U.S. mayors want to ban Alberta oil
June 25, 2008 · By Charles Anthony
The mayors of some American cities want to shun tar sands oil because it is not clean enough, i.e., too much pollution is created in its refinery. They are being completely stupid — unless the intention of these politicians is to deliberately screw the consumers.
Tar sands oil comes to market because it is offered at a marginally lower rate than the international prices. Therefore, avoiding Albertan oil means paying marginally more for oil of a different source — rarely a concern of politicians. Banning a supplier forces the consumer to burn extra energy in working to pay the extra taxes to fund the extra cost of the “clean” fuel.
Yup. Clean oil from dirty dictators like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is so much better for the conscience of the American citizen. They are happy to line the pockets of socialist strongmen, because that gives them someone to invade in a few more years when he gets belligerent and threatens to cut off America’s supply. No point in relying on a loyal neighbour for your supply when you may have an excuse to attack someone in a few years.
But I find it particularly ironic that they are concerned about the “pollution” caused by the tar sands processing… not that they have ever been there… while Canada looks into the glassy emptiness of all the lakes of Ontario killed by acid rain from Detroit and Chicago, and watches helplessly while American power companies build carbon-powered electrical generation facilities right along our border so all the exhaust blows into Canada.