If you saw the excellent CBC documentary that aired March 13 “Tar Sands, The Selling of Alberta” you may well wonder why it is that we have so much difficulty convincing the National Energy Board or anyone of influence in the federal government that it is folly to massively increase oil sands production on the basis of exporting bitumen.

The theme of the documentary was summed up in a comment by Parkland Institute Research Director Diana Gibson who pointed out that an energy colony of the United States is hardly the energy superpower that Stephen Harper proclaims.

We can thank the CBC for providing a backdrop to our latest appeal to decision makers over the National Energy Board decisions on the Alberta Clipper and Southern Lights pipelines.

The most offensive part of the NEB ruling on the Clipper, from my vantage, was their dismissal of the union request to make the Enbridge pipeline conditional on also expanding Enbridge’s Lakehead system that connects from Chicago to Sarnia. This is the only way presently to send Alberta bitumen or oil to Eastern Canada.

In CEP’s questioning of Enbridge it was clear that the Lakehead system is already at near capacity and that little or none of the 450,000 bpd of bitumen that will go down the Clipper will have any chance of arriving in Sarnia or points east. To the contrary, it is far more likely that bitumen riding the Clipper will end up in Texas at the giant Exxon Gulf Coast refinery.

But what was the NEB’s answer to our request? They had no jurisdiction to tell Enbridge what to do with their Lakehead system which is entirely American. Our NEB has all the power it needs to increase the percentage of bitumen being exported to over 70% - with those percentages subject to NAFTA proportionality. But it has no jurisdiction to speak out on its statutory mandate to ensure that Canadian oil serves Canadian needs in Eastern Canada.

The details are attached here in the CEP appeal to cabinet, authored by Steven Shrybman of Sack Goldblatt Mitchell. Like the previous CEP appeal on Keystone, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the oil map of North America is being redrawn. Read and weep.

Click here to read CEP's Media release