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Alberta can hold its breath, stamp its feet and get red in the face.

But can Alberta do anything — other than get angry — about British Columbia’s attempt to block more diluted bitumen from crossing the Rocky Mountains?

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As Alberta’s cabinet held an emergency meeting Wednesday to ponder that very question, experts said they believe Premier Rachel Notley has few options — and even fewer good ones — to retaliate.

Suggestions of ramping up a political campaign, going to court, halting the expansion of interprovincial electricity trade or stopping oil headed into the lower B.C. mainland are all at Alberta’s disposal.

But, they add, any significant step could hurt Alberta and would risk escalating a brawl between two NDP governments with a profoundly different world view on oil pipelines.

Either way it shakes out, a rocky road lies ahead after the government of John Horgan announced Tuesday it will consider regulations to restrict additional diluted bitumen oil moving into B.C. by pipeline or rail as it seeks to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from being built.