Revealed: Europe's plan to penalise Canada's tar sands goes Dutch
Following in the UK's footsteps, the Netherlands is now working to derail a European Commission proposal to officially designate fuels from Canada's vast tar sands fields as highly polluting and discourage their use.
A secret proposal, which I have seen, means that instead of companies being responsible for curbing the overall carbon emissions of the transport fuels they sell, countries would be responsible. That would lead to the ludicrous and legally laughable situation that when one company pumps more filthy fuel into the system, every other company is somehow responsible for cutting their carbon footprint to compensate.
It is worth noting at this point that the Netherlands is home to oil giant Shell, while the UK hosts BP. Both have major commercial interests in Canada's tar sands, and both have lobbied the UK government - or "bent its ear" in BP's own words - as I revealed before.
Now you might think the Canadian government would be pleased the Dutch are challenging the European proposal it detests and they are, but only a bit. In a private communication, which I have also seen, the Canadians told a European minister it "greatly appreciated" the efforts of the Netherlands. But they go on to complain that the Dutch proposal retains the "arbitrary" distinction between ordinary oil and what the Canadians like to call "natural bitumen", i.e. tar sands oil. Worse, said the Canadians, the Dutch proposal would be difficult and expensive to make work.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/jan/16/oil-tar-sands-canada-europe-netherlands-uk-fuel
