With yesterday's rubber-stamp approval of Imperial Oil's Kearl tar sands project, the Provincial/Federal Joint Review Panel has failed to uphold its responsibility to act in the best interests of Albertans and Canadians, according to the Pembina Institute.
As currently approved, Kearl is set to become one of the worst environmental laggards in the tar sands. For every barrel of bitumen produced, Kearl will emit 15 to 30 per cent more greenhouse gas pollution than other approved operations such as Shell's Jackpine Mine, and at its 300,000 barrels / day capacity, will produce 4 to 5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution annually. This is equivalent to putting about one million extra cars on the road.
"It's simply unacceptable for a new project to go ahead without emission reduction strategies that are already standard business practice," said Dan Woynillowicz, Senior Policy Analyst with the Pembina Institute. "Canadians have made it clear that they want strong action on global warming; the federal government and the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board - both represented on the Joint Panel - have utterly failed to respond."
Alberta's tar sands represent the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution in Canada. But with the right government policies, the sector could be required to deploy technologies that result in far lower emissions. Carbon capture and storage, which is particularly well suited to tar sands operations, is already beginning to be implemented on a large scale elsewhere in the world.
The Pembina Institute has calculated that the costs of achieving Kyoto-level targets in the tar sands - through a combination of carbon capture and investments in emission reductions elsewhere - would be around a dollar per barrel. Making operations carbon neutral by 2020, effectively eliminating emissions altogether, would cost no more than a few dollars per barrel.
Responding to reports that neither federal environment Minister John Baird nor Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach are planning to require the tar sands to reduce total emissions, Woynillowicz added; "our leaders need to show leadership and set targets that truly reduce emissions and spur clean technology investment now. If they don't, dirty oilsands projects approved today will become a runaway train of uncontrolled pollution."
The Kearl decision is just the latest of a string of rubber-stamp approvals in which regulators have ignored the accumulating environmental impacts of explosive growth in the tar sands.
"With this decision, it's clearer than ever that the entire tar sands approvals process is broken," said Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute. "Production is accelerating faster than anyone predicted, but our environmental safeguards have been left behind in the dust. Albertans can simply no longer trust regulators to protect their interests - we need to take a time out until the government gets serious and fixes the problem."
For more information:
Dan Woynillowicz
Senior Policy Analyst
Cell: 403-888-6272
Marlo Raynolds
Executive Director
Cell: 403-607-9427