Pelosi wades into our oil sands

The U.S. Speaker of the House was in Ottawa this week to hear both sides of the oil sands debate. But she might have only been listening to one of them.

Whenever guests come to dinner, families put their squabbles on hold. Such was the case this week when U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi came to Ottawa to meet with Canadians on both sides of the oil sands debate, including Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and environmental groups. Everybody made nice and both sides left saying they were optimistic they’d gotten their points across.

Rick Smith and Marlo Raynolds, of Environmental Defence and the Pembina Institute respectively, give us an inside scoop on their Pelosi parlay in the Ottawa Citizen. “Pelosi asked what we wanted to see happen,” they write, “We explained the best thing for our countries and the security of our children is to ultimately chart a course off the oil sands.” Pointing to a lack of regulation, runaway greenhouse gas emissions, and health concerns from the local population, the pair said “The best strategy in the short term is to stop building new oilsands projects. The U.S. can contribute by shelving (the) Keystone XL pipeline,” a massive project to build a conduit from Alberta to Texas.

“We shouldn’t have to rely on … a visiting American VIP” to find occasion to put away the knives and have a “serious national debate” on the oil sands, laments a Toronto Star editorial. As a result of both sides' "public relations wars, propaganda campaigns and showpieces," Canadians are still so divided on Alberta’s energy project that we “can’t even agree on what to call it. Tar sands, say environmentalists. Oilsands, insists the industry, which doesn’t want to be tarred by the traditional term.” Pelosi’s visit could be a starting point for better dialogue.

Although Stelmach quipped “Boy, after today, I’m excited” after his meeting with Pelosi, the National Post’s Don Martin says her visit was probably “more about gathering input for a future trash-talking of the Alberta and Saskatchewan oil sands than a unbiased hearing of the facts.” Voters in her California district are strongly against oil sands imports, and with Democrats about to plunge over an electoral cliff in the Novmember midterms, for her to “come out in favour of the oil sands now would be political suicide.”