A haul truck carrying a full load drives away from a mining shovel at the Shell Albian Sands oilsands mine near Fort McMurray. Four U.S. companies have joined a boycott of fuels made from oilsands crude. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)Four U.S. companies have announced they will boycott or reduce their use of fuels from the Alberta oilsands.

Walgreens, a 7,500-store drugstore chain, plans to switch suppliers that provide fuel for the company's delivery trucks.

The Gap, Levi Strauss and Timberland have told companies that transport their goods that they will give their business first to those that avoid using oilsands fuels.

The news prompted a vow from Alberta premier Ed Stelmach to write letters to the CEOs of all four organizations.

"Unfortunately, these retailers have chosen a course of action without first talking to us about our environmental commitment and the efforts of thousands of Albertans working for government, industry and academic institutions to reduce the impact of oilsands development," Stelmach said in a statement released Friday.

"I am proud of our work to address challenges head on. For example, Alberta is the only jurisdiction in North America with mandatory greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for all large emitters."

He went on to say that since 1990, greenhouse gas emissions per barrel in Alberta oilsands have been reduced by 39 per cent. As well, the provincial government has committed $2 billion to carbon capture and storage, he said.

The government has also funded millions of dollars in clean energy research at the University of Alberta and University of Calgary, he added.

Shun retailers, business group urges

Stelmach's frustrations with the oilsands boycott were echoed by Alberta's minister of international and intergovernmental relations, Iris Evans.

"It's disturbing," she said. "It's an unfortunate thing. We're trying to, with our new campaign, tell it like it is to encourage Albertans to talk about it, to really get to know more about what we are doing in the oilsands.

"And we would have wished that those companies took the time to explore the kind of things that we're doing in the production of fossil fuels."

One business advocacy group thinks Canadians should stay away from U.S. companies involved in the oilsands boycott.

"Canadians should stand up against companies like Gap and others and say if you're going to badmouth us, without the facts, then we're going to boycott your business," said Tim Shipton, president of Edmonton-based Alberta Enterprise Group.

"Because that's the only way for these companies, I think, to really understand the issue."

Environmental group Forest Ethics is behind the anti-oilsands initiative. The group has been trying to pressure industry and the Alberta government to reduce the oilsands' impact on the environment.

Alberta was also the target of a billboard campaign launched by Corporate Ethics International this summer in the United States and Great Britain. It urged tourists not to visit the province because of the oilsands.

With files from The Canadian Press