EU Stymies Attempt to Label Oil Sands as More Energy-Intensive

A long-term lobbying effort pays off for Canada's oil industry.

It's another great day for the oil industry and its well-heeled lobbyists, as the European Union has decided to put on hold a measure that would have required imports from Canada's oil sands be labelled as more energy-intensive than oil from traditional sources. The move, supported by environmentally minded factions of the European Union and elsewhere, intended to show the true cost of extracting oil from the oil sands, a process that produces significantly more carbon emissions and uses much more water than other methods. It's part of an initiative to get European oil marketers to reduce the level of emissions in fuel sold domestically. As such, the move would make it more expensive to use Canadian bitumen. A committee in the European parliament attempted to pass the resolution, but failed to get the majority of votes needed to implement it owing to abstentions from the Netherlands, France, and the U.K. All three of those countries are home to oil companies, such as Shell and BP, with significant interests in the Alberta oil sands. At the same time, though, the measure isn't entirely dead, as the committee would need a majority of members to kill it, as well. The committee will continue to review the fuel standard change.