Conservative author, activist and media personality Ezra Levant blasted critics of the Alberta oil sands and proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline on Tuesday.
Levant was the keynote speaker on the final day of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting, taking place in Prince George. Levant called Alberta oil the "Free Trade Coffee" of petroleum products and said Canada has a moral responsibility to export it to the world.
"I don't know what God was thinking when he handed out oil, he gave it to all the bastards," Levant said. "We are the world's ethical energy providers and we should never let ourselves take second place to the world's butchers."
Levant is the author of several books, most recently Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands. He became interested in the topic after being asked to take part in a panel discussion on the issue in Ottawa, and being the "punching bag" for oil sands opponents.
"I felt there was a tremendous unfairness going on," he said. "People are wrong all the time, but there is a difference between being wrong and being totally the opposite."
Environmental groups tend to compare the oil sands to alternative energy scenarios, he said. To have a "mature discussion" on the issue, Canadian oil has to be compared with other oil producers.
"The choice is not between oil-sands oil and some fantasy fuel - it's between oil-sands oil and oil from other places," Levant said. "You can't fly a plane with a windmill. This is reality, [Star Trek's] dilithium crystals are not."
Levant said he wrote his book to appeal to "Zoe" - the name he attached to a typical oil sands opponent. Zoe, in his mind, is a 20-something university student from Eastern Canada who cares deeply about peace, the environment, human rights and treatment of workers.
"They are not bad people, they are do-gooders," he said.
Canadian oil is a clear winner in all the areas Zoe cares about, Levant said.
PRODUCING OIL UNDERMINES SAUDI ARABIA
Canada has the second-largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia, he said. The other countries in the top 10 for oil reserves are Iran, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Venezuela, Russia, Libya and Nigeria.
"Canada is the only Western democracy on the list," Levant said. "Canada invented peacekeeping... Saudi Arabia invented 9/11."
Oil revenues have propped up corrupt, oppressive regimes in Nigeria, Libya and Sudan, he said. Saudi oil revenues have been used to fund terrorism, as well as the military and nuclear ambitions of countries like Iran, Iraq and Russia.
Women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, aboriginal and worker rights are non-existent in many of these countries, he said. Political leaders pocket millions or billions of dollars for themselves, while average workers struggle on a few dollars a day.
"Nigeria should be one of the richest countries in the world," he said. "But guys like this steal $18 a barrel -even when oil wasn't selling for $18 a barrel."
Levant said he calculates that 6.5 millilitres of human blood is spilt in Darfur for every litre of Sudanese oil.
Building the Northern Gateway Pipeline would give Canada a way to diversify its market beyond the U.S. and displace OPEC oil in Asia.
"We will never put the Saudis out of business. [But] every barrel of oil we produce takes a $100 out of the hands of these bastards," he said. "The Northern Gateway Pipeline would move half-a-million barrels a day. I want half a million barrels a day of ethical oil to displace half-a-million barrels a day of Sharia oil."
Levant dismissed concerns raised by First Nations leaders as coming from, "a few, paid spokespeople," who are paid to, "advocate against the interests of their own people."
"The oil sands are the largest single employer of aboriginal people. Fort McKay [First Nation] has a zero per cent unemployment rate. Have you ever heard of a First Nation with zero per cent unemployment? That's the oil sands," he said.
The oil sands have created employment, business and social opportunities for aborginal people and the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline could do the same in Northern B.C., he said.
NOT THAT BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Nor are oil sands as bad for the environment as environmentalists make it out to be, he said. Photos of strip mined oil sands and ducks covered in oil - what Levant calls oil sands porn -don't tell the whole story.
"Only two per cent of the oil sands can be strip-mined," he said. "You don't strip mine stuff that's a mile under the surface."
Photos of oil sands installations with small footprints and managed emissions don't make it to environmental group's newsletters, he said
And only two per cent of the Athabasca River's flow is allocated for oil sands use - and only half of that is used, he said. Some rivers in the U.S., such as the Colorado River, sometimes run dry before reaching the ocean because of high water demand.
Environmentalists have also said oil sands oil produces more carbon dioxide per litre than other oil sources, he said.
Research by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory showed oil sands oil had a six to 10 per cent higher carbon footprint than oil imported from Saudi Arabia, he said.
"Oil from Nigeria and Iraq has about the same carbon dioxide as the oil sands. We have less carbon impact than Venezuelan oil. And I couldn't find an oil with a larger carbon footprint than California heavy [oil]," he said. "We should replace high-carbon fuels from California and Venezuela with oil sands oil."
Opposition to oil tankers on the west cost of Canada is one of the main points raised by environmental groups, he said.
"You probably didn't know that 54 per cent of Canadian oil is imported. Eastern Canada imports its oil in tankers," he said. "The anti-tanker advocates in B.C. forgot to mention there are tankers coming into Canada every day."
Oil tankers navigate the St. Lawrence Sea Way and the Port of Vancouver routinely, he said. American tankers travel from Alaska to refineries in the U.S. on a regular basis as well, he said.
"There are tankers coming into Canada right now that they don't care about."
Environmental groups aren't being paid to raise concerns about those tankers, he added.
"I don't think we can afford to be a little supply depot for the U.S.," he said. "If we open the west coast to China, India, Taiwan... we'll get a couple bucks more per barrel for our product than the U.S. is paying."
For his no-nonsense style, Levant got a standing ovation the from B.C. Chamber of Commerce business delegates.
