U.S. protesters take aim at Alberta oilsands

Jeremy Loome, April 30, 2008, Edmonton Sun -- Alberta's oilsands came under fire in Washington, D.C. yesterday, with environmentalists protesting the visit of deputy premier Ron Stevens and demanding a ban on "dirty oil" be enforced.

The National Resource Defense Council, which claims 1.3 million members across the U.S., bought an ad in the widely read Capitol Hill Roll Call newspaper, featuring a Maple Leaf oozing oil. It also slammed an Alberta government decision to spend $25 million on a public relations campaign to promote its green plan.

"Touting Alberta's commitment to environmental sustainability through the development of the oilsands is ludicrous," said the NRDC's Liz Barratt-Brown. "Development of oilsands has received widespread criticism due to the enormous amounts of global warming and toxic pollution it creates."

The group said Stevens's visit is an attempt to lobby the U.S. federal government to exempt the tarsands from Section 256 of the recently passed Energy Independence and Security Act.

Under that law, passed last year, federal agencies are banned from buying synthetic fuels - which could include synthetic fuel draw from tar sands bitumen - that have a higher lifecycle of greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels.

Premier Ed Stelmach defended the advertising campaign yesterday after the Alberta Liberals suggested the $25 million could be better spent fighting for environmental controls.

"In fact, we do have a matter to deal with, to make sure that all people - those that invest in Alberta, those people that want to make Alberta their home, get the correct information. And I can tell you that I'm not going to rely on that group, or Greenpeace, or the Sierra Club to spread their misinformation not only in this province and in this country, but around the world."

Stelmach did not offer any examples of that, however the government's green plan, unveiled last year, has come under fire from those groups for not targeting actual carbon reductions, but rather, declines in the intensity increases in carbon use. They also say the province's plan to have reductions to 2005 levels by 2050 is too little, too late.

But Environment Minister Rob Renner reiterated yesterday that Alberta is the first jurisdiction to have controls in place.

"We have a realistic, achievable plan that will result in very real reductions of CO2," he said.

The NRDC disagreed. "To date, Canadian federal and provincial plans to address global warming allow carbon dioxide emissions in the tarsands to triple by the year 2020," noted Barratt-Brown. "And there have been no plans announced to address the cleanup of large toxic lakes, the health impacts on native communities, or the damage to Alberta's boreal forest.

"Nor is there a commitment to slow down the development of the tarsands until these environmental issues can be addressed."

The Liberals suggested the government could start by making small but substantial changes, such as banning plastic shopping bags or surcharging them, or by forcing its own cabinet members to drive gas-concious or hybrid vehicles.

Renner said a plastic bag ban would be a "simplistic answer to a complex question," although Service Alberta Minister Heather Klimchuk did say the government would consider whether a policy for executive fleet vehicles is required; ministers get $43,500 each year for a new vehicle.