Sideshow Steve Harper and his British counterpart, Austerity Dave Cameron, may be widely disliked by their citizens, but they are taking care of business.
Cameron, according to documents leaked to The Guardian, is running interference for Steve with the same E.U. his party is constantly threatening to divorce.
The E.U. is contemplating restrictions on high-carbon transport fuels, which is code for Athabasca bitumen. The European commission has proposed labelling Alberta heavy oil as "highly polluting" to deter countries importing it. Cameron is moving to derail that initiative.
But of six options put to EU countries in April on how to implement
the proposal, the UK chose the two that would make no differentiation
between the carbon content of fuels.
"Based on the findings
so far, it seems clear that [these two] seem to meet the policy aims of
the directive with the least risks of unexpected consequences," the UK
said in the documents. It firmly rejected others that allowed a
difference.
Charlie Kronick, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace, said:
"Labelling oil from tar sands as highly polluting would strongly
discourage tar sands imports into the Europe
and possibly other markets. It could also discourage planned tar sands
extraction projects in other parts of the world, such as Madagascar.
"If
you're not serious about keeping tar sands oil out of Europe, then
you're not serious about climate change."
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