The first paragraph sums it up nicely,
The Globe and Mail wrote:The federal Conservative government has approved plans to expand an oil sands mining project, despite the environment minister saying the effort is likely to cause significant “adverse environmental effects.”
The environmental impact of the oils sands is massive - almost beyond comprehension until you've flown over the place in a helicopter. Or the next best thing, Google Maps. Yes, that's the equivalent of a European country. I'm sure that there are plenty of shocking finds on Maps if a little of teh gogling is done.
Anyhow, I'm of the mind that we should be extracting it, but increasing the already dizzying scale is foolish. I can't help but to think that Canada is falling over itself in a rush to sell this resource for pennies on the dollar. Call me crazy, but I can't see the companies involved doing much in the way of clean-up when the oil is gone. It'll be bankruptcy of a bunch of subsidiary companies, and a "so long, and thanks for all the oil, bitches". In the meantime, we're awfully good at shipping raw materials for others to refine, turn into myriad products, and buy them back. Sure, that does export a good chunk of pollution to keep the costs of the consumer crap that we don't really need low, but it doesn't strike me as entirely sound economic policy (from the dollars perspective) or ethical (from the perspective of the poor bastards in places like China making our consumer doo-dads for pennies a day).
Heck, from the story, our very trusting government is politely asking the oil companies to do much of the testing. Please, please, giant oil company, be good, okay? We're sure glad that we can trust you and avoid the hassle of requiring that you give us money to do the tests and own the results, because pffft, who needs more government oversite, amiright?
The biggest tell here is that it was announced Friday evening. I can only wonder if they also tried to time it against a new Senate or Ford development (two other never-ending scandals up here in the Great White).