CALGARY — As Ottawa prepares to regulate Alberta’s oilsands, the Stelmach government says it’s “very concerned” about federal intervention and is accusing the Harper Conservatives of being hypocrites when it comes to the lucrative resource.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent announced last week that Ottawa will introduce later this year environmental regulations for the oilsands sector designed to reduce greenhouse gases spewed from one of the country’s largest-emitting industries.

The Alberta government is girding for the regulations, but also venting over contents of a U.S. diplomatic cable that shows the Harper government believed Canada was “too slow” in countering dirty oil criticisms of the oilsands and doing too little to protect the environment.

Alberta Finance Minister Lloyd Snelgrove said the Stelmach government has been worried for some time Ottawa would step in and regulate the provincial resource, adding unnecessary duplication and costs to the multibillion-dollar sector.

“The federal government has sat on the sidelines for years and years and years. Now they see their little golden goose is under attack and they want to be the voice for Canada on the world stage and we respect that,” Snelgrove told the Calgary Herald.

“We have tried to be team players on this. They’re saying Alberta should have been all over the world defending the oilsands, but only as long as they are holding the leash.”

The WikiLeaks cable, released in the past few weeks, also reveals the Obama administration inquired about “a possible moratorium” on new oilsands development as global criticism mounted over the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world.

The November 2009 diplomatic note from U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson says that former environment minister Jim Prentice vowed at the time Ottawa would step in and regulate the oilsands if industry didn’t take voluntary measures and Alberta failed to set more stringent regulations.

Thursday, the Harper government said it will soon roll out oilsands environmental regulations the province and industry have been worried about for some time.

“It’s a real issue — no doubt about it — and why we’ve been proactive in trying to deal with it,” Snelgrove added. “It’s real and we’re certainly concerned that when you start to have multiple layers of government trying to do the same thing, nobody wins.”

He noted the federal government collects more tax revenue from oilsands development than the province, yet Ottawa has repeatedly resisted Alberta’s efforts to promote bitumen development, such as establishing a Washington office and meeting foreign diplomats.

“For crying out loud, they can’t blow and suck!” the minister added.

In an interview, Prentice, who quit politics last fall, confirmed Jacobson inquired about a possible moratorium on the oilsands shortly after hundreds of ducks died in a tailings pond.

However, he said industry and both levels of government have ratcheted up their environmental efforts, and that he hasn’t heard any calls since then for a slowdown in the number of new oilsands projects.

Prentice said he was particularly worried about negative international perceptions of the oilsands and thought industry, at the time, wasn’t moving swiftly enough to counter the environmental attacks.