Obama, Harper, Called Out for Dirty Oil Investments

When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen HarperStephen Harper meets with President Obama this week, the economy is predicted to dominate the discussion. However, both heads of state are facing increased pressure to address another issue: cooperation between Canada and the US to develop one of the most environmentally expensive fossil fuel projects in the world.

The tar sands of Canada have become the US's number one source of oil imports, and policy makers in both countries appear on-track to increase the amount of tar sands oil flowing over the border. Earlier this summer, US Secretary of State Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton approved construction of the Enbridge Energy Clipper Pipeline, designed to deliver 800,000 barrels of tar sands oil to the US per day. Environmental and Native rights groups immediately signaled their intent to sue the State Department over this decision.

Now, as Harper and Obama prepare to meet, they are already feeling the heat from environmental activists concerned about the effects of developing the tar sands on the planet. This morning, activists from the Rainforest Action Network dropped a giant banner from a bridge in front of Niagara Falls, decrying US-Canadian investments in the tar sands. Meanwhile in Fort McMurray, Canada, Greenpeace organizers have blockaded mining equipment at a Shell Oil open-pit mine.

The energy-intensive process of extracting oil from the tar sands has already become Canada's largest source of global warming pollution, and a major reason why the country will fail to meet it's Kyoto Protocol emissions-reduction goals. Meanwhile, burning gasoline from tar sands oil adds about three times as much global warming pollution to the atmosphere as regular gasoline. Tar sands mining is destroying Canada's ancient boreal forests, and has increased cancer rates 400% for First Nations communities living downstream of mining activity.

Today's protests against the tar sands were designed to alert the media, the public, and political leaders to the dangers of investing further in this growing source of environmental destruction. It's to be hoped that Harper and Obama are listening, because the future of the planet may depend on it.