Another Historic Day in the Battle to Stop the Tar Sands

From:  EcoWatch

Mike Hudema, Greenpeace International 

November 23, 2015 10:41 am

 

Today people slowed the beast again but this time we did it at the source.

After a string of pipeline victories and over a decade of campaigning on at least three different continents, the Alberta government has finally put a limit to the tar sands. Today they announced they will cap its expansion and limit the tar sands monster to 100 megatons a year (equivalent to what projects already operating and those currently under construction would produce).

Aerial view of seismic lines and a tar sands mine in the Boreal Forest north of Fort McMurray, northern Alberta. Photo credit: Greenpeace

As momentous an occasion as it is when an oil jurisdiction actually puts limits on growth, 100 million tons of carbon a year at a time when science is demanding bold reductions is still far too much. While historic, the government’s cap needs to be viewed as a ceiling rather then a floor and a ceiling that we will need to work like crazy to ratchet down until it meets the science. MORE