Are duelling ads a sucker punch to Keystone XL?

The Conservative government has a lot riding on the U.S. government’s coming decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, so it’s been pitching the project with Ottawa’s “Go With Canada” ad campaign blitz in D.C.’s metro system.

Too bad the facts don’t help the government’s case. The GoWithCanada.com pitch boasts that the “province of Alberta is the first North American jurisdiction with mandatory GHG reduction targets for large industrial GHG emitters, including the oil sands.”

What it doesn’t say is emissions are rising in Alberta. Historical emissions jumped from 166 megatonnes in 1990 to 228 in 2005 to 242 in 2011, and the stated 2020 target is 11.7% above the 2005 baseline.

Alberta is projected to miss this 2020 target by producing 285 megatonnes that year, not the target of 255. This information is found in government documents. Take a look at this graph in a June 2013 memo to the Deputy Environment Minister, released under Access to Information law.

Now, the federal government will have to contend with a new television ad as a counterpoint to its Go With Canada campaign, timed to air on Tuesday night during Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

The ad, produced by billionaire environmentalist’s NextGen Climate Group, plays up China’s involvement in Canada’s tar sands, calling it a “sucker punch to America’s heartland.”

Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGRETZfTKP4

Photo: YouTube