U.S. oil addiction could make us [Canadians] sick - GreenHybrid

Katz6768 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 07:41 AM

Quote:

U.S. oil addiction could make us sick
Insatiable Americans are endangering our own energy security, say Tony Clarke, Bruce Campbell, and Gordon Laxer

Mar. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper takes his turn at steering the Canadian ship of state, Ralph Klein's latest health-care proposals may not be the only thorny problem originating from his home province.

The Athabasca tar sands project in Alberta, coupled with the lack of a made-in-Canada energy strategy, could soon prove to be an albatross for the new Harper government.

Unbeknown to most Canadians, Canada is now the Number 1 foreign supplier of oil to the United States. Given the uncertainties of Mideast and Venezuelan supplies, the U.S. has rapidly increased oil imports from Canada, facilitated by the proportional sharing clause on energy in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Today's Toronto Star newspaper article:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=968350116795

or:

http://www.evworld.com/rssnews.cfm?s...ue&rssid=11275

Hot_Georgia_2004 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 10:39 AM

My impression about this is another anti-US rant. The Canadians and U.S. have always been good trading partners.

Hondasucks · #3 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hot_Georgia_2004

My impression about this is another anti-US rant. The Canadians and U.S. have always been good trading partners.

Yeah right, Soft wood lumber for example. /sarcasm

Katz6768 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hot_Georgia_2004

My impression about this is another anti-US rant. The Canadians and U.S. have always been good trading partners.

Is it your Gut-feeling or do you know of any facts that can contradict this article?

Personally I hope it is all lies. I don't think it was intended as an anti-US, pro-liberal or anti-Bush.

The current sentiment in Canada is not anti-American, I believe is more anti-Bush and anti-war... I could be wrong.

Hondasucks · #5 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katz6768

Is it your Gut-feeling or do you know of any facts that can contradict this article?

Personally I hope it is all lies. I don't think it was intended as an anti-US, pro-liberal or anti-Bush.

The current sentiment in Canada is not anti-American, I believe is more anti-Bush and anti-war... I could be wrong.

I think the problem is Anti US Policy which goes hand and hand with ANti Bush, Anti War...... I think their is a profoundly large following of canadians who believe the majority of americans are blind to the world around them. Weather it is right or not I think the majority of the world is some-what inline with this feeling as well.

That being said the US is our neighbour, our friend, and our largest trading partner and I personally see no problem in us exporting our oil/water/softwood lumber to them as long as we are being treated fairly... Softwood lumber has left a bad taste in cnd's mouth and articles like this are most likley playing to that. Lets face it, you guys rely on our resources and we rely on your security

Katz6768 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 11:23 AM

A couple of points:

The "Oil addiction" is not unique to the U.S., Canadians probably consume the same amount of fuel per capita as Americans.

If extracting the Oil from the tar sands is as bad as described in the article:

Quote:

Expanding exports to the U.S. has rapidly depleted our conventional reserves of oil and natural gas. It is now estimated that Canada has less than a 10-year proven supply of both conventional oil and natural gas.
...
Three of the top five Canadian polluters are tar sands operators. If present trends continue, Canada will be 44 per cent above its permitted Kyoto levels by 2010.

then the Canadian oil addiction doubles: oil consumption and dirty oil production.

Finding oil is not always a blessing (ask Iraq, Venezuela, etc).

AshenGrey · #7 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katz6768

The current sentiment in Canada is not anti-American, I believe is more anti-Bush and anti-war... I could be wrong.

I would intuitively agree. Once Bush is out of office and our troops are out of Iraq, the US will probably be able to regain some of the trust and honor we used to have with our allies.

leahbeatle · #8 (**permalink**) 03-10-2006, 12:24 PM

Some years back, there were a bunch of stories in the media expressing outrage at how many things in the US were being 'bought' by Japanese companies, like the Sears Tower, and how that was somehow a bad thing and we were losing control of our culture. At the time, I heard from reliable sources that it was in fact Canada, not Japan, that is the largest source of foreign investment in the United States, which didn't stir up anywhere close to the same level of resentment or pique- Americans like Canadians. I would be very surprised if the US wasn't (one of) the biggest investors in Canada; our economies are very closely linked in many ways besides oil/energy. The border between our countries is the longest undefended border in the world. I'd say that indicates that the relationship is pretty good (although at the moment there's certainly some political posturing which is hopefully more bluster than not), and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. It would be a sad thing if it did.

AZCivic · #9 (**permalink**) 03-19-2006, 07:50 PM

Canada is inded our #1 trade partner. That isn't going to change any time soon.

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/...p/top0601.html