Environmental groups on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border today asked the Obama administration to use a three-decade-old law aimed at shielding international endangered-species protection efforts against a controversial oil sands pipeline that would link the two nations.

The 12 green groups petitioned the Interior Department to invoke the so-called Pelly Amendment, which allows the U.S. government to consider trade sanctions or other bilateral pressure points against a foreign government it finds flouting global species-protection treaties.

In the case of the Keystone XL pipeline, a top priority of Canadian officials that would ship emissions-heavy oil sands crude from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, the conservationists want Obama aides to lean on Ottawa to improve its controls on oil sands mining's ecological impact.

"Tar sands mining in Canada is destroying huge areas of important habitat and releasing toxic pollutants that poison wildlife, including internationally protected migratory birds and woodland caribou," Earthjustice staff attorney Sarah Burt said in a statement on the petition, using greens' preferred appellation for the bituminous oil sands.

"The resulting harm to these species not only undermines international protections but also impairs U.S. conservation efforts for migratory species."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is given latitude under Pelly to determine whether given actions by a foreign government meet the standard of impeding international species compacts -- in the case of Keystone XL, environmentalists cite the Migratory Bird Convention and the Western Hemisphere Convention. Pelly was used earlier this month to press Iceland for stronger curbs on its whaling industry (E&ENews PM, Sept. 16).

While the prospect might appear remote of a Pelly finding against Keystone XL, a $7 billion project that continues to drive intense lobbying and activism from foes and friends alike, the green groups' move today allows them to turn the spotlight onto the effect of resource-intensive oil sands extraction on natural landscapes in the United States and Canada.

Petroleum interests in both nations are working hard to fight green advocates' portrayal of oil sands crude as dirtier than conventional fuel, pointing to restoration and mitigation projects in Canada as part of a systematic plan to make the production process more sustainable (Greenwire, Aug. 16).

Click here to read the green groups' petition.