Harper government crosses fingers as EU oilsands vote approaches; Nobel Peace laureates urge governments to act
By Jason Kefete | February 16, 2012 | Politics and the Nation
OTTAWA — The Conservative government is hoping it has won enough support from European Union countries to stymie, for now, a fuel quality standard proposed by the EU’s executive that would label oilsands a dirtier form of crude.
European Union officials are expected to vote Feb. 23 on a draft law that would slap a higher carbon-emissions value on bitumen-derived fuels, compared to more conventional crudes. As the vote draws near, a group of eight Nobel Peace laureates urged heads of state on Thursday to adopt the fuel standard “to keep highly polluting tarsands oil out of Europe.”
Here’s a copy of the letter
Countries on both sides of the debate expect the vote at the fuel quality committee will be close, although observers doubt the European Commission’s proposal will receive enough support from the 27 EU member states to outright pass it or quash it in the complicated voting system.
If there’s no “qualified majority” at the committee — requiring 255 votes out of a total 345 — then the matter will go to a larger council of ministers of the EU for a vote that could possibly take place by June.
Ottawa and the petroleum sector have engaged in an intensive lobbying campaign in recent months to convince European Union member countries to side with Canada’s position that the proposed Fuel Quality Directive discriminates against the oilsands.
The federal government fears the draft law could establish a dangerous dirty oil precedent, severely damage the oilsands industry’s worldwide reputation and close future export markets.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Thursday he can’t predict the results but believes the federal government’s message is resonating with EU members and that Canada could achieve a victory of sorts in the short term if the FQD falls short of the qualified majority at committee.
“There is more support. Fundamentally, it’s because other countries understand it’s a non-scientific and, for us, discriminatory approach that would single out the oilsands,” Oliver said in an interview with Postmedia News.
France is the latest country to oppose the draft FQD, the minister noted, while Britain has already sided with Canada on the matter. Other countries including Spain, Estonia and possibly Poland also support Canada’s position, government documents have previously indicated.
“We don’t want to have our oil stigmatized so it can have an impact on our ability to sell to other markets,” he added.
Canada’s oilsands, located largely in northern Alberta, are the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world — next to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The resource is home to approximately 170 billion of the estimated 175 billion barrels of total oil reserves found in Canada.
Canadian officials argue the proposed fuel standard unfairly singles out the resource as having higher carbon emissions without any sound scientific studies examining the greenhouse gases from conventional oil the EU actually imports.
Almost all of Canada’s oilsands exports are sent to the United States and virtually no bitumen-derived fuels are currently shipped to Europe.
“Europe has been grandstanding. It’s easy to take a stand against something you don’t import,” Oliver added.
However, EU officials maintain the FQD — which would also affect Venezuelan oilsands — is “clearly science-based” and helps the member countries meet their international obligations under the World Trade Organization.
The European Commission has recommended oilsands-derived fuel be given a greenhouse gas rating of 107 grams per megajoule, 22 per cent higher than the 87.5 grams assigned to fuel from conventional crude oil.
“With this measure, we are sending a clear signal to fossil fuels suppliers,” EU Climate Action commissioner Connie Hedegaard told Postmedia News in a statement.
“As fossil fuels will be a reality in the foreseeable future, it’s important to give them the right value.”
The aim of the fuel directive is to reduce emissions from transportation fuel by six per cent by 2020. If approved by the European Parliament, importers would face higher carbon offsets in order to trade in Canadian oil.
The European Commission’s proposal was endorsed Thursday by a group of eight Nobel Peace laureates, who wrote an open letter to heads of state urging them to “do the right thing for our environment” and support the FQD.
“Tarsand development is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, and threatens the health of the planet,” says the letter from the laureates, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
“As the tarsands have contributed to rising emissions, Canada recently stepped away from the Kyoto Protocol. Europe must not follow in Canada’s footsteps.”
Andrew Leach, an environmental economist at the University of Alberta, said the proposed EU fuel standard would be “damaging to Canada as a growing supplier of energy.”
But the federal government has put itself in an unfavourable position because there are no hard greenhouse gas regulations on oilsands development, he noted.
“Canada takes a cost for being put in this position where they are going against greenhouse gas emissions policy,” Leach said. “It’s another point where people will say Canada stood in the way of environmental policy.”
jfekete@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/jasonfekete
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