Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
I'm not a fan our government by any means, but there are some things I think you should know before you criticize this.
First off, Alberta's oil is simply more carbon intensive than conventional oil. It simply takes more energy to extract oil sands than it does to drill a hole into a high-pressure reservoir. There's a thermodynamical limit to the efficiency with which we can process the oil sands, so there's no way to make them less carbon-intensive than conventional oil. Yes we can go further to clean up the oil sands but unless those changes are economically feasible and profitable than they aren't really possible at all. That's the nature of a capitalist society.
Given that the US law proposes that the government not purchase oil that is more carbon intensive than conventional, what the Alberta government is doing is lobbying to have our oil classified as conventional. And really, if we want to keep selling oil to the US government, well, that's really the only thing we can do, for the reasons outlined above.
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Well the fact still stands that they're willing to put the money into lobbying it (which I will admit is necessary if what you say is true) then why isn't it that the Calgary Health Region isn't receiving the money that it also needs? It just seems skewed to me that Stelmach sees lobbying the American government worth $25-million, but making sure that there are enough beds in hospitals isn't.