Energy Integration Under SPP Threatens Environment

From "Lessons Learned Afar From Farmer", Peace Arch News:

Almost 2,000 years ago, the Roman writer, Pliny, asserted that there was always something new out of Africa.

My experience there is only 50 years old and, while it isn’t new, it carried a powerful but seldom-heard message – an example of being satisfied with enough and not seeking more than is really needed.

This is an alien concept in today’s world of persuasive advertising and ‘growth is good’ philosophy but it has relevance to consumerism, consumption of finite natural resources and over-exploitation of renewable ones and global warming....

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...Moves are afoot to tie together Canadian and U.S. energy policies under the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) leading to energy integration.

Already the damaging environmental impacts of Alberta tar-sands developments are serious; under SPP and its offspring the North America Energy Working Group (NAEWG), the U.S is looking to a five-fold increase in production; for a process which requires five times more water volume than it yields in oil. A recent NAEWG meeting comprising representatives from government bureaucracies, marketers, oil sands industries, pipeline companies and refiners – no-one representing the interests of the populace or the environment.

Today, as Canada exports 70 per cent of the oil it produces – and more than 60 per cent of its natural gas – to the U.S., oil companies’ profits soar while the companies still enjoy federal tax breaks and subsidies.

Meanwhile, the environment of northern Alberta is seriously compromised...

URL: Lessons Learned Afar from Farmer