主题：【讨论】第三次世界大战可能并不远矣 -- aiguille

no, not recently. It has been like this for many many years. You can date back the earliest protest to late 1970s.

The protest was pioneered by environmentalists in both the U.S. and Canada (esp., from BC). BC relies on fishing and tourism--dirty oil is the last thing you want to be associated.

hehe. But the good news is that environmentalists are NOT the inside the elite club to decide national policies.

American elites still listen to environmentalists now because they can easily tap the middle east oil (high quality, light, less refinery trouble) at $5 per barrel. Of course, the last favorable choice is to fully rely on the oil sands from Canada where the production cost is at least $40 per barrel and where there are complicated environmental and labor laws to respect. It is not bad to let environmentalists to play against Canadians so that Americans can extract more values out of their Northern brothers.

But inside the elite group, there are people who seriously consider the possibility that one day in the future, america might have to withdraw from turbulent middle east and middle east only have fast-falling oil supply which is not worthwhile to justify the heavy military expenditure there.

Then Alberta will become america's next Saudi Arabia.

Typical feature of smart Americans: bet on both sides.

• 【资料】关于加拿大油砂的对亚洲出口