbour in place to be the largest oil producing company in the world – above even Saudi Arabia. But how does this affect Canada? Well the United States are the primary importer of canadian oil, and have long been considered a permanent customer for all the excess oil canadian companies can get their hands on.
If the States were to become self sufficient for oil production, the repercussions to Canada would be drastic. Our GDP would suffer from the drastic drop in exports, tons of Canadian jobs would be lost, and many Canadian oil companies would go bankrupt. This would cause a decline in the Canadian oil industry, which is very bad news in contrast to the growth the industry has been experiencing.
Although the Unites States increase in oil production may be bad news for the Canadian economy, I think it is good news for the environment. The consumption of oil products for fuel is detrimental to the environment, and having less demand for Canadian oil will be an incentive for Canadian companies to switch out of the dirty oil market and into cleaner fuel sources.