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Canada’s gulf spill message not being heard in US: green critic

Canadian politicians and oil company execs have attempted to sell Alberta’s oil sands as a safer alternative to offshore drilling. But most Americans haven’t heard the sales pitch, a U.S. green observer told the Tyee.

“I’ve been following how officials have been saying that in Canada,” said Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, a director with the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council. “That’s not been part of the dialogue in the U.S.”

Shortly after BP’s exploded offshore rig began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, proponents of Canada’s oil sands went on a public relations offensive.

Producing sandy bitumen in Alberta destroys Boreal forest, taxes water resources and emits three times the carbon as conventional oil, green groups argue. But the gulf spill throws everything into perspective, proponents counter.

“The risks associated with the oil sands, the environmental risks, are significantly different than, and probably less than the kind of risks associated with offshore drilling,” federal Conservative environment minister Jim Prentice told the Canadian Press in early May.

In recent weeks, that message has been repeated by oil company execs and Alberta officials – not to mention legions of pro-oil sands analysts. (Perhaps the most notable exception being Imperial Oil CEO Bruce March, who said the spill won’t improve the industry’s reputation).

Alberta premier Ed Stelmach promised he wouldn’t make the offshore/oil sands comparison during a recent trip to Washington, then did it anyway. And he was quick to lambast a British Guardian columnist for drawing attention to his sales pitch.

Despite everything, Americans are just too focussed on the oil slick now washing up on Florida beaches to notice, Casey-Lefkowitz said.

“We haven’t really seen [the oil sands comparison] the way we’ve seen it in Canada,” she said. “It’s not yet made it into the common press.”

Alberta’s Washington representative, Gary Mar, continues to lobby on behalf of Alberta energy this week. At home, oil sands proponents cross their fingers.

“There is quiet and guarded optimism among domestic stakeholders that the unintended consequences of the blowout will benefit the Canadian oil industry, especially the oil sands,” reads a Calgary Herald op-ed from Monday.

Geoff Dembicki reports for the Tyee.

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