[R-G] Trying to derail Alberta's mission in Washington

[Anthony Fenton]

ENVIRONMENT: CONSERVATIONISTS PLAN COUNTERMESSAGE
Trying to derail Alberta's mission in Washington
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080428.ENVIRO28/TPStory/National

DAWN WALTON

April 28, 2008

CALGARY -- Conservationists will be rolling out an advertising  
campaign and dispatching polar-bear-suit-clad protesters this week in  
an attempt to derail Alberta's mission to Washington that is aimed at  
propping up the province's environmental image south of the border.

Ron Stevens, Alberta's deputy premier and Minister of International  
and Intergovernmental Relations, said he will stress his province's  
commitment to "environmentally sustainable development of the oil  
sands" when he meets with U.S. government officials, industry  
representatives and policy analysts this week.

But he will also be trailed by protesters and a full-page newspaper ad  
featuring an oil-soaked maple leaf that describes Canada's oil sands  
as a major contributor to global warming and a supplier to the United  
States of the "world's dirtiest oil."

The $12,000 (U.S.) ad that will run tomorrow in Roll Call,  
Washington's congressional newspaper, is backed by a coalition of  
environmental groups, which also criticize Alberta's soon to be  
launched $25-million advertising campaign aimed at improving the  
province's "brand" and "perception."
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The Globe and Mail

"We can't compete with a $25-million PR budget that the Alberta  
government's allocated to try and convince lawmakers in Washington  
that everything's okay," said Aaron Freeman, policy director of the  
Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based advocacy group that is backing  
the U.S. advertising.

"But at the end of the day, we don't need that kind of budget because  
you can't paint a black hole green and the tar sands is a very big,  
black hole."

Industry plans to spend $100-billion over the next decade in northern  
Alberta's oil sands with an eye to tripling oil production. Meanwhile,  
a fraction of that has been spent on developing clean and renewable  
energy. Still, Mr. Stevens plans to tell U.S. officials about  
Alberta's commitment to clean energy, its greenhouse-gas-reduction  
policy and its $148-million investment in developing technology that  
could capture and store emissions.

ForestEthics, an international non-profit environmental group also  
behind the ad, is promising to don polar bear suits as they follow the  
Alberta delegation.

"We have bad climate policy in Canada largely because of the tar  
sands," said Gillian McEachern, who campaigns on climate and boreal  
forest issues. "The federal government can act to clean it up."

Critics also want to ensure that new U.S. energy legislation designed  
to cut down consumption of fuel derived from dirty sources will apply  
to the oil sands. But Mr. Stevens will be lobbying so that new fuel  
requirement in the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act doesn't  
affect Alberta, which is a major energy exporter to the United States.

Mark Cooper, a spokesman travelling with the deputy premier, said  
there's "no doubt" Alberta needs to do more on the environmental  
front, but this mission aims to "correct the myths, inaccuracies and  
distortions" about the province's record.

"We're not going to allow props and polar bear suits to get in the way  
of telling the true story," he said.

A "stop the tar sands" campaign dogged Premier Ed Stelmach's  
provincial election campaign this year and public opinion polls  
routinely show concern about the rapid pace of development, but his  
Progressive Conservative Party still won in a landslide, grabbing 72  
of the legislature's 83 seats.

Still, attacks on government and industry are not relenting.

At the Premier's fundraising dinner in Edmonton last week, two  
Greenpeace members descended from the rafters and unfurled a banner  
that read, "$telmach: the best Premier oil money can buy" as 1,000  
party faithful looked on.

It was an embarrassing and serious security breach. The activists were  
later charged with trespassing.

Last week, about 50 protesters, including members of the Lubicon Cree,  
rallied outside pipeline company TransCanada Corp.'s annual general  
meeting in Calgary to complain about unresolved land claims and to ask  
for a more thorough environmental assessment in an area north of  
Edmonton where the company plans to build a major natural gas pipeline  
to feed oil-sands production.

Also last week, environmentalists protested at the annual meeting in  
Toronto of EnCana Corp., which is already charged with violating  
Canada's Wildlife Act by allegedly installing pipeline without a  
permit in Canadian Forces Base Suffield National Wildlife Area, where  
it now hopes to pursue further drilling.