GREEN GROUPS URGE UPHOLDING U.S. TAR SANDS FUEL BAN
05.10.08 - Leído 14 veces. Enviar esta notaMartin Mittelstaedt
Letter to Congress pleads with Senate to reject Canadian movement to remove fuel-purchase measures
MONTREAL, Canada; May 10, 2008.- A who’s who of major U.S. and Canadian environmental organizations is urging the U.S. Senate to keep in place a rule banning the United States government from buying fuel from Alberta’s tar sands on the grounds that it is too environmentally tainted.
Yesterday, the groups released a letter sent to all members of the U.S. Congress, urging them to reject efforts to revoke the fuel measure through amendments to other legislation, arguing that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be spent “to develop alternative fuel sources that make global warming worse.”
It said the government “will make the job of reducing global warming emissions even more difficult if it chooses to subsidize the development of high-carbon fuels through long term contracts.”
The letter was written by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an influential New-York-based environmental group, and endorsed by 26 other organizations, including Greenpeace Canada, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club.
The fuel ban has drawn the ire of Canada and has caused both the Harper government and Alberta to engage in intense lobbying in Washington to have the measure rescinded.
Last week, Ron Stevens, Alberta’s deputy premier, was in the U.S. capital arguing that the province is committed to environmentally sustainable development of the tar sands, and in February, Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson wrote to U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, formally complaining about the ban.
Alberta and Ottawa have taken these high profile actions even though the U.S. government is not currently a large purchaser of oil products from refineries that process crude from the oil sands, according to assessments by environmentalists.
Under the U.S. measure, the government, the largest purchaser of energy in the country, can’t sign contracts to buy gasoline and other fuels whose production releases more global warming pollution than conventional petroleum.
The restriction was adopted late last year and also designates as environmentally unfriendly fuels derived from U.S. shale oil projects and coal-to-liquid plants.
“The tar sands oil is very dirty,” said Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, an NRDC spokeswoman, pointing to both the large amount of energy needed to process sticky bitumen from which petroleum is extracted and the dangers these massive mining projects pose to wildlife, such as the recent deaths of hundreds of migratory ducks in an industry tailings pond.
Ms. Casey-Lefkowitz said the letter was issued yesterday because environmental groups expect attempts this week and next in Congress to have the fuel ban rescinded.
One of the Canadian groups that signed the letter, the Pembina Institute, said Canadian government efforts to protect the oil sands are misguided. Dan Woynillowicz, a spokesman, said that Ottawa should be taking stronger action against emissions responsible for global warming rather than lobbying for continued use of the synthetic crude.
“The ducks are emblematic of much deeper environmental problems associated with oil sands development,” he said.
(The Globe and Mail)
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