United States, Canada and Mexico issue summary from North American Energy Ministerial

HOUSTON, TX, Nov. 15, 2017 /CNW/ - North America is a region blessed with vast and diverse resources and technologies. Access to increasingly clean, secure, affordable sources of energy is vital to the people of North America.

United States Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, and Mexico's Energy Secretary, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, held a trilateral meeting today in Houston, Texas, to discuss their individual and collective efforts to ensure regional energy security, and pursue thriving energy sectors that foster economic growth while reducing overall emissions.

They discussed the development of North America's vast energy resources and innovation potential, while recognizing a variety of national priorities; promoting energy trade and economic development among the three nations; facilitating cross-border infrastructure projects; improving transparency with additional energy data and mapping through the updated North American Cooperation on Energy Information website (nacei.org); and identifying collaborative commercial, investment and innovation opportunities of energy technologies and resources.

The energy leaders discussed their respective views on climate change, and reiterated their commitments to mitigate emissions while promoting economic prosperity. The leaders discussed the security, affordability, resiliency, and reliability of our shared energy systems, and collaboration in areas such as critical infrastructure protection, cyber security, system modernization, renewable energy integration, and nuclear energy and security.

They also discussed developing and diversifying our energy resources in a responsible manner, including renewable energy, nuclear power, and fossil fuels with clean technologies (such as carbon capture, utilization and storage). This approach will help North America maintain its position as a global energy leader.

Finally, the three talked about the importance of energy issues as they relate to women, including access to sustainable, secure, reliable and affordable energy, and the further inclusion of women within a growing energy workforce as being crucial to further driving economic growth and gender equality.

Action, more so than process, on all of these fronts is important for the development of future energy resources and will help North America maintain its position as a global energy leader, strengthen efforts to open new market opportunities, contribute to energy security and increase energy self-sufficiency of the North American region.

The three energy leaders committed to meet annually to review progress towards these goals. To support this, DOE, NRCan and SENER also agreed to further North American energy cooperation where there are shared objectives to identify and implement areas of cooperation.

Secretaries Perry and Joaquin Coldwell and Minister Carr also hosted a roundtable with energy-industry CEOs from all three countries.

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"Canada, the U.S. and Mexico share a long history of collaboration. We don't always agree, but our relationship allows us to focus on areas where we do have common interests. Today, my counterparts and I had productive discussions that helped advance North American energy integration. Generation Energy showed us that Canadians know we are in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Climate change is real - and Canada is well positioned to seize the opportunity the clean growth economy presents, which will result in new jobs and a cleaner future for our children."

Jim Carr
Canada's Minister of Natural Resources

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SOURCE Natural Resources Canada