Harper move riles Alberta

Pledge to close environmental loopholes in the oil-sands sector angers provincial government

THE Canadian government of prime minister Stephen Harper, in pledging to close environmental loopholes in the oil-sands sector, has angered the Alberta government. The federal government has also raised questions about the sincerity of its oil-sands policy by withholding from the UN data on rising greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from the industry’s production and processing operations. Domestically, a showdown is shaping up between the governing federal and provincial versions of the Conservative party after newly reappointed federal environment minister Peter Kent said his government would introduce regulations later this year to reduce GHG emissions from heavily polluting bitumen operations