EDMONTON, CANADA MARCH 18: A view of the Keyera Alberta Envirofuels Inc plant in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Just three months after New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the opening of Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), a $6 Billion project to bring hydropower from Quebec to the New York City metropolitan area, the breakdown in overall trade talks between the United States and Canada have put the energy to be supplied at risk.
In fact, nerves and feelings are so raw that Canadian officials are suggesting they withhold energy from the United States entirely as a way to hit back against the Trump Administration’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods and services. Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford publicly has floated the idea that Canada should tax the crude oil it sends to America, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has stated …”Canada fuels America’s growth. I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy.” (Source).
While there have been no direct threats for Canada to stop supplying hydropower, New York residents already are contemplating that possibility. At present, Canada provides 22% of New York State’s electricity imports. Concerning Canadians, SUNY Plattsburgh’s Chris Kirkey says that “their sense of aggregation, their sense of outrage frankly, is at an all-time high.” (Source). Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow probably has gone the farthest, announcing that she supports cutting off the supply of imported electricity altogether to get America’s “attention”. (Source).
The uncertainty among conflicting options reflects a risk that few, if any, New York State officials contemplated when they rejected fracking and fought fossil fuel pipelines so strenuously just a few years back, and spent billions on so-called “clean energy” projects. Given the long history of close relations between the United States and Canada, international trade tension risk likely was not foreseen as a serious possibility – until now. However, such complacency has turned out to be a mistake, as recent events have shown.
In June, Governor Hochul announced that CHPE was expected to deliver 10.4 terawatt hours of clean energy per year to the New York Metro area – meeting up to 20% of the city’s needs – and reducing carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons through 2040. (Source).
Now, however, all of this prior positivity may be at risk, due to events beyond the control of both State officials and others. It is a classic case of globalization, the risks of putting all of one’s eggs into one basket, and the law of unintended consequences hitting all at once. New York’s commitment to clean energy is certainly admirable, but it now may come to rue the day that it put itself into an untenable position regarding the availability of energy that very few saw coming.