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Canada-EU lock horns
Canadian and Alberta government leaders have mounted a global defense of the oil sands, with newly elected Alberta Premier Alison Redford pledging to be “more aggressive, more proactive, more strategic.”
Her self-described “very bold” stance coincided with threats by federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, delivered directly to officials from five European countries, that Canada would take the European Union to the World Trade Organization if it adopts a proposed fuel standard that labels oil sands crude as highly polluting.
“What they are doing is illogical,” he told a conference call. “In fact, it is perverse because they are penalizing oil that they are not importing and they are giving a free pass to oil that they are importing.”
Alberta joined that last-ditch campaign with a letter to the EU suggesting the measure “has been deliberately crafted in such a way as to discriminate specifically and uniquely against oil sands derived fuels.”
The European Parliament has three months to adopt or reject the fuel quality directive, drafted by officials in the European Commission. If rejected, the commission can submit a revised proposal.
Alberta said the current directive “would be incompatible with the EU’s international trade obligations.”
Free trade talks threatened The Canadian government has gone one step further, warning it is ready to abandon current Canada-EU free trade talks if the measure is adopted on grounds of “unjustified discrimination.”
Under the proposed standard, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the European transportation sector by 6 percent over a decade, the oil sands would be assigned a value of 107 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule of energy, while most other crudes would be lumped into a common basket at 87.5 grams. Two other unconventional fuel sources have higher values than the oil sands — oil shale at 131.3 and coal-to-liquids at 172 — based on estimated life-cycle emissions.
The EU also has a wider target to reduce carbon emissions within its borders by 20 percent by 2020.
Oliver said in Paris the EU would be hypocritical if it singled out oil sands crude, but ignored carbon-heavy crudes from Saudi Arabia, Russia and Nigeria.
He said Canada supports efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but objects to moves that have “no scientific justification.”
—Gary Park
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