Read this story from the Vancouver Observer on a new study published in the prestigious journal Science which suggests the planet has seen 4,000 years word of normal warming in just the past two decades. ( )

A new study published in the journal Science shows how freakishly extreme global warming has become in the last few decades.

The scientists from Oregon State University and Harvard University used dozens of sources of ice cores and sediment cores from around the world to reconstruct the Earth’s temperature record for the last 1,100 decades. This detailed record stretches back much farther than previous studies.

Global temperatures rose slowly for thousands of years after the end of the last ice age. Temperatures peaked around 5,000 BC, at a level close to where we are today. Then temperatures declined slowly for thousands of more years.

Now, suddenly, the global temperature has started rocketing upwards. Far more troubling than the actual temperature is the fact that the changes are accelerating dramatically.

The century from 1860 to 1960 saw rapid warming. The next two decades more than doubled that warming. And then the next two decades – 1980 to 2000 – went ballistic, piling on thousands of years of warming.

Last week another study was published showing global warming has continued to accelerate since then, with dramatic warming of the world's oceans in the last 15 years.

Read story and graphs: http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/we-just-experienced-4000-years-global-warming-two-decades

Read this story from the Vancouver Sun on the PR battle over BC Auditor General John Doyle's scathing audit of the Pacific Carbon Trust, a crown corporation set up to trade carbon offsets. (Mar. 28, 2013)

VICTORIA — Auditor general John Doyle blasted the management of the Pacific Carbon Trust Wednesday, saying the public organization at the centre of his damning audit on carbon neutrality actively worked to undermine his efforts.

“Of all the reports I have issued, never has one been targeted in such an overt manner by vested interests, nor has an audited organization ever broken my confidence, as did the senior managers at PCT by disclosing confidential information to carbon market developers and brokers,” Doyle wrote in a scathing introduction to his report.

Doyle pointed to an “orchestrated letter-writing campaign” from “domestic and foreign entities,” which he said significantly delayed the report.

“I cannot sufficiently express my surprise and disappointment that a public sector entity, with a fiduciary duty to the people of British Columbia, chose to expend its time and energy in this manner, rather than addressing the concerns raised,” he wrote.

Pacific Carbon Trust CEO Scott MacDonald fought back, saying there was “absolutely no disclosure of confidential information.”

“We’ve never shared the report with anybody. We’ve never shared the final results. We’ve only checked facts that he shared with us to ensure he has an accurate report,” said MacDonald, adding he did so with expert organizations that had already done significant work in the field.

MacDonald also said some of the organizations that wrote Doyle did so as a result of concerns they developed on their own after exchanges with Doyle’s office, and not because of leaks.

As for the letters sent to Doyle, he denied there was any orchestrated campaign.

“It wasn’t a letter-writing campaign. This was an assertion by industry experts that were communicating with him, at a variety of different levels, to help him get a better report,” he said.

“They are letters that offer assistance. They are letters that clarify his work. They are letters that provide him factual and contextual information that will help him get a better audit.”

MacDonald’s assertions were backed up by David Antonioli, chief executive officer of Washington, D.C.-based Verified Carbon Standard, an organization that sets standards for carbon trading.

“This is something that we think is important for the VCS. Ultimately what the (auditor general’s office) seemed to be doing was substituting their own judgment for that of what we’ve established, which is a standard that has been developed through public consultation, stakeholder engagement, etc.,” said Antonioli, who said he wrote several letters to Doyle’s office after it contacted him with questions in connection with the audit.

“We thought it was important to draw attention to the fact that he was just plain wrong,” he said.

“We’ve been trying to get through to the (auditor general’s) office for about a year now on these points and it’s really concerning that he’s now trying to turn it around and make it be that there’s this conspiracy going around.”

International Emissions Trading Association president and CEO Dirk Forrister said he believes B.C.’s office of the auditor general “came to its conclusion without any real technical expertise on the subject matter.”

“The office was disinterested in engaging with the expert international community, choosing instead to go-it-alone despite the highly technical and specialized field of study,” he said in a news release.

The association was among the organizations that sent a letter to Doyle.

