Alberta names first female premier

Former human rights lawyer Alison Redford was picked Sunday to be the next premier of Canada's Alberta province, which is battling environmentalists opposed to the expansion of its oil sands. The centrist 46-year-old narrowly beat out the province's ex-deputy minister and a former health minister to become Alberta's first female premier and its fifth Progressive Conservative premier in four decades. She is expected to call a general election next year to seek a mandate from the province's 3.5 million people. During her leadership campaign, Redford promised that "the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in Alberta will follow sustainable pathways." Canada has the third-largest oil reserves in the world at 175 billion barrels (most of it in Alberta), and ranks as the world's sixth-largest oil producer, according to the Oil & Gas Journal. Its production is forecast to jump 68 percent to 4.7 million barrels per day by 2025, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, as oil sands mining ramps up, along with conventional and offshore rigging. A feud with environmentalists over this expansion crested in August-September with the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators in Washington and Ottawa protesting a proposed pipeline to bring oil from Canada's tar sands to the US Gulf Coast. Oil sands are deposits of heavy oil, or bitumen, found in sand and clay. While conventional crude oil is pumped from the ground, the sticky oil in Alberta's north must be extracted from underneath coniferous forest, separated from the sand and water, then upgraded and refined. Environmentalists say oil sands mining produces three to five times more carbon emissions than conventional oil production and requires tailing ponds that leak cyanide, oil, arsenic, copper and iron into local waterways. Canada strongly backs the Keystone XL pipeline and in August welcomed a US State Department report that said the pipeline would be safer than most current oil transport systems and would have "no significant impact" on the environment. Environmental groups, however, have called on US President Barack Obama to deny a permit for the $7 billion project, due to stretch across 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) from Alberta's oil patch to Texas refineries. US officials are due to make a final decision later this year after further review and hearings. Redford takes over from Ed Stelmach, who had won the province's largest ever majority in the last general election, but later faced an oil sector backlash for trying to raise energy royalty rates. Under his watch, more conservative elements of the party split to form the upstart Wild Rose party, which is calling for less government spending, lower taxes and less oil sector regulations.