Editor:
It is a good time for Canadians to sell their investments in tar sands.
The U.S. says it will be energy independent by 2020. They won’t need our oil.
Our oil will create a surplus on the world market and the price of tar sands oil will drop.
The tracking technology that will make the U.S. oil independent is being spread around the world.
Many countries including China will have sweet oil again and over supply will push the price downward on dirty tar sands oil again.
Under Obama the U.S. clean energy technology industry has more than doubled to become a $1 trillion per year industry.
It is set to rise exponentially as Obama goes greener.
That again will cause over supply of energy and tar sands prices will drop.
Canada’s portion of this North American Clean Energy Technology industry is a paltry one per cent.
We’ll miss that burgeoning market.
If the U.S. goes greener as Obama pledges then expect other countries to do the same.
That will mean less market for dirty oil.
First Nations voices say tar sands oil is not going out from the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline.
The upcoming Supreme Court case on land rights will probably support them.
The Alberta government is $6 billion in debt this year because they have mismanaged the province and tar sands.
They are cutting services to Albertans.
If Canada bets its entire economy on tar sands we could be in big trouble.
Supporting Canada’s tar sands will become just welfare for Alberta and embarrassment for Canadians.
If a rumoured future U.S. carbon tax gains traction it will hurt the tar sands sales badly.
Prime Minister Steven Harper has tried to build the perfect Tarbaby (a trap used by Brer Fox to trap Brer Rabbit by getting the rabbits hands and feet stuck and immobilized in the tar baby) but has failed.
We still have time to free our feet from the trap.
The most sensible thing to do is send the oil to eastern Canada to refine.
Then the east can get off American oil and we can sell the excess refined oil at a higher price.
Most of the eastern pipelines already exist.
Tom Salley
Williams Lake