When You Think Bitumen, Think of the World's Poor and Needy

Who knew?   It seems the Harper government's support for the high-carbon, Athabasca Tar Sands is actually compassionate, even altruistic.  We're just doing our best to help out the world's poor and needy.

A gaggle of Canadian academics and science types just sent Ol' Joe Oliver a letter asking him to be an adult about our bitumen trafficking.

"...some of your recent comments give us significant cause for concern. In short, we are not convinced that your advocacy in support of new pipelines and expanded fossil fuel   climate change into account in a meaningful way. 

Avoiding dangerous climate change will require significantly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and making a transition to cleaner energy. 

The infrastructure we build today will shape future choices about energy. If we invest in expanding fossil fuel production, we risk locking ourselves in to a high carbon pathway that increases greenhouse gas emissions for years and decades to come."

Joe is hotfooting it through Europe this week, trying to convince those ungrateful Euros that it wouldn't be right to label bitumen dirtier than other fossil fuels but his spokesman, Chris McCluskey, wasted no time plucking the heart strings.

 "Cutting off oil production would create great economic hardship, especially for the poorest nations who already suffer from an energy deficit.  Indeed, one and half billion people are now without electricity. We have an obligation to responsibly develop our resources, protect the environment, create economic growth for Canadians and share our energy with the world."

Now you might not have known that we were going to "share" our energy with the world, especially not with the people of the poorest nations like the United States and China.  And that's why guys like McCluskey get paid the big bucks - to open your eyes.