Watch out, President-elect Obama! Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, archenemy of the environment, is activating his master plan to prevent any meaningful progress on reducing the carbon emissions that are choking our planet to death. And he's coming at you right now, before you can get settled in and develop your own policies.
From the Globe & Mail:
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday he will stress to Barack Obama that Canada's relationship with the U.S. is its most important, and that he will make energy and the environment a top priority for dealings with the new administration.
Translation: We got a lotta dirty oil up here, so don't pass any environmental legislation that could screw up the Alberta Taliban's gravy train.
More after the flip...
For those unfamiliar with Mr. Harper's record on global warming and related pollution issues, the relevant info is this:
- Immediately after forming his minority government, Harper withdrew Canada from the Kyoto Accords. After promising not to.
- Has rolled back pollution standards within Canada and failed to advance any kind of environmental legislation at all.
- Sabotaged the latest round of talks on global warming and pollution in Mexico by promoting do-nothing proposals.
And now he is seeking to prevent the implementation of a "cap-and-trade" system that would force oil sands producers to buy expensive pollution licenses that would increase costs. Why would it cost so much?
Take a look. It's ugly.
-Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year.
-At least 90% of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up in ends up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing.
-Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes.
The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest humanmade structures in the world. -The ponds span 50 square kilometers and can be seen from space.
-Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.
Need more evidence?
The United States, said Harper, has not embraced an "aggressive" environmental agenda, but Obama was set to redouble US efforts on climate change, balancing these with economic and energy security concerns.
"Given our integrated continental economy, this is an excellent opportunity for Canada to advance its shared agenda and its shared needs ... in these areas," he said.
Canada is the largest oil supplier to the United States but its western Athabasca oil sands have been harshly criticized by environmentalists as a blight on the planet.
And then there is the politics of the situation:
And Mr. Harper, who often strived to place public distance between himself and President George W. Bush, was not reluctant to express goodwill to Mr. Obama - an association that paints the Conservative Prime Minister as more centrist.
Translation: The Canadian people despise me and won't give me a majority because they know I'm the Canadian version of Dick Cheney. But this might soften my image a little if I can pull it off.
But what's the real agenda, Stevie?
Mr. Harper's government moved the day after Mr. Obama was elected to announce it would seek a Canada-U.S climate-change pact. It is clear Canada is seeking to tie that to U.S. concerns about a secure energy supply, and use a pact to prevent the U.S. from adopting measures that would punish Canada's industry and exports from Alberta's oil sands - which Mr. Obama's advisers have referred to as "dirty oil."
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach reacted yesterday to Ottawa's call for a Canada-U.S. pact by demanding a direct role in the talks.
Who says newspapers won't publish the truth?
But what's this about Ed Stelmach?
Mr. Stelmach says Alberta must be included because any deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would have an impact on major energy projects in the province.
The Premier also says the new president-elect needs to understand that Alberta's oil sands provide the U.S. with a reliable source of energy that will be needed to revive the sagging American economy.
Mr. Stelmach says he won't support a climate change deal that cools investment in Alberta's energy sector or one that ends up boosting the prices of fuel, electricity and home heating.
Translation: Hey Stevie! We're your base, dude, so don't screw with our gravy train. Let them breathe carbon.
So watch out, Mr. President-Elect, because the Alberta Taliban has it's sights set on torpedoing any kind of cap-and-trade system, and any other measures that might help keep humanity from dying on a planet deluged with waste products from human activity. They intend to couch it in terms of economic policy, cross-border cooperation, energy security, and increased American access to poutine, but it's really just a hustle to get you to back off any meaningful action on the environment. Don't bite on the fake jumper, Mr. President, because as soon as you leave your feet, Harper will drive to the basket with a neutered version of your legislation.