"The oil sands' misguided critics"

Today, the National Post published a well-written and truthful editorial opinion on the Alberta oil sands.

Some highlights...

"Archbishop [Tutu] and friends might also want to look at the glass house they live in before throwing rocks at Canada. South Africa relies on coal-burning power plants to generate 85% of its power. It is also building two 4,800-megawatt power plants (each nearly double the size of the largest coal-fired power plants in North America) to meet the needs of their nation's rapidly expanding economy. Together, the emissions from just these two plants will equal more than half the output of Canada's oil sands.

"And let's not even discuss Nigeria, where the oil industry causes more environmental despoliation and corruption in a single year than the oil sands will in a century.

"China has never been obliged to cut its emissions - or even to limit their growth - by the Kyoto protocol. China has also refused to accept any emissions limits, whatever, in any successor treaty that may emerge after Kyoto expires next year. It is only pushing hard for a new Kyoto because it wants industrialized economies - including ours - hobbled by environmental regulations so that its own booming economy can take up the slack and expand faster still.

"According to a World Health Organization study, released in September, the Canadian city with the worst air quality - Sarnia, Ont. - had air 10 times cleaner than Beijing's, and Beijing is not even China's dirtiest city.

"On a per-dollar-of-GDP, China's pollution is six or seven times greater than ours.

"None of these critics have anything to teach Canada about carbon emissions."

I honestly believe that these "misguided critics" think that most of the area of Northern Alberta is a cesspool of oil sands development with pits covering a vast area larger than many countries when the opposite is true.  The area is a blip, yet it provides an immense amount of wealth, not just for Alberta, but for all of Canada.