Sep. 4--The fight over global warming and Canadian oil is heating up, and Minnesota, which gets 80 percent of its oil from Canada, is sitting on the griddle.

A group of oil companies and big industries launched a TV and radio ad campaign this week to try to snuff out rules that might raise the cost of piping Canadian tar-sands oil through the Dakotas to refineries in the Twin Cities.

Meanwhile, environmentalists on Thursday appealed a federal decision that allows construction of another major pipeline across northern Minnesota to bring in even more tar-sands oil from Alberta.

Environmentalists say tar-sands oil, which is mined and boiled off instead of pumped out of the ground, is some of the dirtiest petroleum on Earth. Increased use would release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that can speed up climate change, they say.

However, a Houston nonprofit called the Consumer Energy Alliance says it's vital to keep tar-sands oil flowing into the United States because cleaner alternatives aren't ready.

Backed by the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil and Shell Oil, the alliance is trying to stop low-carbon fuel standards from becoming law. Such rules would penalize tar-sands oil, which produces three times the greenhouse-gas emissions of conventional oil.

A low carbon fuel standard was part of the Waxman-Markey climate bill in the U.S. House, but it was removed before the bill moved to the Senate, where it awaits action this fall.

The Consumer

Energy Alliance still fears a low carbon fuel standard could be reinserted or that states such as Minnesota and California might enact their own.

Environmentalists introduced a low carbon fuel standard to the Minnesota Legislature last year, said Bill Grant, associate executive director of the Izaak Walton League. The bill never made it out of committee, but it will be reintroduced next year, Grant said.

This week, the Consumer Energy Alliance launched an ad campaign in the Dakotas, Montana and Tennessee opposing low carbon fuel standards. The group says a national low carbon fuel standard would raise the cost of gasoline by 60 cents a gallon and make Canadian tar-sands oil so expensive that U.S. refiners would switch to lighter oil from the Middle East.

David Holt, the group's president, said more states are talking about low carbon fuel standards. "It does nothing for the environment, and it restricts North American energy supplies and leaves us more dependent upon (overseas) imports."

Minnesota refiners support the alliance's campaign.