In The Blogs

Hillary Clinton Could Make or Break U.S. Dependence on the Tar Sands

| Tue Jun. 23, 2009 1:56 PM PDT

— David Dodge, the Pembina Institute

An obscure executive order issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 has given Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the power to approve or deny a massive oil pipeline between Canada's controversial tar sands and U.S. oil refineries.

In the coming weeks, the State Department will decide whether to grant a permit for the 1,000-mile Alberta Clipper pipeline, which would be capable of carrying up to 800,000 barels per day of crude oil--or about 8 percent of net U.S. oil imports--from the tar sands in eastern Alberta to refineries on Lake Superior in Wisconsin.

Under current law--rarely invoked, given that oil imports typically arrive in the U.S. by tanker--the Secretary of State must receive all applications for the construction of "pipelines, conveyor belts, and similar facilities for the exportation and importation of petroleum." If the Secretary finds that granting a permit "would not serve the national interest," she can deny it.

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This week, the Sierra Club will launch a campaign to pressure Clinton to oppose the project as a climate boondoggle that would lock the United States into purchasing dirty oil for decades. Mining and refining oil from the tar sands emits roughly twice as much greenhouse gas as producing traditional oil. Canada is already the U.S.' top foreign oil supplier and is expected to provide an even larger share as the U.S. looks for a stable energy source closer to home.

The Sierra Club's director of environmental law, Pat Gallagher, notes that the executive order provides "absolutely no guidelines or any kind of process to decide what is in the 'national interest.'" So how to weigh energy security against climate security--and of course, personal political security--will be up to Clinton.

Josh Harkinson is a staff reporter at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here.

Comments

Weigh in with Secretary Clinton

Submitted by Alan Septoff (not verified) on Wed Jun. 24, 2009 10:04 AM PDT.

tagged as:

solution

If you think that locking the U.S. into dependence on the world's dirtiest oil is NOT in the national interest, send Hillary a letter at http://dirtyoilsands.org/action.

For more information: http://dirtyoilsands.org

Raping the planet

Submitted by MattJones on Thu Jun. 25, 2009 1:04 PM PDT.

While everyone is focused on OPEC, no one in our country seems to realize that Canada is our largest foreign oil provider and that most of that oil is coming from the tar sands. To better understand how horrible the tar sands strip mining is, check out this picture: http://citizen.nfb.ca/sites/citizen.nfb.ca/files/images/tarsands-beforea...

It's incredible to me that Canada allows that kind of destruction to their own country. Once the oil is gone they'll be left with hundreds of square miles of nothing.