The European Union committee tasked with determining whether to label oil derived from oil sands as worse for the climate than crude oil failed to come to a definitive conclusion on Thursday. Now the proposal will go before the EU Council, comprised of representatives from the union’s 27 member countries. Isaac Valero-Ladron, a spokesman for the EU Commissioner for Climate Action, said a decision was expected by June.

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The proposal to label oil derived from oil sands as worse for climate change was vigorously opposed by officials in Canada, where such oil is produced. Canada threatened to take the EU to the World Trade Organization if it singled out that type of oil as worse for the environment than others. However, the European Commission contends that science justifies the proposal, which if enacted, could deal a heavy blow to Canada’s economy. Canada’s immense Athabasca oil sands are the world’s second-largest proven oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia.

The proposal, though it would not have banned oil from oil sands from being imported into the EU, would have assigned such oil a bigger carbon footprint than average crude oil. The EU’s Fuel Quality Directive sets a mandatory target for fuel producers and suppliers to reduce the carbon emitted by fuels by 6 percent from 2010 levels by the year 2020, thus effectively discouraging the use of oil from oil sands in what opponents say would, in practice, amount to an import ban.

Oil sands, also known as tar sands, are sand and rock that contain crude bitumen — a heavy, viscous form of crude oil. The EU proposal would seek to label oil extracted from oil sands as emitting 22 percent more greenhouse gas by weight than the average for crude oil. Greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, are believed to contribute to the warming of the earth’s climate.

The Fuel Quality Directive Committee votes by a qualified majority, which means that larger countries have more votes than smaller ones. To either approve or reject the proposal, 255 votes were needed. The final tally was 89 in favor, 128 against, and 128 abstentions. While many environmentalist groups were disheartened by the stalemate, Greenpeace pointed out that at leas the proposal had not been defeated.

It would have been “a victory for an industry that produces the dirtiest oil on Earth,” the group said while urging EU environment ministers to adopt the proposal in June. Connie Hedegaard, the EU Commissioner for Climate Action, also took solace in the fact that opponents failed to kill the proposal, tweeting, “Thanks for all your support e-mails from Canada, US & rest of the world! Hopefully EU MS [member states] will listen.”

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To contact the reporter on this story: Emily Knapp at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com

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