It was supposed to be a national first. Perhaps even a global first.
But the implementation of a bylaw requiring all gas stations in North Vancouver to apply warning stickers on their fuel pumps about the relationship between driving and catastrophic climate change has been co-opted and undermined by an industry supergroup called Smart Fuelling, says Robert Shirkey, founder of the non-profit Our Horizons.
The label designs, released by the municipality on September 20, no longer feature the tobacco-like warnings that feature “disclosures of risk” such as species extinctions and ocean acidification that Our Horizons had been pushing for since early (Read more…).
Instead, the stickers — explicitly designed by Smart Fuelling, a collaboration between the Canadian Fuels Association (CFA), the Canadian Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (CIPMA) and the Canadian Convenience Stores Association (CCSA) — feature advice about increasing the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles, including checking tire pressure, turning off your engine instead of idling and cutting down on the use of air conditioning. Members of the Canadian Fuels Association include Husky, Imperial Oil, Chevron, Shell and Suncor.