Bitumen pledge is another Harper trick
MONTREAL – Stephen Harper’s pledge to curtail exports of bitumen from the Alberta tar sands is a meaningless and deceptive ploy that will do nothing to combat climate change, the Green Party said today.
“This just another Harper trick,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. “He says he is talking about reducing pollution when he is actually increasing it.”
Mr. Harper’s empty announcement came on the same day the Australia-based Global Carbon Project, a consortium of international scientists, reported worldwide greenhouse gas emissions outpaced even the most dire projections in 2007. And a new study headed by Simon Fraser University professor Mark Jaccard concluded the Conservative government's policies on emissions reduction are "highly unlikely" to meet even their weak target of dropping 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020 and could remain as high as today's levels.
In his campaign announcement, Mr. Harper said Canada would no longer allow exports of bitumen – the tar-like material mined at tremendous environmental cost and then refined to produce oil – to countries whose greenhouse gas emission targets are lower than Canada’s.
Canada now exports about 500,000 barrels of bitumen each day, mainly to the United States. Mr. Harper’s new policy won’t touch them even though the Americans have no greenhouse gas reduction targets, said Ms. May, at the Montreal stop on her national whistle-stop train tour.
“The promise sounds impressive but it is hollow and meaningless in the fight against climate change. Banning non-exports to hypothetical future customers is a cynical attempt to mislead Canadian voters.
“It might eventually curtail exports of bitumen, but that would not cut greenhouse gas emissions. The bitumen would simply be processed at a new highly polluting refinery in Canada, which could produce oil for export.”
Mr. Harper supports the creation of dirty, polluting jobs at a time when Canada must move toward a green economy, Ms. May said.
Mr. Harper also said a Conservative government would remove regulatory and other barriers – likely including environmental assessments – to building oil and natural gas pipelines in Northern Canada. That, too, will lead to increased emissions and perpetuate the old, unsustainable economy, Ms. May said.
“The climate crisis is real and threatening. It will have greater negative impacts on Canadians than any thing we have ever seen in the past yet the Harper government continues to have its head in the stuck in the tar sands.”
