Looks like Mikey has been tallying up what Jim’s been raking in in “environmental prizes” and wants a piece of the action. Wonder if he’ll start getting himself arrested outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
An American climate scientist who published research behind the iconic “hockey stick” graph of rising global temperatures in recent decades is speaking out against a major pipeline expansion project due to its potential link to rising carbon dioxide emissions from Alberta’s oilsands industry.
Michael Mann, a professor from the meteorology and geosciences departments of Pennsylvania State University, joined U.S. conservation groups on Monday in urging the Obama administration to “level the playing field” in its review of Alberta-based TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL project, which would open up new markets for Canadian oil by transporting it to refineries on the gulf coast of Texas.
“The bottom line is that if we don’t take into account the environmental degradation associated with the climate change impact of some of these decisions then we’re not operating on a fair playing field when it comes to our energy choices,” said Mann in an interview with Postmedia News.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has described Alberta’s bitumen deposits as a “strategic resource” that creates thousands of jobs and makes up about two per cent of the Canadian economy. But his government has repeatedly delayed plans in recent years to regulate the industry’s impact on global warming.
Abundant natural gas will render this moot. Mining oil from tar sands is expensive. I don’t think it will be able to compete strictly on the economics.