Canadian climate experts told the press last week that approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project will cancel out every other effort to mitigate Canadian emissions because the planned expansion of the tar sand operations made feasible by the new pipeline is so large. Carbon emissions from bitumen mining are projected to double by 2020, way beyond the 2020 climate target Canada shares with the United States. The Canadians released a new report on mitigation of greenhouse gases. The former chair of the British Columbia Utilities Commission, Dr. Mark Jaccard, said "mitigation of Canada's increasing carbon pollution is incompatible with...oil sands expansion". He added, the only way to reach agreed carbon targets is "for the United States government to reject Keystone XL." Obama said in a recent speech that the net effects of the pipeline on climate is critical to the decision to go forward. But many critics of the project including US Person see the entire decision process as a foregone conclusion in which the draft and final environmental impact study commissioned by the US State Department were developed by a consultants with economic ties to TransCanada, the company proposing the project. Unsurprisingly, both documents concluded the pipeline would have no net negative environmental impact. The Canadian experts directly contradict this finding. By 2020 emissions growth in the tar sand deposits alone will be more than the emissions from every power plant in Canada combined. Canada quit the Kyoto Protocol in December, 2012 the first international treaty in its history to be repudiated.
Even without Keystone XL project approval, deep reductions in Canada's carbon emissions will be necessary to reach the 2020 goals and beyond. Despite many promises the conservative government has proposed no new federal regulations on emissions by the oil and gas industry. The production of bitumen from oil sands is energy intensive and emits three to four times more greenhouse gases than conventional crude oil production. Emissions from bitumen production have more than doubled in the last decade. The Canadian Green Party leader said Prime Minister Harper wants Canada to produce six million barrels of bitumen a day, and has no interest in climate change mitigation since it is bad for business. "Harper once described the Kyoto Protocol as a socialist ploy", according to her. The Harper government approved the sale of Nexen, Inc. oil and gas company which has interest in more than 300,000 acres of Athabasca oil sands to China's third largest state oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corp. The deal is under review by the US Committee on Foreign Investment. Reality check, anyone?