Sierra Club of Canada News Release

Ottawa - Canada's commitment to the United States to quintuple oil production from Alberta's tar sands largely explains the obstructionist approach the government has taken in the Bali negotiations says Sierra Club of Canada.

"Canada's key achievement in Bali has been to build pipelines to the United States even as it burns bridges to the rest of the world," said Stephen Hazell, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada.

"While John Baird worked diligently to ensure that the Bali roadmap contained no commitments by developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, his colleague, industry minister Jim Prentice was secretly negotiating huge subsidies to drive a gas pipeline through the Mackenzie Valley to fuel ramped-up oil exports from the tar sands," he said. "The tar sands industry is the single largest contributor to Canada's growing emissions-from 23.3 MT in 2000 to as much as 97 MT by 2015. Accelerating tar sands emissions will likely make it impossible for Canada to achieve deeper emissions cuts overall."

For the complete story, see : http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/media/item.shtml?x=1439