Rob Port
Say Anything Blog
1/10/2012
In an open letter, Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver accuses Canadian environmental activists of trying to delay the development of the Keystone XL pipeline to the point where building it is no longer economically feasible.
Just like the Americans do it:
Canada is on the edge of an historic choice: to diversify our energy markets away from our traditional trading partner in the United States or to continue with the status quo.
Virtually all our energy exports go to the US. As a country, we must seek new markets for our products and services and the booming Asia-Pacific economies have shown great interest in our oil, gas, metals and minerals. For our government, the choice is clear: we need to diversify our markets in order to create jobs and economic growth for Canadians across this country. We must expand our trade with the fast growing Asian economies. We know that increasing trade will help ensure the financial security of Canadians and their families.
Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade. Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth. No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydro-electric dams.
These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects. They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest. They attract jet-setting celebrities with some of the largest personal carbon footprints in the world to lecture Canadians not to develop our natural resources. Finally, if all other avenues have failed, they will take a quintessential American approach: sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further. They do this because they know it can work. It works because it helps them to achieve their ultimate objective: delay a project to the point it becomes economically unviable….
…The environmentalists don’t want environmental protection. They want us to stop using oil and gas, and their tactic of the moment is to make oil and gas development so difficult in this country that companies can’t or won’t do it.
Read the entire article at SayAnythingBlog.
Also, Canadian Minister Tells Enviros to F**k Off on Oilsands Obstructionism
…Wow.
That bit about the “quintessential American approach” hurts only because it’s true…
At Babalu Blog:
Ros-Lehtinen Disappointed by Lack of Administration Action to Prevent Cuba Oil Drilling Efforts
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said today that she was disappointed in the Obama Administration’s lack of action to prevent the Cuban regime from drilling for oil off its coast…
And U.S. Green-Lights Rig for Cuba Drilling
The Obama Administration has green-lighted Spanish oil company Repsol‘s rig to drill for oil off Cuba’s coast — in partnership with the Castro dictatorship.
Ironically, two weeks ago, the Administration also green-lighted Repsol’s $1 billion acquisition of 364,000 acres of oil and gas producing areas in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Yet another lost opportunity to exert pressure over Repsol, which the U.S. has already granted extensive exploration rights to in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska…. [emphasis CAJ]
CAJ note: Uh, that’s because green energy production in Spain has failed and has contributed to an employment figure of about 26%.
Update: Massive Oil Deposit Discovered in Arctic Region
Norway’s Statoil said Monday it has discovered a large oil reserve in the Barents Sea, its second major oil find in the Arctic region in less than a year…
Also, at Five Feet of Fury, Northern Gateway hearings: different rules for foreign anti-oil sands participants vs pro-oil sands Canadians
