Academic

EZRA LEVANT: For Europe, Alberta oil is too dirty. Isn?t Libyan oil too bloody? Where did Moamma?

By Glenn Reynolds

EZRA LEVANT: For Europe, Alberta oil is too dirty. Isn’t Libyan oil too bloody?

Where did Moammar Gadhafi, the brutal dictator of Libya, get the money to pay the foreign mercenaries who are butchering his people? How did he pay for those French-made fighter jets strafing protesters?

Europe, mainly. Europe buys 80% of Libya?s oil. Other than terrorism, that?s pretty much the only thing Libya exports. . . . None of this is news. It?s olds. It?s been going on for years. What?s new is last week, the very week when Gadhafi and his son told the world they?d fight democracy protesters to the last bullet, was the week the European Union chose to criticize Canada?s oilsands because ? get this ? they say we have 20 more grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule of oil than Libya does.

It?s true, it takes more energy to produce oil from Canada?s oilsands than from Libya?s desert because we have to steam it out of the sand.

European oil imports from Iraq and Nigeria have the same carbon footprint as our oilsands. Those countries burn off the natural gas that comes up when they pump oil ? an illegal environmental practice in Canada. And oil from Hugo Chavez?s Venezuela has even higher carbon emissions.

Our European friends are silent on all of this.

It?s showboating, since Canada only exports oil to the United States. If Europe wants to make a big deal out of not liking the oil we?re not selling to them anyway, that?s fine. But fair?s fair. If they don?t like Canadian oil because of 20 grams of CO2, let?s insist they swear off oil with blood in it.

It’s like all this green stuff is just a political tool or something.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 27, 2011 (boomark / email).