"The anti-oilsands campaign is very real and shows no sign of letting up," wrote Marc LePage, a special adviser on climate change and energy issues at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, in an email sent to Doer.
"This will not go away and will likely intensify in the absence of movement on climate change legislation."
Although Canada signed an international agreement in 1992 calling for the planet to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming, successive federal governments have repeatedly promised and delayed action to regulate or cap industrial pollution ever since. Environment Minister Peter Kent had pledged in the winter to introduce some elements of a plan to regulate oilsands pollution from Alberta and Saskatchewan before the end of 2011, but has since retreated on that commitment.
Kent has said the government's primary focus is protecting Canadian jobs and the economy.
"We're doing all this with a great sensitivity not to strand capital, threaten jobs or impact on consumer pricing," Kent told the National Post in September.
The correspondence from the Washington Embassy said that opposition to oil and gas expansion and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, proposed by Alberta-based TransCanada, also represents a larger battle against the fossil fuel industry which is a primary target for advocates of action to address climate change.
"The oilsands are an issue in themselves but just as much a proxy for the bigger agenda of 'off oil,'" wrote LePage, in the message sent on Sept. 29, 2010.
Most of the messaging in the email — released through access to information legislation to Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental, labour and faith-based groups — was included in a section with "speaking points for (a) meeting with (the) PM." The federal Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, which released the correspondence, was not immediately able to say whether this referred to a meeting between Doer and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The correspondence also suggested that a recent agreement between Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama to co-operate on climate change policies through a "clean energy dialogue," was not effective.
"(It's) a good start but not very strong yet," said LePage's email. "It has limited visibility in Washington . . . so we should focus on pushing that further."
Meantime, Doer was also advised that the federal government should do more to boost Alberta's image in support of the industry as well as the pipeline that would link oilsands production to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
"Alberta (is) doing good work but they are perceived as Canada's Texas."
Graham Saul, the executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, said the correspondence shows that Harper is undermining his own credibility as well as the reputation of the industry.
"The prime minister has been telling Canadians that he intends to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from the oil industry since coming into office and he consistently put these regulations off," said Saul in an interview. "It suggests that the prime minister's priority is a rapid expansion of the tarsands to the detriment of Canada's ability to do its fair share on climate change."
A spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said that the industry had a first-hand understanding of climate policy since it is operating in Alberta which in 2007 introduced its own carbon pricing regime. The association has also stressed the importance of linking climate policy to a national energy strategy and supported balanced international action that would not unfairly discriminate against Canadian oil.
The government also blacked out sections of the email that refer to its "communications" strategy for oilsands issues. Previously released documents and correspondence have revealed that the several departments in the federal government are working in partnership with the Alberta government and the oil and gas industry on a multi-million dollar public relations and lobbying strategy to polish the industry's image and oppose international climate change policies.
The extraction of synthetic crude oil from bitumen deposits in Western Canada has prompted criticism over environmental impacts from the production process that requires large amounts of energy, water and land.
Origin
Source: Canada.com
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