OTTAWA, CANADA--(Marketwired - Sept. 18, 2014) - The Honourable Greg Rickford, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, and Dr. Ernest Moniz, United States Secretary of Energy, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) launching an agreement on enhanced energy collaboration between Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The signing today continues a long and productive history of Canada-United States collaboration on a wide range of energy issues and shared interests in greater energy security, environmental responsibility and sustainability.
Under the MOU, Canada and the United States plan to cooperate on initiatives, including: sharing of knowledge, technical information and research plans to improve environmental practices in conventional and unconventional oil and gas development; enhancing the reliability and security of the North American energy infrastructure; supporting the advancement of an efficient and clean electric grid; enhancing coordination on energy efficiency standards; facilitating increased use of natural gas in the transportation sector; collaborating to reduce the cost of carbon capture and storage (CCS); and engaging in regional and multilateral dialogues on energy and environmental issues to advance shared priorities.
The official signing today followed a meeting between Minister Rickford and Secretary Moniz to discuss the MOU and the future of continued NRCan-DOE collaboration.
Minister Rickford and Secretary Moniz also discussed collaboration on G-7 efforts to create a broad, collective energy security framework to address global challenges. The discussions included new measures aligned with G-7 priorities in support of Ukraine: Canada-U.S. support for the Ukrainian government's efforts in energy contingency planning; outreach activities on oil and gas regulatory frameworks; and a plan to share expertise in energy efficiency techniques and technologies.
In addition, a joint mission of Canadian and U.S. geological services to Kyiv took place earlier this month to evaluate Ukraine's accessibility to and quality of oil and gas geological data.
