Dear National Geographic ... Canadian industry IS A GLOBAL LEADER when it comes to environmental responsibility

National Geographic recently published a piece called “This is the world’s most destructive oil operation – and it’s growing.”

Its target? The oil sands. It had errors and of course failed to mention the fact that Canadian industry is a global leader when it comes to environmental responsibility, from reclamation to developing new technologies to reducing

emissions, and working in partnership with Indigenous communities.

My Comment (Alan Forseth):

LET’S TALK ABOUT OUTRAGEOUS EXAGGERATION ... this is a blatantly slanted opinion piece.  Just this one following paragraph alone shows how it is so excessively bad this story is ... one simply based on sensationalism and crude exaggeration ... in other words little more than hogwash.

... the scale of Alberta’s tar sands operations is hard to grasp. Especially north of Fort McMurray, where the boreal forest has been razed and bitumen is mined from the ground in immense open pits, the blot on the landscape is incomparable

Here’s just a quick sample of what we mean.

It’s implied that the oil sands mining footprint is the same as England, which is simply not true. It also failed to mention at any point the fact that oil and natural gas companies are required by provincial regulations to return lands they disturb to a self-sustaining natural state as close as reasonable to its original condition.

On tailings ponds, the column claims there is “no end in sight and no solution to clean them up” and that operators are “reluctant to spend money” to better manage tailings waste.

But here’s the reality, Suncor reclaimed a tailings pond to a 220-hectare watershed, named Wapisiw lookout, capable of supporting wildlife and a variety of plants.

Canadian Natural is working on a technology, called in-pit mining extraction that would eliminate the need for tailings ponds, reduce C02 emissions and overall costs.

Tailings is also one of the four environmental priority areas of the Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance.

And the column unfairly paints industry’s relationship with Indigenous communities as adversarial.

The fact is, between 2015 and 2016, oil sands operators provided $40.79 million in consultation capacity funding to Indigenous communities, invested more than $3.3 billion on procurement alone and worked with 399 Indigenous businesses in 66 Alberta communities.

That’s why we’re asking for your help. Can you write National Geographic and ask that they set the record straight?

Let’s work together to create a global vision for Canadian oil and natural gas that all Canadians can be proud of.

Canada's Energy Citizens
http://www.energycitizens.ca/