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“We, in terms of the oil sands, need to peg a greenhouse-gas target that would make us competitive with any other fuel source in the world. I think that more or less takes it off the table as an excuse,” Immelt told The Globe and Mail this week.

By contrast, oil sands proponents and Ottawa have had a tin ear, defending the status quo for years, which is not an option.

Worse yet, Republicans have made Keystone XL an issue and published polls that allege a majority of Americans favor Keystone. But polls are biased, most respondents don’t know what Keystone is and public opinion among Democrats, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the media and academia has turned against the oil sands in particular and Canada in general.

These influencers are not always right, but they are never wrong. They don’t want our oil sands oil because of its emissions and by ignoring their message, Canada now wears a “baby seal hunt” image again. This is why Immelt must be heeded and supported.

Four years ago, and in my recent book, I argued that both countries and the industry need to undertake a massive “Manhattan Project” to reduce oil sands emissions and to enable alternative energy technologies. Only by doing so, will the two realize their potential as the world’s foremost energy superpower.

Immelt is correct: Without a promise to provide cleaner energy, all bets are off

Immelt is proposing to do this with a Silicon Valley slant: He envisions an “open source” project with all companies sharing patents, intellectual property and best practices with one another. He also announced a competition, with a prize of $1-million, to find technologies that will dramatically lower emissions from non-traditional sources.