In the last weeks, the controversy around the Keystone XL pipeline proposal entered into a new phase after the release of the US State Department’s draft environmental assessment. Ever since, the Canadian government has been on the offensive trying to ensure the project gets the green light from Washington. A parade of federal and provincial politicians have flocked to Washington in efforts to lobby our American neighbours on the many alleged mutual benefits of the project. In addition to the regular pro-pipeline arguments, they have also been eager to green-wash Canada’s overall legitimacy on environmental standards and effective climate action. In recent weeks, the Harper government has caused quite the PR storm on climate and environment, partly seen as a response to the general acknowledgement that Canada’s environmental record will be a major deciding factor on the Keystone XL proposal.

In preparation for her fifth trip to the US, Alberta Premier Alison Redford said, « I think that every step that we can take that shows that we are what we say we are and prove that we are proud stewards of the land and we want to make sure that our development is responsible and sustainable will be helpful and from that perspective I think we need to keep doing that work. »

Unfortunately we aren’t quite what we say we are, and certainly the case has not been made that President Obama has ‘absolutely no reason…not to approve the pipeline in the next couple months’ as Premier Redford would have it.

On his own pipeline-boosting trip, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s touted the tar sands as « a greener alternative » at a Chicago speech and highlighted that pipeline decisions should be « based on science and facts, not conjecture, hyperbole or ideology ». We agree with the minister on that and a few of Climate Action Network’s partners have taken the time to examine the claims made by Minister Oliver and others under a fine microscope, and they discovered some pretty big gaps between the facts of Canada’s recent record on environment and climate and what the government’s green-wash spin would have you believe.

Get the facts straight here:
Fact-checking Canada’s record on climate change and the oil sands – Pembina Institute
Canada’s Climate Credibility Gap – Environmental Defence