API, Chamber Intervene in Oil Sands Lawsuit
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s powerful trade association, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed a petition to intervene in a lawsuit that seeks to keep the Pentagon from using fuel from Canadian oil sands.
In the June lawsuit, the Sierra Club and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy argue that the Pentagon is not complying with a 2007 law that says it should not get its fuel from sources with high greenhouse gas emissions. The process of extracting Canadian oil sands emits significant levels of greenhouse gases and environmentalists have long decried the practice.
API and the Chamber, along with the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, argue that “the fungible nature of crude oil makes it impossible for the Pentagon to determine which fuels are derived from oil sands crude, preventing it from being able to comply with [the law],” according to an API statement.
The groups also say that relying on Canadian oil sands allows the country to rely less on foreign oil. Bob Greco, an API official, said in the statement:
“„Over the next five years, Canadian oil sands development could lead to an additional 343,000 jobs in the United States. Those are jobs that our struggling economy could certainly use – and as the economy recovers, it could also use the half a billion barrels per year of crude oil that Canadian oil sands could provide.
