Canadian Oil: Not So Bad After All

As mentioned before in our ongoing coverage of the Keystone pipeline mania, the State Department’s finding of no significant environmental impact from the pipeline is based on the common sense understanding that Canada’s oil is going to come out of the ground and go somewhere, and if it doesn’t go to us by pipeline, it will go to China and Europe by tanker. The climatistas labor under the childish fantasy that they can keep Canadian oil in the ground if they keep stamping their feet and genuflecting to Tom Steyer, or something.

Part of their crusade has been attempting to impose legal trade barriers to so-called “dirty” tar sands oil. Last week the climatistas suffered a major setback when the European Union reversed course on this issue. From Reuters:

EU Abandons ‘Dirty’ Label for Tar Sands Oil

A European Union plan to label tar sands oil as highly polluting in its fight against climate change has been abandoned after years of opposition led by major producer Canada.

A proposal published by the European Commission on Tuesday removes an obstacle to Canada exporting tar sands crude to Europe and comes at a time when tensions between the EU and top oil supplier Russia are running high.

EU sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the desire for a trade deal with Canada had been a factor given the situation with Moscow.

Confirming a draft seen by Reuters in June, the proposal requires refiners to report an average emissions value of the feedstock used in the products they produce, dropping a requirement to single out tar sands content.

I’ll have more to say about the whole global oil outlook tomorrow or Tuesday.

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