The Rookie is Already Being Called to the Plate

Barack Obama has just barely celebrated his one-week anniversary as the president-elect of the United States and already the international pact proposals are rolling in. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn’t wait 24 hours before issuing his proposal for a joint climate-change pact between Canada and the United States. Obama’s plans for the environment, which entail reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 15% in the next ten years, align almost exactly with Harper’s plans for Canada, making our newly elected leader an ideal environmental partner.

Home to the second largest oil reserve, Harper’s government is proposing to enter into an agreement with the U.S. that would guarantee American access to its northern neighbor’s oil sands supplies. Both sides would benefit from this pact: America would decrease its dependence on Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil while Canada’s economy would be bolstered as a primary supplier to the world’s most gluttonous oil consumer. As allied forces, they would help each other to find solutions for their shared goal of reduced carbon emissions.

While this all sounds so perfect it belongs on an episode of “Leave it to Beaver,” environmentalists are quick to note the glaring problem with this proposal. Oil sands extraction results in carbon dioxide emissions that are three to five times greater than the crude oil on which we currently rely. It’s also difficult to see how America would benefit from this plan, as Canada is already one of our major suppliers of foreign oil. Most importantly, it complicates Obama’s efforts to decrease consumption of “dirty oil;” these sources require surface mining and sand extraction, two processes that are extremely harmful to the environment.

At first glance, this proposal sounds like a wonderful step forward, both in international relations and reliable (not to be confused with renewable) energy sources. However, you can’t pull a fast one on Obama. Clearly, increasing our reliance on oil sands would be a violation of the national low carbon fuel standards he intends to put in place. America isn’t going to be duped into a lousy pact that would bolster Canada’s economy and exploit our environmental solutions. While wrapping up a poor proposal in a pretty bow may have worked on the last administration, our new one is smart enough to actually read it before signing.