Canada verklaart oorlog aan milieubeweging

Eerder schreef ik dat de betrekkingen tussen de regering en de milieubeweging in Engeland aanmerkelijk waren bekoeld. De minister van energie Greg Barker sprak zelfs van de 'groene Taliban'. Nu gebeurt hetzelfde in Canada.

De strijd speelt zich af rond de bouw van een oliepijpleiding van de teerzanden naar de Kitimat aan westkust van Canada. Onder de titel, 'Canada blasts foreign "radicals" opposing pipeline', bericht David Ljunggren van Reuters daarover:

On the eve of public hearings into a proposed oil pipeline from Alberta's tar sands to the Pacific Coast, the Canadian government lashed out on Monday at what it said were foreign-funded radical groups opposing the project. The comments by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver were another sign of the pressures mounting against Enbridge Inc's proposed C$5.5 billion ($5.4 billion) Northern Gateway pipeline.

Canada's right-leaning Conservative government, which says the pipeline would help diversify energy exports away from the United States and more towards Asia, says activists are clogging up the regulatory process. The hearings have been extended by about a year to the end of 2013, partly to accommodate the more than 4,000 people who want to make their point of view known.

Environmentalists complain crude from the oil sands is particularly dirty while aboriginal groups say they fear the consequences of a spill.

The pipeline would carry 525,000 barrels of Alberta crude a day across the Rocky Mountains to the port of Kitimat, British Columbia, where it would be loaded onto supertankers and shipped to Pacific Rim markets. "Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade," Oliver said in a statement. "These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda ... They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada's national economic interest."

Ottawa and the oil industry are particularly interested in Northern Gateway after Washington delayed a decision on approving TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil sands crude from Alberta to Texas.

Lees verder hier.

De Canadese regering is onstemd over het feit dat President Obama zijn oren laat hangen naar de Amerikaanse milieubeweging en de beslissing over de aanleg van een pijpleiding van Canada naar Texas over de verkiezingen wil heentillen. In de 'Financial Post' bericht Terence Corcoran daarover het volgende:

Never before has a Canadian politician challenged the hitherto saintly protectors of the environment in such direct language Through most of 2011, Canadian energy officials in politics and industry watched with bewildered helplessness and some shock as Washington allowed environmentalists to seize control of TransCanada’s $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline issue. They stood by aghast as President Barack Obama, a captive of U.S. green activists and Hollywood movie stars, caved in to political pressure and postponed a decision to approve the project, a potential economic bonanza that promised to deliver thousands of jobs to Americans and billions of barrels of Canadian oil sands production to Texas.

No such green hijacking is going to take place in Canada, at least not without an official fight. On the eve of hearings, which begin Tuesday in Kitimat, B.C., into the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline — to carry the same oil sands production from Alberta to the West Coast and on to China — the Harper government clearly aims to do what Barack Obama cannot or will not do in America, namely stand up to the growth-killing professional green movement.

Lees verder hier: hier.

Het gaat dus hard tegen hard.