Our neighbors to the North get it too

Even the Qu�b�cois get it -- drill baby drill. From Myron Ebell at Global Warming:

Obama Administration take note: Quebec decides to develop its natural resources
Quebec, long an economic basket case kept afloat by Canada�s federal government, has decided to open up its northern interior to resource development. Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced on Monday an ambitious 25-year �Plan Nord� to build highways, airports, and other infrastructure so that the area can be developed.

According to Montreal�s Gazette, �Investments in energy development, mining, forestry, transportation, and tourism in the 1.2-million-square-kilometre region � twice the size of France � will create 20,000 jobs a year, generating $162 billion in growth and tax revenues of $14 billion.� Large parts of northern Quebec are heavily forested, and there are major deposits of iron, nickel, gold, platinum, cobalt, zinc, vanadium, and rare earths.

The Obama Administration should follow Quebec�s good example. The Department of the Interior and the U. S. Forest Service (an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture) control nearly 30% of the land in the United States, most of it in the West and Alaska, plus the Outer Continental Shelf. Federal lands and offshore areas contain colossal reserves of energy and minerals plus the most productive forests in the world. But the Obama Administration is locking up more and more federal lands and offshore areas in order to prevent oil and gas production, hardrock mining, and timber production. And they�re trying to block coal mining in Appalachia by inventing new pollutants to be regulated.

If you build it, they will come -- no reason why Eco-Tourism cannot go hand in hand with mineral extraction. Because this is a planned development, the mining companies can be required to return the land to an as-new condition, replanted with native species and 30 years later, nobody but a geologist will be able to tell what happened. The Montreal Gazette article goes on to talk about the impact on the Cree Indians:

Matthew Coon Come, grand chief of the northern Quebec Cree, who in the 1990s led the successful battle to stop Hydro-Qu�bec�s Great Whale project, spoke glowingly about the Plan Nord.

�This a new era,� Coon Come said, explaining that when Charest first talked about it in 2007, the Crees invited Deputy Premier Nathalie Normandeau and they exchanged ideas on development.

�The Crees have gone from exclusion to inclusion,� Coon Come said.

To read more about the Great Whale project, here is the Wikipedia article: James Bay Project In the 1990's, it was built without the cooperation of the native peoples. Now, Plan Nord is working with the indigenous population to make sure they get their fair share out of the development. It will be interesting to see if this happens as planned or turns into another government boondoggle. There is some amazing potential for growth for everyone...