Premier braces for Oilsands showdown
Stelmach admits Alberta 'in crosshairs' as he heads to Wyoming to
address western U.S. governors meeting
Archie McLean, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 11:22 am
EDMONTON - As he did earlier this year in Washington, Premier Ed
Stelmach will face oilsands opposition next week when he meets with
western U.S. governors in Wyoming.
A coalition of American and Canadian environmental groups is taking
out an ad Monday in Wyoming's largest newspaper, the Casper
Star-Tribune, warning of the dangers of "the most environmentally
destructive project on Earth."
They are also sending letters to the governors attending the meeting,
urging them to raise environmental concerns with Stelmach and his
Saskatchewan counterpart, Brad Wall.
Stelmach said Friday it's exactly the reason the province needs to
take its own message to the governors.
"We're now in the crosshairs for many of the NGOs, not only in the
United States, but around the world," he said.
"And we're going to see more of it and we have to get the correct
information out there. Where we have to improve, we will improve. But on
the other hand there's so much misinformation (out there)."
Stelmach, who will be joined at the meeting by Sustainable Resource
Development Minister Ted Morton, said he's hoping the governors can come
up with a co-ordinated plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in
western North America. Alberta favours a plan that relies mostly on
capturing carbon and storing it underground.
But Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, with the Natural Resources Defence
Council, one of the U.S. environmental groups sponsoring the ad, said
the government needs to move beyond rhetoric on carbon capture.
"They're proposed, but we never hear about actual funding, and actual
timelines, and actual plans for making them happen in practice," she
said.
Stelmach heads south after a difficult week for the province's
oilsands industry. An adviser to presidential candidate Barack Obama
said it's an "open question" whether oilsands oil would be part of
Obama's plan to move his country away from carbon-intensive fuels.
A group of U.S. mayors also passed a resolution urging members not to
buy fuel for their municipalities made from Alberta bitumen. The
resolution isn't binding, and many have pointed out that it's impossible
to know what percentage of gasoline from the pump comes from the
oilsands.
Casey-Lefkowitz, who is based in Washington, said the opposition is
the result of a brighter international spotlight on the oilsands.
"The more people know about the way in which the tarsands are being
extracted, the more they are horrified that that's what we've come to,"
she said. "They really see this as a path backwards instead of
forwards."
But Stelmach said the United States has long been an ally of Canada
and shouldn't turn it's back on the county now.
"We've been good trading partners, we're protecting each other in the
Middle East and in Aghanistan," Stelmach said. "We've been together in
both world wars. I think we have such a geographical blessing. That's
the message I'll be bringing to Wyoming."
Alberta is launching a $25-million public relations campaign to sell
the province's message at home and abroad. The province's oil and gas
industry also started its own website -- canadasoilsands.ca -- to get
its message out about the oilsands. A recent Statistics Canada report
says Alberta emitted 230 megatonnes of greenhouse gases in 2005, roughly
30 per cent of the national total.
The province also accounts for 64 per cent of Canada's primary energy
production and more than 16 per cent of its GDP.
At the recent western premiers meeting, Alberta and Saskatchewan
pledged to lead the country on a carbon capture and storage plan. But
all around them, western jurisdictions are preparing for a different
solution -- a carbon trading market.
Seven states, including California, Washington and Oregon, as well as
B.C., Manitoba and Quebec, are part of a coalition called the Western
Climate Initiative. They met last month in Salt Lake City to hash out
the details of the market. It has the potential to drive up costs of
Alberta's electricity, which is produced largely through burning coal.
Stelmach said Alberta has friends in some of the energy producing
states, particularly Wyoming, which has its own shale oil deposits,
similar to the oilsands.
Many of the agenda items for the three- day meeting, which starts
Sunday, are familiar to Albertans: water and wildlife conservation,
power-line construction and of course, climate change.
During his trip to Washington, D.C. in January, Stelmach was dogged
by environmental protesters, including a person in a polar bear costume.
An environmental coalition took out an ad in a D.C. newspaper directed
at U.S. lawmakers.
The new ad pokes fun at Alberta and Saskatchewan and even makes
reference to the 500 ducks that recently died on a Syncrude tailings
pond.
"Dear Friends," the ad begins. "Wyoming is beautiful, but let's have
the next meeting in Canada's tarsands. We can watch as pristine boreal
forests and wetlands are destroyed to produce some of the dirtiest oil.
Sunsets over giant toxic waste lagoons are spectacular -- just hope the
ducks don't land as they fly over looking for a place to nest."
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