Well fucking 'Duh'

I mean, really. Who actually thought that the Alberta government and the Harper feds really wanted to do anything other than piss around the problem of CO2 emissions? Harper's "cap and store" proposals are nothing more than an attempt to look like he's doing something without actually doing anything to disrupt Alberta's fountain of dirty money. And both governments  have committed dollars to a plan they have to know is really crap. the CBC is reporting that:

CBC News has obtained a government document that says reducing greenhouse gases from Western Canada's oilsands will be much more difficult than some politicians and the industry suggest.

The ministerial briefing notes, initially marked "Secret," say that just a small percentage of the carbon dioxide released in mining the sands and producing fuel from them can be captured.

The oilsands are the fastest-growing source of CO2 in the country, set to increase from five per cent to 16 per cent of total emissions by 2020 under current plans.

These two batches of liars and dissemblers have committed upwards of $2.5-billion to carbon capture --allegedly to address the problem of the oilsands. They have committed this money knowing that it won't work, but the architects of the plans will be long gone by then, and the oil industry will be well satisfied that they've managed to maximize profits while ensuring they do nothing about environmental issues. 

This bullshit is the reason we're all going to die. Seriously. International corporate control of our so-called democracies ensures that the public interest comes last, while profit maximization triumphs.

Capture and storage may work with coal-fired plants (but notice the pr work being done by big coal in the US to position themselves as "clean")--the lead author of the study, David Keith, says as much: "[Keith] says he's frustrated that politicians and the industry keep focusing
on the oilsands when there are sources of greenhouse gases to capture
more easily and at less cost, including coal-fired power plants. Rational people shouldn't focus on reducing emissions in the oilsands through carbon capture and storage."

Well, that just points out that we don't have rational people in positions of power. We have purchased politicians. Damn it, but this pisses me off. You can find the CBC report here. The ministerial briefing notes are here (link is to a .pdf).

CBC Radio's Erik Denison speaks to host Jim Brown on the Calgary Eyeopener about the briefing documents at this RealMedia streaming link.(runs 6:29)

CBC Alberta has a big series about the oilsands here.

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