The federal government asked the oil and gas industry last fall to review its foreign climate change policies, which were then approved by lobbyists as “an elegant” approach, reveals newly-released correspondence.
The government was consulting the industry about European climate change legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels, according to an email exchange between senior bureaucrats at Natural Resources Canada.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, an oil and gas industry lobby group, is opposed to the European Fuel Quality Directive legislation, because it believes it unfairly discriminates against bitumen, the heavy oil derived from the oilsands sector, which the government describes as the “fastest growing source of (greenhouse gas) emissions in Canada.”
I strongly support the Canadian petroleum industry, but CAPP has got to do their own work from now on.
The Canadian conservative cause is far bigger than just the petroleum sector. We have to restore our freedoms, roll-back govt spending, increase defence spending, and engage in a variety of conservative political endeavors to get Canada back on track after decades of left-wing neglect. Many other resources, such as coal and hard-rock mining also need to be promoted. Canadian conservatives appear to be throwing coal under the bus, which is obviously wrong.
These efforts require the long-term strength of the Canadian Conservative Party, which – unfortunately – is only sitting at about 30-35% in the polls (i.e., if there was an election today, they would likely lose). By doing the hard work for CAPP – while CAPP just sits back and plays the politically correct games with its liberal friends – the Conservative Party appears to be getting played as the bad cop in the classic good cop-bad cop routine, and this is threatening the re-electability of the Conservatives, and by that, it threatens all of Canada.
It is time for CAPP to get off the fence and openly support those that support it (which includes financial support), rather than this organization continuing to use the efforts of others for free, and then either intentionally or unintentionally sabotaging the conservative supporters.