MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
December 2, 2011

Council of Canadians slams Harper government Lobbying in EU Ads

The Council of Canadians joined EU-based organizations in sending a clear message to the Prime Ministers of the UK, Netherlands and France in support of the EU Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). In ads published in the UK and Netherlands Financial Times and France’s Liberation this week, Prime Ministers were asked to put tackling climate change ahead of Canada's oil interests and support the European Commission's tar sands proposal.

The Harper and Albertan governments have fiercely lobbied against the FQD arguing that it discriminates against the tar sands and could negatively affect current and future market access.

“We think it is high time for some lobby-busting,” says Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Justice Campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “It is totally unacceptable that our government is interfering in EU action tackling climate change because of interests in the tar sands.”

The debate is continuing at a committee of technical experts of EU member states, which could advance the European Commission’s proposal. This proposal includes a value for bitumen as an unconventional, high carbon fuel. This value, along with values for other unconventional sources such as shale oil, will help fuel suppliers to make the right choices in supplying the EU market and meet their emission reduction target under the policy.

“The Harper government has called the EU FQD value ‘discriminatory,’ even though it applies not just to tar sands produced in Canada, but to tar sands produced anywhere in the world,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians. “It has been called unscientific, even though the value is based on a peer-reviewed scientific study by a Stanford University professor.”

The Council of Canadians will continue to monitor the EU FQD and work with Canadian and European allies to support its progress, in spite of Harper and Albertan government lobbying, which has yet to sway EU governments to change the FQD.

-30-

To view the advertisements, visit: www.canadians.org/tarsands

• For more information:Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Justice Campaigner, Council of Canadians
  613-218-5800; aharden@canadians.org
• Dylan Penner, media officer, Council of Canadians
  613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org, Twitter: @CouncilOfCDNs