The Associated Press Mining trucks carrying loads of oil-laden sand at the Albian Sands project in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.
In the run-up to December’s global climate change meeting, fissures are emerging between Canada and the United States over how to deal with the internationally contentious issue of Alberta’s vast oil sands projects, which have been responsible for a sharp increase in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
At an Ottawa conference last week, the president of the Center for American Progress, John Podesta, a co-chairman of President Obama’s transition team, reprimanded Canada for not keeping pace with the drive to adopt green energy technology.
“The Canadians would be well served by keeping up with what’s going on in the United States with respect to this push towards clean technology,” he said, according to a report from Reuters.
The American ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, declined to comment on whether Mr. Podesta’s remarks reflect the administration’s view.
Sujata Raisinghani, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Environment Ministry, said in an e-mail message that Canada’s intention is to develop a North American cap-and-trade system and “harmonize” the two countries’ climate-change policies.
In 2007, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions were 33.8 percent higher than its Kyoto target, with “significant” growth due to “large increases in oil and gas production—much of it for export,” according to Canada’s 2007 Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which noted that emissions from the oil and gas extraction sector, along with mining, rose 276 percent from 1990 to 2007.
According to an interview with Canada’s environment minister, Jim Prentice, published Friday in The Globe and Mail, Canada will be heading to Copenhagen looking for less aggressive emission targets than Europe or Japan because of its faster-growing population and energy-intensive industrial structure.
With climate-change bills working through Congress, environmentalists have pressed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to block the construction of large cross-border pipelines meant to increase exports of crude from bitumen refining operations.
Canadian oil executives are concerned that new American fuel standards will work against bitumen crude, which requires vast amounts of natural gas to refine.
Mr. Prentice indicated last week that the Canadian government does not intend to reveal its negotiating position at Copenhagen before the American government does. He also told The Globe that hopes for a successful treaty in December seemed to be fading.
Canada has proposed to cut its emissions by 20 percent from 2006 levels by 2020 – a modest target compared to European goals. In previous iterations of its climate policy, released during the Bush administration, the Canadian government pushed for emission intensity targets for a broad range of industries, including oil sands producers, rather than sectoral emission caps.
Earlier this month, Mr. Jacobson, a close acquaintance of President Obama, toured the oil sands. “I’ve learned a lot about the tremendous strides that have been taken over the last several years with respect to improving the environmental record in treating the oil sands,” he told Reuters.
But at the other end of the diplomatic relationship, Canada’s new ambassador to Washington, Gary Doer, told The Calgary Herald last week that the oil sands get a “disproportionate” amount of criticism.