Widespread Canadian Oil Lobbying Effort Underway in Europe

Environmental groups are up in arms over prolonged attempts by Canadians to derail the implementation of 'well-to-wheels' energy standards.

Not that we're going overboard on the oilsands by design today, but The Guardian has an curious article on the efforts that Canadian government and energy industry officials have played in delaying European Union and British plans to roll out new energy efficiency standards that don't bode well for Alberta's oil sands. Canadian representatives held more than 100 meetings with European counterparts during the past two years in which they attempted – successfully – to stall the implementation of so called “well-to-wheels” carbon intensity standard across the continent. Well-to-wheels standards attempt to measure the total intensity required to get oil from the ground into a working fuel, a measure by which the high-intensity oil sands would likely suffer the most. Environmental groups in Europe are claiming that the Canadian oil lobbying efforts are “unprecedented” and bring to mind tactics used by the tobacco industry.