[R-G] Canada's Tar Sands Lobbyists Focus on Democrats

[Anthony Fenton]

POLITICS-US:  Canada's Tar Sands Lobbyists Focus on Democrats
By Chris Arsenault
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43765

VANCOUVER, Sep 2 (IPS) - As the U.S. election campaign kicks into  
overdrive, Canadian politicians and oil executives are stepping up  
lobbying efforts to make sure whoever controls the White House keeps  
purchasing notoriously dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands.

Executives from Nexen energy, which has major investments in northern  
Alberta's heavy oil industry, and Tony Clement, chair of a Canadian  
cabinet committee on energy security, met with Democratic candidate  
Barack Obama's top energy advisor Jason Grumet late last week to  
cement the "energy partnership" during the Democratic National  
Convention in Denver, Colorado.

The closed-door meeting comes on the heels of comments made by Grumet  
and other Obama officials which sent shivers through board rooms in  
Calgary and backhoes in Ft. MacMurray, the epicentres of Canada's oil  
industry.

In June, Grumet told reporters, "The amount of energy that you have to  
use to get that [tar sands] oil out of the ground is such that it  
actually creates a much greater impact on climate change."

"We [Obama's team] are going to support resources... that meet our  
long-term obligations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. And I think  
it's an open question as to whether or not the Canadian resources are  
going to meet those tests," said Grumet, prior to meeting the Canadian  
delegation at the DNC.

Currently, Canada is the largest foreign supplier of oil to the United  
States, sending more than one million barrels of oil per day to its  
southern neighbour, about half of which originates from Alberta's tar  
sands.

"Clearly the oil sands is the most high-impact oil available," Simon  
Dyer of the Pembina Institute, an environmental watchdog, told IPS.  
"The oil sands are three times as greenhouse gas-intensive as regular  
oil," said Dyer, adding that roughly three barrels of water are  
required to process one barrel of heavy oil.

Tar sands production is set to increase from its current 1.2 million  
barrels of oil per day, to some 3.0 million barrels per day by 2018,  
most of which is slated for export to the United States.

Tony Clement, the Canadian cabinet minister, told reporters at the DNC  
that: 'We [the Conservative government] have to be more aggressive in  
representing Canadian values and interests in the American political  
scene."

Spokespersons for Nexen Energy and Minister Clement's office did not  
return phone calls from IPS requesting comment.

"The Canadian government is trying to deal through the back room  
rather than dealing with the environmental impacts of the oil sands,"  
Simon Dyer told IPS. "Emissions from the oil sands are going to triple  
[by 2020] and that's inconsistent with the world's desire to lessen  
climate change."

In addition to official political pressure from Canadian cabinet  
ministers attempting to force Obama's hand on the tar sands, the oil  
industry has hired high-powered lobbyists of its own. Gordon Giffin, a  
former U.S. ambassador to Canada, is now a registered lobbyist in  
Washington for the energy firm Nexen.

Canadian oil executives attending the Democratic National Convention  
issued thinly veiled threats to the Obama campaign, stating that tar  
sands oil would be shipped to China if a new administration in  
Washington imposed restrictions.

"If you don't like the oil sands oil, what companies will do [in  
Canada] is build a bigger pipeline to the west coast and export it to  
China and India," stated Nexen Energy's Dwain Lingenfelter, the  
company's vice president of government relations and a former deputy  
premier of Saskatchewan province.

"If the U.S. didn't want the oil, it'll go into the oil market anyway.  
So they have to be very careful about looking at the whole picture,"  
Lingenfelter, the politician turned oil industry lobbyist, told the  
Toronto Star.

As competition for energy resources between China and the United  
States intensifies, Lingenfelter's lobbying may sound convincing, but  
his analysis shouldn't be taken seriously, according to the Pembina  
Institute's Simon Dyer.

"A potential pipeline to Asia [via the Pacific port of Prince Rupert]  
would have to cross the territory of 40 First Nations, where land  
claims and treaty rights are still hotly contested," said Dyer. "There  
is growing opposition to pipelines and growing oil sands opposition  
across the country, so those pipelines [to China] are by no means a  
done deal."

While pipeline routes out of Alberta will be a major topic of  
controversy for years to come, there is no doubt that Canadian oil is  
among the world's most climate unfriendly fuels.

During his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, Obama  
promised to end U.S. dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years,  
while stating that "government must lead on energy independence".

Environmentalists in Canada and the U.S. contend that closed-door  
meetings with oil executives aren't the best way to foster energy  
independence.

The current Canadian government, which draws its political and  
financial support from petroleum-producing regions in the West, is not  
seen as independent from oil interests. In July alone, oil sands  
companies held a total of 36 meetings with Canadian ministers and  
government officials, according to recently disclosed lobbying reports.

Meanwhile, environmental groups only held seven lobbying sessions and  
these were usually with ministerial assistants and other lower level  
officials.

(END/2008)