Canada's crude politics on oil sands

But the road to these spoils leads through Europe. While the continent doesn't import any Canadian crude, the oil giants and their government backers realise a European fuel quality directive that would slap a dirty label on tar sands to promote cleaner transport fuels could set the global standard – and effectively shut the door on Alberta's exports. "Our fear is that if something happens in the EU and it is spread in other countries … we could have roughly one third of the world's population subscribing to regulation or legislation that mitigates against our oilsands," a provincial minister in Alberta said last year. It is also sure to raise the heat on European oil companies to withdraw their enormous and growing investment in tar sands industries.

Hence the public relations blitzkrieg, conducted since 2009 through missions in key cities: London, Paris, Brussels, Oslo, Berlin and the Hague. Headquartered in England, an "oil sands team" run by Canada's foreign ministry has mounted the offensive. They've monitored green groups; furiously lobbied against the fuel quality directive; coordinated junkets to Alberta for EU parliamentarians; and targeted international journalists in an attempt to improve media coverage. The British government appears to have succumbed to the campaign and is working to block the EU from singling out the larger carbon footprint of the tar sands.

Canada's foreign team has also been getting cozy with big oil corporations they call "like-minded allies". They've held numerous secret meetings with BP, Shell, Total and Norwegian Statoil to share "intelligence" and discuss joint initiatives. The plans run to the very top: Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper himself, met covertly with Total's CEO in Paris in June 2010, after a visit with French President Sarkozy. Total has since announced plans to pump $20bn into their Alberta projects by 2020.

Harper's Conservative party now has majority control of a government that is the most rightwing in modern Canadian history. He will eagerly execute a philosophy befitting the son of an oil executive. This means the construction of pipeline corridors – to the south through midwest US states, to the eastern seaboard, and to the west carrying crude for shipment to China and beyond – with the goal of converting Canada into a "global energy powerhouse". Output will increase five-fold to 5m barrels of dirty oil a day by 2040. The cost to the global climate is incalculable.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/31/oil-sands-oil

I feel kind of like American Democrats did when Bush was selected the second time. I feel like apologizing to the world.

Like they did with our seal hunt - Europe stopped our rape of the seas, maybe they can stop our rape of the earth too.