The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Feb. 9, edition that export pipelines are vital to Canada's economic future. The Globe's guest columnist Jim Prentice writes that a pall has settled over the Canadian energy industry, brought on by OPEC's success in collapsing commodity prices, but also by opposition on every front to the expansion and export of oil from Canada's oil sands. Enbridge's Northern Gateway project and Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain expansion and TransCanada's Energy East project face a combination of local and federal opposition. Mr. Prentice says this is cause for alarm. Most disturbing is the negligence that Canada is showing in advancing its world ambitions. The Canadian oil sands are arguably the most important resource asset held by any Western democracy. The development of our oil sands, along with natural gas from both Canada and the United States, now means the North American goal of energy sufficiency has been attained. Low prices will eventually be superseded by higher prices and by even more volatility. By then, the U.S. will be exporting Canadian crude oil from American ports -- to its own advantage and Canada's disadvantage.