This is a guest post by Glenn Hurowitz, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. It originally appeared on Grist.org, and is reprinted here with permission.

Everything you’ve heard about the tar sands and energy security is wrong
by Glenn Hurowitz

If there’s a single idea that the oil industry has peddled to persuade the Obama administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, it’s this: Tar-sands oil might be more polluting than even dirty old regular oil, but it’s better to get our energy from our ally Canada than from unstable oil suppliers in the Middle East or elsewhere.

In practice, the opposite is true: Drilling in North America is the single greatest threat to our nation’s energy security.

At a meeting this week in Riyadh the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced that it will do its part to tackle greehouse gas emissions. 

The Chair of the summit and Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi, stated that:

We (Saudi Arabia) are willing to participate with others to help in reducing world emissions because like the rest of the world we are concerned about the environment."

Seriously, is there anyone left in the world other than a small group of flat earthers, and ideological TV/radio  schlock jocks that haven't woken up to this issue?

Just when we thought greenhouse gas was the culprit, along comes this pearl from a Muslim cleric in Australia who lays the blame for climate change, drought and pollution on lack of faith in Allah.