Neil Young under fire for ‘Hiroshima’ slam about Canada’s oil sands

Rocker Neil Young’s scathing attack on oil sands production and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is under fire in his home country of Canada.

Young, visiting Capitol Hill on Monday, said production has turned part of Alberta into a “wasteland” that “looks like Hiroshima,” and criticized the carbon footprint of the fuel. E2-Wire covered the remarks in detail here.

The Canadian Press reports that Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said he’s a “fan of Neil Young’s music” but disagrees with him on oil sands and the Keystone pipeline that Oliver wants the White House to approve.

{mosads}“But on this matter we disagree because Keystone XL will displace heavy oil from Venezuela, which has the same or higher greenhouse gas emissions, with a stable and secure source of Canadian oil,” Oliver said, according to the news agency’s story.

Oliver was in Washington, D.C., lobbying for the pipeline the same day Young, who was at a biofuels and farm policy rally, slammed oil sands development and said he’s against Keystone “in a big way.”

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers also criticized Young’s comments, albeit gently. From The Canadian Press:

Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said in an interview that advocates are welcome to their opinion but he’d like to ensure it’s an informed opinion.

“We don’t want to try and temper that,” said Stringham.

“We just want to try and expose them to the entire picture: Here’s what a project looks like; here’s what the reclamation is; here’s the people. We drive through the city, we can get him to talk to people on the First Nations side as well as the community side.”

Young’s description of Fort McMurray as a “wasteland” also drew fire from the town’s mayor.

“The community’s reaction is inevitably not happy, probably outraged, because it’s such a gross misrepresentation,” said Mayor Melissa Blake, according to the CBC News.

Critics of Young’s comments are using the #notawasteland hashtag on Twitter, the CBC reports, and their story also quotes a DJ at a Fort McMurray rock station who says they’re starting a “No Neil” day.

But Young, who said oil sands production is harming the health of indigenous First Nations groups in Alberta, drew praise too. Environmentalists and progressive activists, such as Canadian author Naomi Klein, circulated his comments over social media.

“Thank you! Neil Young speaks out on behalf of the Canadians who are fed up with the tar sands industry,” the group 350.org said over Twitter.

The group is fighting the Keystone pipeline, which would bring oil sands crude from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.

Young met with a number of lawmakers during his trip to Washington, including Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), seen below.

Neil Young, right, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). (Greg Nash/The Hill)