Environment Minister says oil sands "not just a PR problem"

Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner has been busy of late preparing for U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa this week. He’s laid charges against oil sands giant Syncrude in the death last year of 500 ducks unfortunate enough to land on one of its toxic tailings pond. And his government last week released a 20-year plan for greener growth in the oil sands. The environmental impacts of the oil sands aren’t "just a PR problem," Renner, a florist in Medicine Hat before going into politics, told the Edmonton Journal. Still, he says, "It’s incumbent on us not to apologize ... but to say we have a system in place to manage the impact and manage it in a reasonable way."

The Edmonton Journal