Assistant auditor general Morris Sydor — the lead auditor on the file — said on Wednesday that his office absolutely understands the fundamental basics and has reached the proper conclusions.

“When you look at our report, we are looking at a couple of very fundamental easy-to-understand issues.”

He said his office began getting letters from international organizations — some of which he said were not directly involved in the programs being audited — not long after his office provided some preliminary findings to the Pacific Carbon Trust.

“What we found was that Pacific Carbon Trust, along with several others, was orchestrating a campaign asking these organizations to send letters to the office,” he said.

“Very early, seven or eight months ago, these organizations started worrying about what our report might say and the impact it would have on the carbon market.”

The Pacific Carbon Trust is a Crown corporation overseen by a government-appointed board. The board is chaired by Chris Trumpy, a retired bureaucrat who for years served as the deputy minister of finance.

The corporation’s CEO MacDonald also disclosed Wednesday that his organization hired a pair of firms — Laura Ballance Media Group and Wazuku Advisory Group — to help with its strategy on how to react to the audit.

“We routinely outsource things when we need assistance,” said MacDonald, adding his is a small organization.

That revelation brought an immediate condemnation from NDP environment critic Rob Fleming.

“If they are using tax dollars for government relations firms and spin doctors to attack an independent officer of the legislature that’s a huge concern,” he said.

Read this story from CBC.ca and the Canadian Press on the decision by the Coldwater Indian Band, near Merritt, BC, to battle a proposed pipeline expansion through its territory in the courts. (Mar. 26, 2013)

A First Nation from British Columbia's southern Interior is taking the federal government and an oil company to court over plans to almost triple the capacity of an oil pipeline that crosses its reserve.

Documents filed in Federal Court by the Coldwater Indian Band argue the minister of Indian affairs is ready to consent to a plan that would see Kinder Morgan increase the amount of oil in the Trans Mountain pipeline near Merritt, B.C.

The band is requesting a judicial review and wants the court to set aside any approval the minister may give to the company, stating the minister has the legal obligation to act in the best interests of the band.

However, the company is standing firm, saying while it prefers to have respectful one-to-one discussions with the band, it's prepared to have issues related to its legal agreements, known as indentures, that permit the pipeline to cross the band's reserve settled in court.

"Trans Mountain has been, and continues to be, open to discussing and resolving outstanding issues with Coldwater or other First Nations as it relates to the indenture or other matters of concern," said Andrew Galarnyk, the company's director of external relations, in an email to The Canadian Press.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, formerly known as the department of Indian affairs and northern development, declined to comment on the court application on Tuesday.

According to the court document, the government approved the original 61-centimetre pipeline and 18-metre right-of-way that runs through the band's reserve in the 1950s.

The current 1,150-kilometre pipeline runs from Edmonton to the Westridge Terminal in Burnaby, B.C., and carries 300,000 barrels a day, but Kinder Morgan wants to expand that to 890,000 barrels per day.

The new pipeline would transport heavier oils and diluted bitumen, a molasses-like hydrocarbon, while the existing pipeline would transport refined products, such as synthetic crude oils and light crude oils.

The band states it's concerned about the twin pipeline's risk and potential adverse effects on the health and safety of its people, while also stating that the minister can't impose such risks against group's will.

The First Nation also wants the court to declare the government legally obligated to consult and share information with the band and follow its instructions.

Galarnyk said the Coldwater band is arguing the indentures that permit the pipeline to cross the band's reserve are invalid because the Trans Mountain pipeline was transferred to a new corporate entity in 2007 and because of subsequent corporate name changes and transfers since.

Galarnyk said the band is also arguing the indentures are invalid because minister did not consent to the transfer and because the band was not consulted.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/03/26/bc-coldwater-kinder-morgan-pipeline.html

Read this story from the Globe and Mail on Canadian oil giant Suncor's tailings pond leak into the Athabasca River earlier this week. (Mar. 27, 2013)

A leak at a Suncor Energy Inc. oil sands site poured an estimated 350,000 litres of industrial waste water into the Athabasca River over a 10-hour period, causing “a short term, negligible impact on the river” earlier this week, the company said late Wednesday.

