World

Canadians Evenly Split on Alberta Oil Sands

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | September 28, 2010 at 05:14 am

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Canadians 51% over 49% take energy needs over the environment.

Canadian Film Director James Cameron is touring the Alberta Oil Sands this week. Cameron is the world famous director of Avatar and Titanic. He is expected to meet with Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach later this week.

Amidst a negative ad campaign against the Oil Sands, Ipsos Reid has released a poll, which shows that Canadians are equally split on the Albert Oil Sands.

The poll was conducted on behalf of CBC. The poll suggests that Canadian are evenly split on the issue. 51% of Canadians agreed with the statement "while there are some risks to the environment with this development, the need for energy in Canada outweighs those risks." 49% of Canadian disagreed.

Interestingly enough the nation is regionally divided on this issue. A majority of Albertans (no surprise), Ontarions, Maritimers and British Columbians (big surprise), think energy needs outweigh the risks to the environment.

On the other side, Quebec (71%), Manitoba and Saskatchewan (both 60%) believe that the environment is more important than the risks.

Amazingly, 22% of Canadians don.t know enough, or even care about the Alberta Oil Sands.

Alberta and the Oil Industry have recently mounted a counter campaign. Syncrude has shown a reclaimed tailing pond. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach met with Nancy Pelosi in Ottawa and three U.S. Senators, including Lindsey Graham, recently visited the Oil Sands.

James Cameron, who is visiting now, has already blasted the project, describing it as a black eye on Canada. Will the tour convince him to think otherwise?

A majority of Canadians (70 per cent) have seen, read or heard something about oilsands development, for example, through news coverage, but 30 per cent say they have not.
However, nearly one quarter (22 per cent) of Canadians who have heard about oilsands development either don't know or don't care enough to determine whether or not it's a good thing or a bad thing.

When combined with the proportion who haven't heard about the development, this amounts to about four in 10 (42 per cent) Canadians who are either in the dark or indifferent about the project.

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"thirty-aught-six" (not verified)

at 06:56 on September 28th, 2010

Ignorance and bad press continue to work against the oil sands projects. The Alberta oil sand deposits contain at least 85% of the world's reserves of natural bitumen, representing 40% of the combined crude bitumen and extra-heavy crude oil reserves in the world. Canada, Russia, Venezuela, the Congo, and Madagascar all have working or pilot projects to recover oil from these sources. As the worlds energy needs increase recovering this oil becomes more and more economically viable and relieves the dependency on Mid-East conventional crude oil reserves.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 07:39 on September 28th, 2010

-Thanks for you comments thirty-aught-six. The Alberta Oilsands have become an easy target over the years, especially with air support and damaging film. While it is easy to condemn the Oilsands, it is those that keep putting fuel in their vehicles, sitting in downtown rush hours twice a day and running to corner stores, with engines running that must take some of the blame.

One must also ask himself/herself what the two recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all about if it was not to secure oil resources.

In my opinion, Iraq had to do with the protection of the Strait of Hormuz, after Saddam invaded Kuwait and a proximity to Iraq to secure that Strait. Afghanistan, it has been reported was about a pipeline from the Caspean to the Indian Ocean.

not 30 ought six (not verified)

at 12:13 on October 1st, 2010

the previous note was incorrect. Venezuela may indeed have even larger tar sands deposits than the Canadian ones.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 12:44 on October 1st, 2010

we'll have to do some digging on that:). Thanks.

"thirty-aught-six" (not verified)

at 08:10 on September 28th, 2010

Note the U.K. newspaper. All upset about Canadian oil sands project when they ought to be writing about their own involvement in the Venezuelan Orinoco Belt sands project through subsidiaries TNK-BP.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 08:36 on September 28th, 2010

It's all about an easy target. The Oilsands is. No one is about the get killed overflying it or protesting. Why is no one talking about the West Virginia coal mines, which uses the same methods.

Interestingly enough when one of the Enbridge Pipelines leaked at the Chicago hub and oil supply from Canada was dropped by 1/3, the U.S. oil reserve dropped, raising oil prices. So there is an Alberta solution to all of this, shut the valves.