Environmental Groups, Activists Not Buying Tar Sands Industry PR & "Education" Push - IHT

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The main forum is a Web site sponsored by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, known as CAPP, at www.canadasoilsands.ca, where readers can learn how oil sands are produced, pick up information about environmental issues and are encouraged to comment.

Environmentalists are skeptical, saying the gesture is empty unless companies take real action to improve operations. They kept up their call on government for more stringent regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions and protect forests and rivers. "The industry is obviously interested in dialogue and we continually present solutions as we raise concerns about oil sands development," said Simon Dyer, oil sands program director for the Pembina Institute, an environmental research group. "But we don't have time for a lengthy dialogue while we are continuing the expansions under business-as-usual technologies."

Some green groups have called for a complete moratorium on development while others say operations can be cleaned up with enough investment and effort. Canada and the United States face a major dilemma over the ecological costs of more than $100 billion worth of planned oil sands developments amid concerns about the reliability of traditional oil supplies and record high gasoline prices.

Alberta's oil sands, rivaling Saudi Arabia's conventional reserves in size, are seen as a secure source of North American oil. The industry has said oil sands output could nearly quadruple, to four million barrels a day by 2020, through both mining and drilling projects. But environmentalists have taken great pains in recent months to highlight that the projects emit much more carbon dioxide than conventional oil fields.

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http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/business/sands.php