June 14, 2007
To CEP Members, Western Region:

There have been many issues of concern raised in recent months around the speed at which the oil sands are being developed.  Issues such as environmental impacts, the long term sustainability of jobs, the lack of policy framework around the export of our natural resources, and the questions around the price we are charging the multi nationals for our oil. These days there are more questions than answers. As Peter Lougheed once said, “Once you sell a barrel of oil it is gone forever. You can’t sell it again for a better price. It is like a farmer selling off his topsoil.”

It was one of the reasons that CEP decided to intervene at the National Energy Board hearings dealing with the Keystone application made by TransCanada Pipeline to convert a natural gas pipeline so it can handle diluted bitumen. If approved, that pipeline alone will ship half a million barrels a day to the United States, and will create up to 18,000 jobs there. Keystone is one of six major proposals now in the planning stages.

The Keystone hearings have entered into the second phase and once again CEP, and other like minded organizations, continue to challenge the NEB to determine if these projects are in the public interest, or not.

CEP's Fred Wilson has kept a day by day "blog" of this stage of the hearings. I think you will find his observations interesting.

In Solidarity,

Don MacNeil
Western Region Vice President