To me, the best/only way to "green" the tar-sands is to sell any oil from them to our American cousins exclusively, and wait for their federal and state governments to force change upon the oil patch. Harper and Co. are controlled by Western Petro interests, but to the Yankees Alberta doesn't amount to a patch of dickweed.
Indeed, Ezra, in his pre-Ethical Oil days, was touting the Northern Gateway pipe-line as our get-out-of-jail card should Obama or his successors impose green regulations: we could just sell to the Chinese or other third-world countries, who wouldn't be so picky about our carbon emissions.
Therefore, Northern Gateway is where the action is. That's the pipe that must be plugged.
2 comments:
No oil is ethical. Global warming knows no borders, and will do more damage to more people than any dictator.
The expansion of the Tar Sands is an environmental nightmare on so many levels. Not only will GHG's soar and accelerate climate change, precious water will be squandered, groundwater and the land will be polluted, and the great carbon sink of the Boreal Forest, home to billions of migratory birds and diverse wildlife, will be fragmented or clearcut. How can any of this be ethical?
The only way I see to slow down Tar Sands expansion is to cut off export routes wherever possible, and to decrease demand by investing in renewables. The blocking of the Keystone XL would be such a great step forward in this battle which is going to be a long one.
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