Canada’s largest oil company provided few details about what chemicals and substances actually flowed into the river north of Fort McMurray, saying in a statement that “our tests confirm the process affected water was a combination of water with suspended solids (clays and fine particulates) and inorganic and organic compounds. It does not contain bitumen.”

Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal said she was unable provide further details about the makeup of the industrial waste water.

“It did not contain bitumen but I don’t have a further breakdown,” Ms. Seetal said.

Earlier this week, Suncor and Alberta’s Department of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development disclosed that the company had discovered a rupture on Monday from a pipe carrying industrial waste water used in oil sands extraction and upgrading. The leak at the company’s base plant spilled into a pond adjacent to the Athabasca River, and then into the river itself.

Wednesday’s statement from company answers one question: how much industrial waste water got into the river. The estimated 350,000 litres that made its way into the Athabasca compares to 2.5-million litres for an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

But Suncor’s statement also means the leak went on longer than initial reports suggested. The leak was reported to government officials around 1:45 p.m. on Monday and it was halted at 4 p.m. the same day.

The oil company said that as soon as its staff realized there was a discharge into the river, work began immediately to stop the flow. The company said what it discharged into the river was approximately six parts treated water to one part waste water.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/suncor-says-leak-had-negligible-impact-on-athabasca-river/article10443883/

Read this story from CBC.ca on the BC Liberals' vow to implement some the recommendations of the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser River sockeye, beginning with capping farmed salmon production in the contentious Discovery Islands area off central Vancouver Island. (March 22, 2013)

Six months after the release of the Cohen Commission's final report on the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, the B.C. government says it accepts the intent of a number of the report's recommendations, including putting a cap on future open-net fish farms along a critical migration route.

In October, Justice Bruce Cohen suggested a freeze on new open-net salmon farms in the Discovery Islands, near Campbell River, until September 2020.

Cohen said dozens of salmon farms along the sockeye migration route have the potential to introduce exotic diseases and to aggravate diseases endemic to the wild fish.

Cohen's 1,000-page report said a string of cumulative factors likely played a role into why nearly 10 million salmon failed to return to spawn in 2009. He laid out 75 recommendations regarding the policies and practices for both the federal and provincial governments.

On Friday, the B.C. government said it would accept, or at least accept the intent, of eight recommendations — including a cap on the open-net farms — from the Cohen Commission that fell under provincial jurisdiction.

The government said it has "no intention of issuing any further or expanded tenures for net-pen salmon farms in the Discovery Islands until at least September 30, 2020." But it will continue to consider applications to amend existing boundaries of current open-net salmon farms for reasons other than increasing production, it said.

B.C. Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick says he agrees with the Cohen's finding that a moratorium on new fish farms in the Discovery Islands will help determine whether fish farms are impacting wild salmon.

"He basically says we should use the precautionary principle and what we're doing today as a government is agreeing with him," Letnick said.

But NDP environment critic Rob Fleming said he was disappointed with Friday's news.

"They've been missing in action on this file for so long," Fleming said.

"To say on a Friday afternoon, six months after Justice Cohen delivered his report, that they deign to agree with his recommendations, just shows that they have not paid considerable attention to this."

Read original story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/03/22/bc-fraser-salmon-cohen-report.html

Read this op-ed from the Georgia Straight by sustainable transportation consultant Eric Doherty, presenting a cost-effective, alternative transportation vision for the Lower Mainland. (March 21, 2013)

Recently there has been a flurry of news stories about rapid-transit projects in Metro Vancouver, many with misleading headlines like “SkyTrain to Langley top rapid transit option for Surrey: TransLink”. Mayor Dianne Watts wants light-rail rapid transit in Surrey, and Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs has been badmouthing anything in Vancouver but a $3-billion subway along Broadway to UBC. But TransLink’s just-released studies reveal a wide variety of good rapid-transit options, all with both positive features and limitations.

No “preferred alternative” has yet been selected.

The big question is how any of this will be paid for. The provincial government under Christy Clark has prioritized roadway expansion over transit, and the result has been cuts to transit service across the region. The cuts are deepest at the edges of the transit system, in Surrey and Delta, but they extend even to bus routes in Vancouver and off-peak SkyTrain service.

