From the Toronto, Ontario Financial Post:
Terence Corcoran: The New York Times calls for war on Canadian oil
It looks like the Keystone XL pipeline is coming down to a nasty war on Canada. In a stunning lead editorial Monday, The New York Times - which is inexplicably slated in June to receive a special tribute at the Canadian Journalism Foundation annual gala - told President Barack Obama he should "say no" to the pipeline that would bring more Canadian oil to the United States.
But the newspaper did more than that. The Times editorial, "When to Say No," essentially urged Mr. Obama to declare a war on Canada's oil sands. The Keystone decision, said the Times, is not merely about the environmental impact of the pipeline on flora and fauna as it runs through the United States. Nor is it about the alleged climate impact of the annual carbon emissions from producing and refining the oil that would flow through the pipeline and eventually to U.S. consumers.
These Keystone impacts are short-term issues. President Obama, when he comes to make a final decision sometime in the next few months, should be looking at the big, long-term picture. He should see Canada's oil sands in their totality, a great ugly deposit of 'tar sands' that is estimated to hold 170-billion barrels of oil, and maybe 10 times that amount. "It is these long-term consequences that Mr. Obama should focus on," said the Times. "Given its carbon content, tar sands oil should be among the first fossil fuels we decide to leave alone."
Mr. Corcoran closes with the following:
But what now does look like a dead certainty is that Mr. Obama has set himself and Canada on a dangerous policy course. The president has declared his intentions to declare war on fossil fuels as a threat to humanity, a war backed by mainstream scientists. Canada produces fossil fuels from the oil sands, deemed by green activists to be the worst of all. This is war somebody is going to lose, and The New York Times has decided on Canada.
The Times editorial is really a nasty piece of work. Our Newspaper of Record(tm) is trying to influence foreign policy and when we have imbeciles like Obama and Kerry in positions of power, they are too easily swayed by editorials like these. We are sending billions of dollars to nations that do not like us when we are sitting on more oil than they ever had. We need to drill here, drill now. Diesel fuel is over $4.25/gallon -- this is Obama's fault.
