My testimony to the Natural Resources committee

Here's the text of my remarks to the Parliamentary Natural Resources committee, as drafted. When I find a link to the official transcript, which would include the questions and answers that followed, I'll post that too.

If I have time I'll talk more about one of the other witnesses who appeared at the same time as me, an Aboriginal rights advocate from Fort Chipeywan. I disagreed with much of what he said (including his outrageous statement that oil companies are "brainwashing" Aboriginal youth to get an education to join skilled trades like welding), but to my pleasant surprise he agreed firmly with one of my key points: that Canadian policymakers must screen out foreign lobbyists who are meddling in our national debate -- including not only Greenpeace, but the U.S. Tides Foundation, that funnels tens of millions of dollars into anti-oilsands lobbyists like the David Suzuki Foundation.

Anyways, here's my remarks as written. Much of it I've said before; but given that Parliament was voting on an anti-oil tanker resolution that day, I emphasized the economic and sovereignty issues involved with the proposed pipeline to the West Coast (I've highlighted those parts in bold.)

Thank you for the invitation to be here.

One day we might discover a fuel source with no environmental side-effects, that is affordable and practical. But until that day comes, we need oil.

Not just us, but the United States, to whom we sell 1.4 million barrels of oilsands oil every day. And last year, more cars were sold in China than in the U.S. And they all want to be two-car families too, and same for India and the rest of the developing world.

So the choice isn’t oilsands oil versus some fantasy fuel of the future. It’s oilsands oil versus oil from the other places where oil comes from – mainly OPEC countries. I don’t know what God was thinking when he was handing out oil, but he gave it to the world’s bastards – places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria. Out of the top ten countries ranked by oil reserves, Canada is the only western, liberal democracy on the list.

That doesn’t matter if all you care about is driving your car. It all burns the same. But what about the ethics of the oil?

In my book, Ethical Oil, I suggest four liberal values by which we should judge the morality of a barrel of oil: respect for the environment; peace; fair wages for workers; and human rights.

I compare oilsands oil to OPEC oil using these four measures.

I come to the conclusion that oilsands oil is the “fair trade coffee” of the world’s oil industry.

Take the environment. Greenpeace propaganda pictures make the oilsands look like something from the Land of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. But in only 2% of the area of the oilsands is the oil close enough to the surface to be mined that way. The rest will be recovered using underground, or in situ methods that don’t tear up the surface, and don’t use any river water. And even that 2% must be fully reclaimed afterwards – and already more than 60 square kilometers has been.

Compare that to the 2,000 unremediated toxic oil spills in Nigeria that will never be cleaned up.

And then there’s carbon dioxide. Using the Obama administration’s well-to-wheels analysis, oilsands oil has the same carbon footprint as oil from Nigeria or Iraq. But we have a lower carbon footprint than U.S. imports from Venezuela. And much less carbon than oil from Nancy Pelosi’s state, which is called California Heavy for a reason.

If you are concerned with carbon emissions, shouldn’t we replace that higher-carbon oil with our lower carbon oilsands oil?

And since 1990, the carbon footprint of the average barrel of oilsands oil has fallen by 38%. I can hardly wait to see where we are in ten years from now.

But the environment isn’t the only measure of ethics. What about peace?

Canada invented peacekeeping. Saudi Arabia invented 9/11. Iran is using its oil profits to build a nuclear bomb. Sudan uses its oil profits to buy weapons from China to prosecute its genocide in Darfur.

If you multiply 300,000 murders in Darfur by 185 ounces of blood in the human body, and divide that into the number of barrels of oil exported by Sudan over the same period of time, it works out to 6.5 mL of blood in every damn barrel. That would fill a tube of lipstick.

What about fair wages? Fort McMurray is Canada’s wealthiest city – and the most generous, according to the United Way. And the working poor there have 77% more purchasing power than in other cities like Edmonton.

Compare that to Saudi Arabia, which uses poorly-paid migrant labourers who have no civil rights. Or Nigeria, where over $300 billion has been embezzled by dictators and bureaucrats, leaving the country one of the poorest on Earth.

And then there’s human rights. The mayor of Fort McMurray is a young woman named Melissa Blake. How many women mayors are there in Saudi Arabia? None. It’s against the law. In Iran, women are stoned to death if they’re accused of adultery.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says there are no gays in Iran. Which is true, because if he finds them, he kills them.

And then there’s the fact that the oilsands are Canada’s largest employer of Aboriginal people – not only with nearly 2,000 direct jobs, but also billions more in contracts with Aboriginal-owned and operated businesses.

If you don’t care about morality, then oil from Iran or Sudan is just as good as Canadian oil. But if you believe in making the world a better place, then the moral imperative is to replace unethical OPEC oil with Canadian green oil, conflict free oil, fair wage oil, human rights oil.

The leader of the opposition has said it’s important to increase trade with China and India. I agree. Right now, those countries are forced to buy terrorist oil, dictatorship oil, Darfur oil. Because we only let Americans buy our oil.

I love our American neighbours. But it’s dangerous to have just one customer for our product. We’re at the mercy of protectionism and taxes. And sometimes we’re taken for granted. That’s why the pipeline to the West Coast is so strategically important – it makes us an independent country, with options.

I find it very irritating that so many of the anti-oilsands and anti-pipeline activists in Canada take their funding from U.S. lobby groups like the Tides Foundation. Of course it’s in America’s interest that no other customers are allowed to buy Canadian ethical oil.

But it’s in Canada’s interests that we are able to sell to whomever we choose. And if you care about industrial ethics, it’s in the world’s interest, too.

A lot of people are watching how Canada handles the oilsands miracle. Not just Canadians. The American Ambassador is watching, too. He hopes the Gateway pipeline is strangled, so he can have our oil all for himself.

The Saudi Ambassador is watching too. He hopes the pipeline is killed also, so he doesn’t lose any market share in Asia.

But for those who love Canada, expanding the oilsands is the right thing for our country. And for those who think globally and act locally, every barrel of oilsands oil we can sell to Asia, is one less barrel sold by the world’s terrorists and dictators.

Thank you.