He’s gruff and tough, wears a cowboy hat and won’t be messed around. That’s the image of Alberta’s Premier Ed-the-Earth-Destroyer Stelmach.

His message to the World Heavy Oil Conference was that Alberta won’t be pressured by the Canadian federal government into accepting “unreasonable” deadlines for reducing greenhouse gases.

[Note: Vote for Ed now as the Biggest Fossil Fool!]

Stelmach said suggestions that the federal government’s plans to force the mandatory isolation and storage of carbon gases in the near-term – known as carbon capture sequestration – might infringe on Alberta’s constitutional rights.

“We’re not going to prejudge where the federal government is coming from,” Stelmach said yesterday. “But my job, my responsibility is to stand up for Albertans, and I will.”

The trouble is, there won’t be much of Alberta left to stand up for by the time Ed and his oil industry mates have bulldozed it flat for oil sands…