CALGARY—It is not just Canada’s environmentalists who have cause to hope Alberta’s decision to embrace the fight against global warming will be a game-changer. So does the oilsands industry.

The adoption by NDP premier Rachel Notley’s of an aggressive plan — by past Alberta standards — to reduce the province’s carbon emissions comes at a time when the industry has run out of options other than a major rebranding to advance its pipeline agenda.

While some of Canada’s leading energy corporations had already come around to the necessity of a recast, it is an objective they had little chance of attaining on their own.

Without a change in the climate change mindset and tone of both the federal and Alberta governments, efforts on the part of the industry to showcase itself as a constructive participant in the environment conversation came across as self-serving spin.

The election in quick succession of the NDP in Edmonton and the Liberals in Ottawa has provided an unexpected opportunity for a realignment.

As recently as last winter both results seemed improbable. This unprecedented political combination has thrown the industry out of its comfort zone, but one could argue that zone had become a deep rut.

In its dying days, the Alberta Conservative dynasty lacked the intellectual energy to think out of the box and reset the province’s energy-environment agenda. On Parliament Hill, the ruling Conservatives had become too entrenched in their anti-carbon-pricing rhetoric to recast their position along more productive lines.

From a marketing perspective, the early returns from the Alberta announcement have been promising, with former American vice-president Al Gore — probably the best-known climate champion on the planet — tweeting his approval.

Canada has been singled out for the wrong reasons at just about every international climate conference since the arrival in 2006 of a Conservative federal government. Next week’s gathering in Paris is lining up to be different.

But it is not just or even mostly on the international scene that Canada’s oil industry stands to benefit from a greener Alberta profile and a more activist federal approach to climate change.

This new approach may amount to the last best chance to lift a variety of domestic pipeline projects off the drawing board

In the best-case scenario for the industry, it will shore up the hand of some of Notley’s fellow premiers as they try to bring a reluctant public opinion around to the necessity of expanding Canada’s pipeline network through their territories.

There is stiff resistance to the building of new pipelines in every region of the country outside of the Prairies. That includes Atlantic Canada, where provincial efforts to tout the economic benefits of the Energy East pipeline have so far failed to bring a majority on side with TransCanada’s project.

Under Notley’s plan, some of Alberta’s oil might end up staying in the ground. But then, so will it if none of the pipeline projects get off the drawing board,

When Stephen Harper first came to power the assumption was that Alberta and its energy industry could not dream of a better champion on Parliament Hill.

In the name of protecting the industry, the former prime minister actively resisted pressures to play a more proactive role in mitigating climate change. Even as some of the country’s larger provinces led the way on carbon pricing, the Conservatives continued to mock such efforts as a “job-killing” tax grab.

And yet, according to an Angus Reid poll published this week, almost two thirds would back an international accord to curb emissions even if it resulted in a 10 per cent increase in their energy bills.

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The former prime minister did not manage to convince a majority of Canadians that they were on the right side of the issue but he did end up painting a big target on the back of the oilsands industry.

One can only speculate as to what could have been accomplished if Harper — who led a government with deep roots in the energy-rich provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan — had mustered his impressive credentials and the support of a majority of Canadians to lead the transition to a greener economy rather than actively presiding over a lost decade on both the climate change and the pipeline fronts.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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