A Colonial in Washington

That development of the Athabaska Tar Sands will shortly make Alberta the number one producer of green-house gases in Canada (25 million tons of CO2 in 2003, expected to rise to 65 millions in another 3 years (Alberta has replace the industrialized Ohio valley as the number one cause of acid rain in Eastern Canada) and within a few short years the number one source of green-house gases in the entire world.

The devastation brought on by a reckless exploitation of the Tar Sands and the threat to our very survival by Alberta’s disproportionate contribution to global warming is about to get worse … a whole lot worse.

The day after the Conservative government took power officials from the Canadian Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Energy and American Oil interest met in Houston Texas.

What was discussed at this meeting was readily made available to the American public via the U.S. Department of Energy website for example.

The Canadian Department of Natural Resources which partnered the meeting and was largely the author of the final recommendations to quintuple production and the environment be dammed was not as forthcoming. This is why Radio-Canada got most of its information for its accusatory documentary “ Du sable dans l’engrenage ” (my translation “Sand in the Gas Tank”) from the Americans.

At this meeting the Canadian government recommended, and it was agreed, that development of the tar sands be accelerated so as to quintuple present production of tar sand oil within a ten year timeframe from 1 million to 5 million barrels a day all destined for the U.S. market.

At this meeting it was also agreed that environmental consideration would have to take a back-seat to the expansion of oil production and the building of pipelines to bring Alberta’s tar oil to to United States (Gateway was not a consideration at this time).

In his first official visit to the White House the U.S. President welcomed Prime Minister Harper by proclaiming that the Albertans were in town and they were not there to slow the development of new oil supplies — quite the opposite.

Harper, taking his queue from George W. Bush, in a manner reminiscent of Brian Mulroney who looked to the senior Bush for guidance, then proceeded to assure the American President that they had a secure supply of energy with the planned expansion of exploitation of the Tar Sands.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in the documentary is puzzled by a Canadian Prime Minister who would sacrifice the national interest of Canada when it comes to energy matters all ostensibly to make an already rich province even richer.

The documentary “Du sable dans l’engrenage” has stunned a lot of Québecquers who were beginning to believe that the green conversion of Stephen Harper was sincere.

Bernard Payeur, January 24, 2007