Canada PoliticsAlberta Premier Alison Redford slams celebrities who slam the oilsands
Last week it was music legend Neil Young, this week it's film legend Robert Redford.
On Monday, the U.S. based actor added his voice to the anti-oil sands cause via a video on the website of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
I can understand why oil companies love tar sands. There is a lot of money to be made by strip mining and drilling the dirtiest oil on the planet.
But why should the rest of us pay the price?
Developing the Canadian tar sands is destroying our Great Northern Forest at a terrifying rate. It is producing enough carbon pollution to wreak havoc with our climate for decades to come, and the pipelines that carry this toxic tar sands fuel are a direct threat to our own drinking water supplies.
So if you ask me, tar sands oil is exactly the kind of dirty energy we can no longer afford. It may be great for oil companies, but it's killing our planet.
Redford goes on to ask Americans to let President Barack Obama know that they don't want him to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline which would transfer Alberta oil to the Gulf of Mexico.
The actor's verbal salvo comes just one week after Canadian-born Neil Young said that Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima.
"Fort McMurray is a wasteland. The Indians up there and the native peoples are dying," Young said, according to reports.
"People are sick. People are dying of cancer because of this. All of the First Nations peoples up there are threatened by this. Their food supply is wasted, their treaties are no good. They have the right to live on the land, like they always did, but there’s no land left that they can live on. All the animals are dying."
[ Related: Neil Young slams oilsands, compares Fort McMurray to Hiroshima ]
The parade of celebrities railing against the oilsands seems to be somewhat irritating Alberta Premier Alison Redford.
On Tuesday, according to the Canadian Press, the premier slammed the celebrities who are slamming the 'tar sands.'
The premier, speaking to reporters from China, says celebrities have made those kinds of comments before and will again.
She says the comments lack credibility, given that the celebrities denounce the very resource which allows them to go around, in her words, "flying on planes."
Redford says she will continue to spread the message that the oilsands can provide energy to the world in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way.
Other anti-oil sand celebrities have included Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pamela Anderson, Daryl Hannah, Michael Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
(Photo from YouTube)
Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!
