We arrived in Calgary, Alberta today on the first leg of a trip to see firsthand the strip mining and drilling for oil in the tar sands region of Canada’s Boreal forest.  NRDC’s Executive Director, Peter Lehner, and others in leadership positions with the organization will be touring the region over the next three days.

Our trip to the tar sands falls at a critical point in time. The Gulf oil disaster has focused attention on our costly dependence on fossil fuels, especially those that are harder to reach and more damaging to extract such as oil extraction in the tar sands and coal mining through mountain-top removal, as well as oil from offshore drilling. Ironically, as our group visits the tar sands and Ft. Chipewyan, the Alberta Environment Minister is participating in a Boston forum to try to convince Americans that we need more dirty fuel sources for our cars and trucks. Read my colleague Luke Tonachel’s blog about this forum and its oil industry sponsors.