New column day

Here, on how the one point of agreement about the environmental impact of the tar sands is that we still don't have enough information to so much as evaluate the effects of the industry at the core of the Harper Cons' economic strategy.

For further reading...
- The Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Monitoring Information Portal is here, with the disclaimer mentioned in the column here.
- CBC reports on the EPA response (PDF) to the State Department's current environmental assessment of Keystone XL.
- And Joe Oliver is doing what Joe Oliver does by publicly bashing climate science in the apparent belief that it will smooth a path for Keystone XL. (Though it is a bit unfair to describe him as Canada's ”oil minister” when the bulk of the federal cabinet - including the Prime Minister - is no less preoccupied with doing the bidding of the sector.)
- Finally, the latest on the Giant Mine cleanup bill is here. And as a reminder of the scale of cleanup we're going to be looking at with the tar sands...