Mitt Romney's energy independence plan a "nightmare" for Canada: Elizabeth May

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave his acceptance speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention, touting a new "energy independence plan" in which the US would be "taking full advantage of our coal and oil and gas and renewables."

But when Romney says "our", he's not just talking about the US, but Canada as well, federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May warned earlier in an interview with The Vancouver Observer. 

"What Canadians need to know about is that while [Republicans] talk about 'energy independence', they clearly view it as (former US president) George W. Bush did -- Bush used to refer to the Athabasca oil sands as United States domestic energy supply," she said.

Criticizing both Romney and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not mentioning climate change as part of their plans, May blasted the Prime Minister for giving Canada's own energy resources to the US while continuing Canadian oil dependence on OPEC countries.

"Under NAFTA, we're hard-wired to be the number one supplier of foreign oil to the US," she said, adding that almost all of Canadian oil exports currently go to the US. 

She said that Romney's energy plan would be a "nightmare" for areas that Canadians historically care about, as he would likely give the green light to drilling projects that would endanger the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou herds of the coastal plain, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

"One of the few areas that Harper said anything to suggest to the US that Canada cared about conservation was that Harper stuck to the traditional position of Canadian Prime Ministers to protect the interests of the Gwich'in  people on the Yukon side of the Porcupine Caribou," she said.

"Mitt Romney would blow that apart."