January 19, 2007
Dear activists,
Key Conservative cabinet ministers have failed to categorically reject the plan to increase oil production in the northern Alberta tarsands to 5 million barrels a day.
According to the CanWest News Service, Environment Minister John Baird wouldn't say whether he favoured a massive expansion in the oilsands claiming, "I'm just still two weeks into the job."
Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said this week that, "As we see the potential increase in production moving from a million barrels a day up to four or five, we need to do better...I think there's great promise in the oilsands for nuclear energy."
It's also clear that this plan is not new to them. A full 9-months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government took power, US Ambassador David Wilkins made the following speech on November 8, 2006:
"...our markets are looking forward to increasing production from Alberta's oil sands. In fact, when U.S. Energy Secretary Bodman visited the oil sands earlier this year he noted the U.S. consumes 20 million barrels of oil per day and Canada produces 2 million per day (a little over 1 million of that in the oil sands). Secretary Bodman told the Alberta oil executives that if they could produce 5 million barrels per day they would have the United States' attention. I believe that the investors and producers in the oil sands and the government of Alberta and Canada have every intention of meeting that goal in the future. So stay tuned."
DEMAND
Prime Minister Stephen Harper must make it very clear to the US ambassador and his government that Canada has "no intention of meeting that goal in the future" whatever promises may have been made by the Harper or Martin governments.
To tell Prime Minister Harper and Environment Minister Baird to "immediately and categorically reject the plans developed by Canadian government officials and U.S. oil executives to increase exports to the United States and to streamline our environmental regulatory safeguards" go to http://www.canadians.org/action/2007/18-Jan-07.html and send your letter NOW!
Use the form below to tell President George W. Bush, US Ambassador David Wilkins and US Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman yourself.
Sample message:
President George W. Bush
comments@whitehouse.gov
US Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman
The.Secretary@hq.doe.gov
US Ambassador David Wilkins
ottawacomments@state.gov
President Bush, Secretary Bodman, Ambassador Wilkins
As a member of the Council of Canadians, I am outraged that the Canadian government would make plans with your officials and oil executives for a "fivefold" expansion of oil production from the northern Alberta oilsands. Canadians will be increasingly demanding that a moratorium be put in place on new oilsands development until a full environmental and social assessment can be done. While you may "...believe that the investors and producers in the oil sands and the government of Alberta and Canada have every intention of meeting the goal..." of producing 5 million barrels of oil per day that could be exported to the United States, you should know that the citizens of Canada have every intention of stopping such an environmentally-destructive plan.
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