Times Colonist - Hopefully, it was good manners rather than weakening resolve, but for whatever reason U.S. President Barack Obama didn't offer green-minded Canadians the ringing reassurances some were looking for last week.
The agreement between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Obama to jointly pursue clean technologies -- carbon capture and storage, a so-called smart electric grid, other unspecified techno-fixes -- sounds innocuous, if not positive.
In fact, incredibly, he is suggesting that his government has long been keen to tackle the issue, but was thwarted by the do-nothing George W. Bush administration!
All of which appears to leave it to Obama to drive any serious assault on climate change on this continent and globally.
Which is why some environmentalists were dismayed when the president mused about future Canada-U.S. collaboration on carbon sequestration technology in a pre-trip interview, adding, "ultimately, I think this can be solved with technology."
He later clarified that "there are no silver bullets" in the drive for a cleaner planet. But carbon capture and storage (CCS), or sequestration, is certainly the flavour of the moment among defenders of the oilsands, both in business and politics.
The beguiling idea is that carbon emissions from oilsands are captured before they enter the atmosphere, then directed underground through pipes to be stored in depleted wells. A version of this technology has been used for years by the oil industry to force oil from nearly exhausted wells.
The problem is that the technology is costly and might not work in every situation. A confidential government report, uncovered by the CBC, notes that only a small percentage of emitted CO2 is "capturable," since most emissions aren't pure enough. "Only limited near-term opportunities exist in the oilsands and they are largely related to upgrader facilities," it concluded.
But the more responsible approach is to begin the transition from oil sands dirty oil to cleaner alternatives, not to extend the life of the multibillion-dollar project.