An obvious solution, for at least part of the cost, is reallocating the money from urban road-expansion projects. The controversial Massey Tunnel project is expected to cost billions and is designed to facilitate industrial and residential development on land taken out of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Besides dooming Delta’s agricultural land, this project would direct development onto a floodplain increasingly vulnerable to flooding due to sea-level rise. At the same time, it would increase the carbon emissions driving global warming. Three billion dollars is enough to build light rail along Broadway to UBC and bus rapid transit in Surrey, with about a billion left over for bike paths, bus lanes, transit signal priority, and the like throughout the region.

Many U.S. groups, including the Sierra Club, have adopted the slogan “Fix it first” to campaign for an end to wasteful spending on new and wider roads. Get OnBoard B.C. is a coalition of groups supporting increased funding for transit in Metro Vancouver that has taken up a similar idea and advocates reallocating funds from road expansion to transit, among other transit funding options.

The Climate Justice Project report Transportation Transformation, which I coauthored, suggests that between $1 billion and $1.5 billion per year could be reallocated from roadway expansion to transit, cycling, passenger rail, and other low-carbon-emission transportation across B.C. 

This is in addition to the vehicle levies, carbon tax, gas taxes, tolls, and other revenue sources TransLink could access with provincial-government approval. Seen in this light, maybe we can even afford bathrooms at SkyTrain stations and bus loops, and improve HandyDART service for people with disabilities and the elderly, in addition to new rapid-transit lines and more buses.

Even capital-intensive SkyTrain lines are within reach for the busiest corridors, if the political will is found to set aside road-building projects and put transit first. But most of Metro Vancouver is far away from the busiest transit routes, so less expensive forms of rapid transit need to be considered for these areas. One of the most interesting options being examined by TransLink is bus rapid transit (BRT). A $900-million BRT option is on TransLink’s shortlist for Surrey and Langley; it is forecast to attract around the same number of riders as a light-rail system costing more than twice as much.

TransLink’s early studies cast doubt on the ability of BRT to meet long-term ridership demand while maintaining speed and reliability. However, the transportation authority’s analysis of BRT is based on diesel buses with a capacity of only 100 people, whereas double articulated buses that hold up to 200 in both diesel hybrid and electric trolley versions are now available. Electric trolley buses accelerate more quickly than diesel buses and attract more riders since they are quieter and pollute less. TransLink’s studies and real-world experience show that BRT can be effective even on very busy routes. The next stage of TransLink studies should provide more information on what can be done with BRT using modern high-capacity trolley buses.

Under pressure from concerned citizens, TransLink has already set the stage for creating a world-class transit system. In May 2011, the authority announced the cancellation of the North Fraser Perimeter Road project through New Westminster. More recently, TransLink has pulled back its proposal to build a six-lane replacement for the Pattullo Bridge at a cost of around $1 billion and is instead considering upgrading the existing bridge for around $200 million. These two moves alone free up more than enough money for a $900-million bus rapid-transit network in Surrey.

Read more: http://www.straight.com/news/364516/eric-doherty-spend-transit-not-roads

Read this story from the Canadian Press on a new alliance between Canadian and American aboriginal groups, aimed at halting several oil pipelines proposed to cross their territories on both sides of the border.  (March 20, 2013)

An alliance of First Nations leaders is preparing to fight proposed new pipelines in the courts and through unspecified direct action.

Native leaders from Canada and the United States were on Parliament Hill on Wednesday to underline opposition to both the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines.

The first would tie the Alberta oil sands to the West Coast, while the second would send bitumen to refineries on the American Gulf Coast.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said the federal government is consulting with First Nations, and is ready to hear their concerns.

"We're making every effort to respond to the concerns we have heard on the West Coast," he said after a caucus meeting.

"I've had quite a few conversations with aboriginal leaders and aboriginal people. And I've found those conversations very constructive. They want to do the best for their communities and we want to do the best for their communities as well. So I remain very hopeful."

Speaking to CBC News, Oliver said there was an "enormous economic benefit" at stake for First Nations.

