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Poor Rachel Notley. She’s spent so much of her political career telling people about the importance of social licence only to find out, in her hour of need, that the federal government won’t get her one.

No one would ever confuse the premier of Alberta for a stalwart friend of the province’s energy sector. But since this former oilsands critic became premier she has, at least, acknowledged a more realistic view of fossil fuels and their importance to a modern economy, and the need to get her province’s oil to tidewater for export. But she also told Albertans they would need to make sacrifices to win over opponents, demonstrating the province’s environmental bona fides, never mind the fact that Alberta’s oil was already the most environmentally friendly petroleum in the world. She imposed a carbon tax. She put caps on the oil sands. Albertans paid dearly for her plan.

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Alas, all those efforts have bought little support from B.C, where Notley’s fellow NDP premier, propped up by a handful of Green MLAs, isn’t about to let Alberta make any progress on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The federal government, too, despite the occasional supportive grunt, certainly doesn’t seem inclined to do much more than offer repeated, vague restatements about approved projects needing to move ahead.