UK Government under attack by environmentalists over stance on oil derived from tar sands
Thu 27 October 2011
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Britain has come under attack from environmentalists for seeking to delay attempts by the European Union to penalise oil derived from tar sands. Opponents of the use of fossil fuels from tar sands say that due to the energy required to extract the fuel, life-cycle CO2 emissions from its use are increased by up to a quarter.
The European Commission had decided that under the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) it would classify oil from tar sands according to its life-cycle emissions, but the British Government is reported as trying to persuade other EU countries to adopt a compromise motion described by green groups as a “wrecking amendment”. The Government says that it is a distortion of the truth to say that the UK is intervening in favour of oil from tar sands. It says it wants to drive down emissions from all sources, not just tar sands, and wants to see all heavy crudes dealt with equally.
According to an official document seen by the Financial Times, the UK is opposed to “singling out oil sands and oil shale” and is instead pushing for a different methodology that would account for the greenhouse gas emissions of all crude oil sources.
Oil from tar sands oil is not known to be present in any significant quantity in Europe but the EU restrictions could affect plans for future exports from Canada and Venezuela. Canada, in particular, has significant reserves which could put it's productive capacity behind only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Andrew Pocock, the British high commissioner to Ottawa, was recently reported as saying that it was inevitable that Canada would export its large resources of oil from tar sands.
“We don’t think it’s sensible to single out particular sources of hydrocarbons,” he told the Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto (reported by the FT). “The light oils on the planet are, broadly, gone. We’re going to have to look at heavier crudes.”
Paul Morozzo of Greenpeace described the UK move as a “wrecking ball” designed to block the EU plan.
Transport minister Norman Baker said it was a “complete distortion of the truth” to suggest that Britain opposed action to recognise the carbon emissions from oil sands.
“Our aim is to drive down emissions from all transport fuels and I want to use the fuel quality directive as a key tool to achieve this,” he told the FT. “However, for sound environmental reasons, I want to see all heavy crudes dealt with equally, not simply oil sands.”
The Fuel Quality Directive is part of the European Union's commitment to a 20 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, and to help fulfill this goal, suppliers of transport fuels are obliged to reduce the lifecycle GHG intensity of their products — gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel - by six per cent by 2020 relative to 2010.
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