"There is an opportunity to transform many aboriginal communities which have been suffering from high unemployment for far too long," he said. "There is an opportunity for jobs, for economic activity, for equity participation, and I would hope that when they see that there isn't an environmental risk that they would embrace these opportunities for their communities."

Oliver said the government supports peaceful protests as part of a democracy, but "we do expect people to live within the confines of the law."

Chiefs brush off federal appointment

Some of the chiefs brushed off the federal government's appointment this week of a special envoy to look at tensions between natives and the energy industry.

Vancouver-based lawyer Doug Eyford is to focus on energy infrastructure in Western Canada, but some native leaders say he has no credibility.

He is to examine First Nations concerns about the troubled Northern Gateway proposal, as well as the development of liquid natural gas plants, marine terminals and other energy infrastructure in British Columbia and Alberta.

He will discuss environmental protection, jobs and economic development, and First Nations rights to a share of the wealth from natural resources.

"He's going to be reaching out to find out more about their interests and their concerns and to look for ways that resource development can help improve the lives of aboriginals, create more employment, create more opportunities for communities," Oliver said.

Some native chiefs, however, said Eyford has already failed. Although he is also the federal government's chief negotiator on comprehensive land claims, they said he hasn't accomplished much on that file.

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation said natives are determined to block the pipelines.

"It's going to be a long, hot summer," he said at a news conference.

"We have a lot of issues at stake."

'We're going to stop these pipelines.'

Phil Lane Jr. of the American Yankton Sioux, said native groups south of the border will stand with their Canadian cousins.

"We're going to stop these pipelines on way or another," he said.

Chief Martin Louie of the Nadleh Whut'en First Nation in northern B.C., said the pipeline opponents will never back down.

"If we have to keep going to court, we'll keep doing that," he said.

He said the stakes are high and go beyond native issues.

"We're the ones that's going to save whatever we have left of this Earth," he said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/03/20/ottawa-live-conference-first-nations-pipelines.html

Read this story and watch video from CTV.ca on Resources Minister Joe Oliver's recent announcement of improved oil spill response measures for proposed tanker traffic on BC's coast. (March 18, 2013)

The federal government introduced new guidelines Monday aimed at improving safety for oil tankers, but Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver denied claims from critics that they were designed solely to get two proposed pipeline projects approved.

Oliver and Transport Minister Denis Lebel announced the “Safeguarding Canada’s Seas and Skies Act” at a news conference in Vancouver Monday afternoon.

In addition to the bill, Lebel announced another eight measures designed to bring Canada closer to having “a world-class tanker safety system.”

The new legislation, which amends the Canada Shipping Act, includes provisions that:

• require oil-handling facilities to develop and submit to the federal government pollution-prevention plans;
• create new penalties under the Act that can lead to heftier fines;
• make it easier for enforcement officers to issue fines;
• remove legal barriers that may prevent agencies from responding to an emergency, such as a spill.

The eight additional measures include more inspections for foreign-flagged tankers, expanded aerial patrols over coastal waters that can spot as little as one litre of oil in the ocean, and a new Coast Guard-led emergency response system.

Oliver denied that the government’s larger objective is to get regulations in place that will increase the likelihood that the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain pipeline projects will be approved.

“The objective is to make any development safe for Canadians and safe for the environment,” Oliver told CTV’s Power Play on Monday.

“So everything we’re doing on the environmental side has that objective in mind. The consequence will be that regulators will take a look at our safety system and make a determination about whether it’s adequate for the particular project involved. This isn’t designed specifically for the Northern Gateway project, but I imagine that the panel will take into account what we’re doing.”

The new measures announced Monday also designate the port of Kitimat, in northern B.C., a public port, which makes it subject to more stringent safety and traffic control standards, a move that could extend to other ports.

Lebel also announced the creation of a new oil tanker safety panel, which will look at other ways to improve the tanker safety system.

Lebel told reporters that B.C.’s coastline and waterways “are known throughout the world,” and are not only a playground, but helped build the province’s economy.

“Our waters must be protected,” Lebel said, “and they will be protected.”

Conservationists are concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to the B.C. coast, as well as the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.

Environmentalists are concerned about the ability to respond to a spill should one occur.

