Keep smoking kids. We need the tax revenue. Trust us, we will cure cancer by the time you get it.
So goes our national political leaders' myopic view of the tar sands. The argument from tar-sands defenders in both the Conservative and Liberal ranks can be fairly summarized as follows: "We know this is bad for us but we have faith that a technological fix called carbon capture and storage will make everything better."
This week in Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will try to sell
President Obama on a North American agreement on global warming and
energy that shields the carbon-heavy tar sands industry from punitive
measures. He's sure to lobby for an tar sands exemption to Section 526 of
the US Energy Bill, which prohibits federal agencies from purchasing any
transportation fuel whose lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions exceed those
of conventional petroleum sources.
One story, two contradictory reports.
The first, on Bloomberg news,
suggests that ahead of a meeting with Canada's prime minister, Barack
Obama believes the US's northern neighbour can green its tar sands,
becoming compatible with his clean energy revolution.
WASHINGTON - The issue of Canada's carbon-heavy oil sands may be stickier than ever as Barack Obama readies for his lightning visit to Ottawa tomorrow.
But as environmental pressure mounts on the U.S. president to adopt a hard line against Alberta's "dirty oil," sources in Washington expect Obama to sidestep the question so as not to sully a journey intended to send a positive message of renewed Canada-U.S. engagement.
OTTAWA–Pollution will continue to plague Alberta's oil sands despite plans to pipe harmful greenhouse gases deep underground, according to documents obtained by the
Toronto Star.
Part of the task of cleaning up the oil sands involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions and storing them in geological reservoirs in western Canada.
CALGARY, Alberta - Environmental groups took the first step on Wednesday to convince a court to charge Canada's largest oil sands producer with the deaths of 500 ducks, an incident that brought worldwide attention to the ecological impact of the huge energy resource.
Ecojustice, the Sierra Club and Forest Ethics want Syncrude Canada Ltd charged under the country's migratory birds act for the incident last April, in which the ducks were killed when they landed on a toxic tailings pond.
OTTAWA - The oil that is extracted from Canadian dirt is being portrayed as saving America from energy dependence on the unstable Middle East, or an environmental catastrophe in the making - depending on the perspective.
As Barack Obama prepares to take office in two weeks, the debate is no longer academic. The president-elect has promised to move forward with an ambitious program aimed at fighting climate change.
CALGARY, Alberta - A coalition of North American
environmental groups says the development of Canada's oil sands region
threatens to kill as many as 166 million birds over the next five
decades and is calling for a moratorium on new projects in the region.
The coalition's groups, which include the Natural Resources Defense
Council, the Boreal Songbirds Initiative and the Pembina Institute, say
petroleum-extraction projects in the oil-rich region of northern
Alberta are a threat to migratory birds and the boreal forest they rely
on.
CALGARY, Alberta - Canada's government saw only limited
opportunities to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands using
carbon capture and storage technology, according to briefing notes
obtained by a Canadian media.
The notes, prepared by a carbon capture task force, were used by
Canadian federal and provincial politicians and were obtained by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corp, which said it requested them under freedom
of information legislation.
