Big Oil’s Salesman
Stephen Harper and his government want to feed America’s addiction to oil and hold the country back from transitioning to a clean energy future, meaning fewer jobs in the U.S., more money sent to a foreign country and continued reliance on a dwindling and dangerous resource. Harper’s agenda will mean:
- Tar sands pipelines - coming soon to your backyard
A network of new pipelines would crisscross the country, passing through 28 states, around the Great Lakes, the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Oil spills from pipelines happen and can destroy rivers, kill wildlife and birds and poison water.
- Refining dirty oil is a dirty process
More than 33 current, expanded and proposed refineries around the US will process tar sands oil. Communities adjacent to tar sands refineries face increased carbon pollution and exposure to heavy metals and sulphur.
- Locking into America’s oil addiction
The Obama administration has recognized the need to wean the US off oil and build a clean energy economy. But investment in new pipelines and refineries to push tar sands oil from Canada on American consumers threatens to lock us into a reliance on dirty oil. More than $15 billion may be spent on tar sands pipelines in the near future.
- Opposing low carbon fuels
In an effort to protect U.S. demand for tar sands oil, the Canadian government has lobbied against California’s low carbon fuel standard, undermining the transition to cleaner fuels.
- Lobbying for dirty oil in DC and beyond
The Harper government and Government of Alberta have been doing the rounds in Washington as part of a public relations campaign to green the tar sands. And now, Canadian diplomats are being sent back to school for classes in Alberta’s tar sands to make sure they are well versed in the green spin on the tar sands to sell Canadian oil to the U.S. and abroad.
- Holding up international progress
The Harper government has taken over George Bush’s role of obstructing international progress on global warming. Without a strong global agreement to reduce carbon pollution, our kids and grandkids will face the worst impacts of global warming. The U.S. has changed tunes, and now Harper is isolated among western leaders.
- Throwing good fuel after bad
North America needs to transition away from fossil fuels, and while that’s happening, we need to switch to less polluting fossil fuels like natural gas and cut coal use. The energy-intensive tar sands suck vast amount of natural gas - by 2012, tar sands demand for natural gas is expected to rise to 2 billion cubic feet day, fuel that could otherwise help replace coal.
- Negating fuel efficiency measures
Increased tar sands oil in the U.S. undermines measures taken by the Obama administration to reduce carbon pollution through the new CAFE (fuel efficiency standards). Research shows up to 27% of the projected reduction could be negated by tar sands.
Click on the options below to learn more about Stephen Harper as…
- A salesman for Big Oil who never met a dirty oil project he didn’t like.
- A denier of climate change.
- A Conservative Canadian Prime Minister near election time looking for a boost from being photographed with President Obama.
- Someone who George Bush thinks “understands the stakes of the 21st century”.
CLICK HERE TO TELL OBAMA: DON’T BUY WHAT HARPER IS SELLING