NDP MP and environment critic Megan Leslie accused the federal government of having “gutted” environmental regulations, and dismissed the proposal for an expert panel to study tanker safety.

“It doesn’t take an expert to know that we need robust environmental legislation to prevent spills from happening,” Leslie told Power Play.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said super tankers have not been allowed near the northern coast of B.C. since the early 1970s, and she fears the new guidelines are designed to change that.

“This is all about trying to get super tankers the length of the Empire State Building in and out of some of the most hazardous navigational challenges that you can find anywhere on the planet and they’re on the northern coast of British Columbia,” May told Power Play.

Read this story in The Vancouver Sun on the landslide that severely damaged Alterra Power's private river diversion project at Montrose Creek on the Sunshine Coast.

One of B.C.’s largest private run-of-river power projects will continue to operate at significantly reduced capacity for months due to a major winter slide that wiped out 300 metres of piping.

Don McInnes, executive vice-president of Alterra Power Corp., said in an interview Wednesday that the slide of an estimated 50,000 cubic metres at Montrose Creek on the B.C. south coast may not be repaired until fall at an estimated cost of up to $10 million.

Montrose Creek, part of a larger hydro project at Toba Inlet, contributes about 300 gigawatts of electrical power — enough to power 30,000 homes — or about 40 per cent of the operation’s annual output, which generates annual revenues of $70 to $75 million, McInnes said.

Asked if Montrose Creek was a poor location for a hydro project, McInnes said: “There are risks of road building in the Toba Valley, risks of putting in power lines — you assess all these things.

“Building anything in coastal B.C., the issue of avalanche from snow or rock slides is a risk. You think about those things and you plan your project and design to minimize exposure to those risks.

“To the best of my knowledge, no one suggested this would be a really dumb idea.”

McInnes said there are no fish in Montrose Creek and the slide did not enter the creek itself.

The damaged three-metre-diameter pipe was part of a five-kilometre system that diverted water from the intake to the power plant. No one was injured in the Dec. 12 slide, against which the hydro facility was insured.

To protect against further damage, the company plans to bury the new pipe deeper and create a berm from the excavated material. He said he is unaware of a similar slide damaging any other run-of-river project in B.C.

Read this op-ed in The Globe and Mail by Tzeporah Berman on Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver's attempt to pitch the Alberta Tar Sands to the US as a "green" energy source. (March 21, 2013)

Many Canadians must have wondered if George Orwell was alive and well this week as they read that the Alberta oil sands were being pitched to U.S. officials as “green” by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.

“Canada is the environmentally responsible choice for the U.S. to meet its energy needs in oil for years to come,” the minister told an audience in Chicago – a message he repeated over and over in his U.S. tour, part of a calculated mission to associate Alberta bitumen with ecological benefits.

At a time when climate scientists are urgently telling us to significantly scale back the burning of fossil fuels, having a minister promote exactly the opposite really does feel like being told that two plus two equals five.

Yet this is what we’ve come to expect from our federal government, which, as documents released this week through an Access to Information request revealed, has “aligned” its interests with the pipeline industry instead of with the voters who elected it. And Joe Oliver has emerged as the most prominent spokesman for this alignment.

It was Mr. Oliver who, a year ago, opened an offensive by trying to label those opposed to the Enbridge Gateway pipeline proposal as “radicals,” ignoring the deep public opposition to the project.

It was Mr. Oliver who stood on a podium with the Alberta energy minister to pitch a fossil fuel-driven national energy strategy based on data that would vastly increase emissions and contribute dramatically to rising atmospheric temperatures.

It was Mr. Oliver who claimed that the massive and growing toxic tailings ponds will be so clean “you’ll be able to drink from them,” while more secret documents recently released confirmed they are currently leaking more and more toxins into the Alberta environment every day.

And now it is Mr. Oliver who this week is lobbying hard in the U.S. for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would export oil sands bitumen to the U.S. Gulf. His pitch is built on the argument that the pipeline would be filled with a product that is, ecologically, not much worse than the worst oil in the world.

Read more: www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/no-minister-oliver-the-oil-sands-have-not-become-green/article9503879/