shutterstock_48011344.jpg How do you sell a rotten bag of goods? Rule number one of effective propaganda: repackage it into something seemingly less grotesque. In that spirit, the Houston Chronicle recently reported the American Petroleum Institute (API) has created yet another front group, this one to promote tar sands crude, one of the dirtiest sources of fuel in the world, as a
Continue readingTag: Alberta oil sands
DeSmogBlog: Enbridge Lobbyists Successfully Eliminated Fish Habitat Protections For Pipeline
Enbridge-Greenpeace.jpg Changes to the Fisheries Act limiting the protection of fish habitat did not, as it turns out, arise simply out of a series of complaints by disgruntled farmers hoping to fill in small patches of wetlands or municipalities seeking to repair bridges, as claimed by Minister Keith Ashfield. Briefing notes
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: I Love You Huffpo but What’s Going On?
I have been writing on environmental issues on the popular news blog Huffington Post going on five years now but I am not sure if I will continue. read more
Continue reading350 or bust: Alberta Oil Sands Fly-Over: We Can Do Better
We can do better. Let’s honour past, present and future generations. It’s time for cleaner options for energy production. Singer-songwriter Jennifer Berezan, eco-philosopher Joanna Macy and Catholic activist Anne Symens-Bucher flew over the Alberta’s oil/tar sands. In response to the experience, Jennifer, singer songwriter native to Alberta, wrote “My Memory
Continue reading350 or bust: Grassroots Democracy Initiative Organized in Face of Federal Government’s Love Affair With Dirty Energy
The following is a re-post from Anthony Marr’s HomosapiensSaveYourEarth blog. Mr. Marr has a degree in physics and is a long-time advocate for living more sustainably and gently on our earth. In 1996, he led “the highest-profile anti-trophy-hunting campaign in Canada” (Globe and Mail), and went on to found Heal
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Investors: No More Flaring of Fracked Oil and Gas in Bakken Shale
exxon-gas-flaring-photo01.jpg The debate over flaring unconventional oil and gas in shale basins across the United States has suddenly heated up immensely (excuse the bad pun). On March 27, the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economy (CERES) penned a letter calling for an end to the practice, writing, We are a group of 37
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Obama Sojourns to "Pipeline Crossroads of the World" for Campaign Speech
Cushing .jpg It's the multi-pronged fight that never seems to end. The Alberta Tar Sands have been near the forefront of the North American energy and climate debate, thanks in large part to growing public concern and grassroots efforts like Tar Sands Action, a campaign led by climate activists to block construction of the
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: China to quiz Stephen Harper on human rights?
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper leads a high-powered Team Corporate Canada to China, there’s justifiable speculation that the PM will not question China’s appalling human rights record. At least not publicly. Once, powerful western …Read More
Continue readingOccupy Ottawa: China to quiz Stephen Harper on human rights?
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper leads a high-powered Team Corporate Canada to China, there’s justifiable speculation that the PM will not question China’s appalling human rights record. At least not publicly. Once, powerful western democracies …Read More
Continue reading350 or bust: PMO Issues Alert: “Foreign Radicals Threaten Further Delays”
Last night, Prime Minister Harper’s office sent off this “alert” to the media folks on its mailing list (via Kady O’Malley at the CBC). When I first read it, I thought it was political satire out of the pages of Rick Mercer or the gang over at This Hour Has
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Demise of Keystone XL Means More Bakken Shale Gas Flaring
NA-Pipeline-Map-Theodora.png Damned if we do, damned if we don't – this is the CliffsNotes version of the ongoing Keystone XL pipeline debate. President Barack Obama recently halted TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project, which would bring tar sands crude, or dilluted bitumen ("dilbit") from Alberta, B.C. through the heart of the U.S., to
Continue reading350 or bust: Alberta Oil Sands Crude: Not As Conflict-Free As “Ethical Oil” Proponents Wish
* Yesterday I posted a clip from Power & Politics where EthicalOil.org’s spokesperson Kathryn Marshall happily sprayed paranoid, inflammatory rhetoric around the room about how “environmentalists” who are speaking out against the Northern Gateway Pipeline are funded by “foreign” interests while clamming up about whether or not her group gets
Continue reading350 or bust: Mark Ruffalo On Opposing Keystone XL Pipeline: I Look At My Kids and I Say I Can’t Betray Them
I’m looking out the window of my home office today, rejoicing at the sprinkling of snow on the ground. Yesterday rain fell outside, while a confused fly that should have been hibernating buzzed around inside. Both are examples, along with the tem…
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