By: Obert Madondo Twitter: @Obiemad A massive anti-tar sands protest will greet Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he arrives in London on Thursday en route to the June 17-18 G8 summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland. The UK Tar Sands Network and a coalition of environmentalists hope to show Harper “that there is huge
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The Canadian Progressive: Tories spend on Keystone XL ads, while cutting environment funding
Canadians should be outraged that the Harper Conservatives are spending millions of taxpayers money lobbying for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. while cutting environmental funding. The post Tories spend on Keystone XL ads, while cutting environment funding appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – As would-be frackers show us exactly why it’s dangerous to give the corporate sector a veto over government action, Steven Shrybman suggests that corporations are mostly doing only what we’d expect in exploiting agreements designed to prioritize profits over people: Canadian businesses are
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Michael Moss writes about the amount of time and money spent by corporate conglomerates to push consumers toward eating unhealthy food: The public and the food companies have known for decades now — or at the very least since this meeting — that
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Order of Canada for Stevie Cameron sets the right tone for the coming Year of Mulroney
Happy New Year … and this time I mean it! Author and cook Stevie Cameron wearing the official regalia of a member of the Order of Canada. Actual Order of Canada recipients may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Ms. Cameron; Brian Mulroney, the 18th prime minister of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On revealed connections
Simon Enoch’s study mapping corporate power in Saskatchewan may be one of the most important pieces of research I’ve seen in quite some time – and I’ll highly encourage visitors to give it a thorough read. But I’ll quibble with one aspect of Enoch’s conclusion – he’s done more work
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On needed advantages
Thanks in large part to an extremely active provincial leadership campaign, I haven’t discussed the evolution of the federal NDP over the past few months in as much detail as I’d like. But while there will be plenty more to talk about over the next little while, I’ll comment on
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Harper Conservatives and Big Oil turning Canada into a “petro-state”
by The Polaris Institute | December 4, 2012: A new report entitled “Big Oil’s Oily Grasp – The making of Canada as a Petro-State and how oil money is corrupting Canadian politics” released today by the Ottawa-based Polaris Institute found that six main oil industry players, including Enbridge and TransCanada, met
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Richard Thaler criticizes Mitt Romney’s obsession with upper-end tax cuts by pointing out the factors which actually serve to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship: Romney wants to cut top rates by 20 percent, maintain the favorable treatment given to capital gains and dividends,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fuel Economy Standards To Save U.S. Consumers Billions, Create Jobs, Yet Republicans Say Too Expensive
fuel economy standards.jpg A proposed rule by the Obama Administration to raise fuel economy standards for cars and “light-trucks” is facing mounting attacks by Republican lawmakers. The proposed rule would require all newly manufactured automobiles that fall under the car or light truck category to achieve a minimum gas mileage
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: US Chamber Rejoices As Courts Rule For Polluters
dirty-air.jpg Earlier this week, an appellate court in Washington, D.C. ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had overstepped their authority with their Transport Rule that was put in place to reduce the amount of air pollution being spewed from coal burning plants. The rule would have put stringent
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: How Do You Spend $375 Million A Day? Ask The Oil Industry
oil-money.n.jpg The average U.S. household has seen both their net worth and their average income steadily decline over the last seven years. Unemployment in the United States still remains at uncomfortably high levels, and the poverty rate is about to reach highs that haven’t been seen since the 1960’s. But
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Enbridge Mismanagement Caused Kalamazoo Tragedy, Says NTSB
Picture 2.png Enbridge, the Canadian company poised to build the controversial Northern Gateway Pipeline, received a scathing assessment this week from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after an inquiry into a 2010 pipeline rupture in Michigan revealed the company’s mismanagement of what unfolded into a “tragic and needless” disaster.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Marcellus Money: Statehouse Bought and Sold by Shale Gas Industry in PA
marcellusmoney.jpeg Consider it official: the Pennsylvania statehouse has been bought and sold by the shale gas industry, confirmed today, yet again, by MarcellusMoney.org. In a press release, Marcellus Money, a project of Common Cause of Pennsylvania and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania laid out the sobering facts about the frackers' stranglehold
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Enbridge executive’s company awarded first crime Bill C-10 $38.5-million prison project
Executive and company have strong and lucrative ties with the Canadian military and Harper government. Opponents of the Conservative government’s crime Bill C-10 were justified to argue that private companies would profiteer from the new jail system the legislation proposed for Canada. On Tuesday, the Canadian Press reported that a
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Private prison companies look to Canada as industry faces lawsuits in US
US states are beginning to rely less on privately run prisons, but Canada may be a land of opportunity for the two biggest firms By: BILBO POYNTER | The Guardian US private prison firms are targeting Canada for fresh opportunities as pressure builds at home on the troubled multi-billion dollar
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Industry Sues EPA Over Clean Air Initiatives
smoke-stack1.jpg In a blatant insult to the millions of Americans who would breathe easier under the EPA’s air pollution controls, the dirty energy industry, along with other groups, has sued the EPA to stop regulating toxic industrial air pollution. The Center for American Progress has the story: Two essential Environmental
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Tom Korski nicely captures the essence of the Cons’ omnibus attack on the environment (along with anything that stands in the way of a cheap and dirty buck): C-38 is a gift for oil and gas lobbyists. It repeals 20 years of environmental
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Lobby Wins In EU – Shale Gas Now Considered “Green Energy”
lobbyist-payoff1.jpg In a headline that would appear to be ripped off the pages of The Onion, The Guardian UK this week reported “Gas rebranded as green energy by EU.” After billions of dollars spent in lobbying efforts over the years, the dirty energy industry in the European Union has managed
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Industry Trying To Keep Doctors Silent About Chemical Dangers
doctor silence.jpg Polls conducted in recent years show that close to 80% of Americans trust their doctors. They believe, rightly so, that their personal doctors are looking out for their patients’ best interests, and that doctors will do what is necessary to get patients healthy. But what happens when a
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