The UK government is under fresh criticism today over claims that it is supporting the production of tar sand oils in Canada by working to allow the oils to enter UK fuel supplies.
Environmental campaigners are blockading the Department for Transport (DfT) offices in London this morning in protest over reports that department officials have been working to sabotage European proposals to block the import of tar sands oil-also know as oil sands-thought to be the dirtiest transport fuel in the world.
Key documents leaked to the press suggest that that UK is lobbying on behalf of big oil companies, to allow tar sands oils to reach fuel pumps in Europe.
Activists from Greenpeace are displaying boards painted with a gigantic ‘lobbying handshake’ outside the Department’s office, marked with the brands of oil companies BP, Shell and Exxon. Both Shell and BP are known to have significant interest in tar sand oil extraction in Alberta, Canada.
Today’s action comes less than a week before officials from all over Europe will meet in Brussels for a possible decision about whether they will approve a European plan called the ‘Fuel Quality Directive.’ This would effectively prevent the most polluting fuels in the world-including tar sand oils- from entering European forecourts, and bring down the carbon footprint of Europe’s transport fuels by 6 per cent between 2010 and 2020.
If passed the directive would deal a major blow to plans to expand Canada’s tar sands oil extraction programme, for which Europen could be a major buyer. A majority of European countries must back the plan for it to become law, and right now the vote could go either way because of a UK-led diplomatic offensive to scupper it.
Greenpeace energy campaigner, Paul Morrozzo, explained: “It’s deeply hypocritical that whilst our Ministers will jet off this week to the international climate talks in South Africa to talk about the need to cut carbon emissions, away from the cameras here at home they’re doing everything they can to scupper a key European plan that would do just that. Officials in this building are using wrecking ball tactics to try and sabotage important European moves to make our economy cleaner and less reliant on the most polluting and destructively extracted types of oil like tar sands.”
