Politics & Power Quote by Paul Cellucci

A politician’s “also” can do a lot of quiet work, and Paul Cellucci’s does. “We are also looking to Canada” sounds like a friendly glance north, but it signals something more strategic: a reframing of energy not as a domestic policy fight, but as a continental supply chain problem. The line is built to normalize integration as an ongoing, almost inevitable process - “continue to integrate” treats a contested political choice as mere maintenance on an existing machine.

Cellucci’s intent reads as reassurance aimed at multiple audiences. To industry and investors, it promises scale, predictability, and fewer regulatory seams: a North American market is bigger than the U.S. market, and “integration” implies harmonized rules, coordinated infrastructure, and smoother cross-border flows. To voters uneasy about globalization, the phrase “North American” is a careful hedge: it’s not distant “global” dependence, it’s a neighborhood arrangement, coded as practical rather than ideological.

The subtext is about risk management and leverage. Looking to Canada gestures toward “secure” energy - a democratic ally with large resources - while sidestepping the more polarizing optics of reliance on OPEC states or unstable regions. It’s also a way of selling policy through geography: pipelines, grids, and trade agreements become the real protagonists, not environmental tradeoffs or sovereignty questions.

In context, this language fits a late-1990s/early-2000s consensus among centrist policymakers: treat energy as an economic integration project, make the continent the unit of planning, and let “the market” sound like destiny rather than debate.