Home » NEWS & ANALYSIS
Category Archives: NEWS & ANALYSIS
SUBSCRIBE
LATEST POSTS
-
Canadian Rocker Neil Young Blasts Stephen Harper, Alberta Tar Sands
Canadian rock legend Neil Young has blasted the Harper government for “trading integrity” in its single-minded appetite for Alberta tar sands dollars. via Canadian Rocker…
-
Al Gore says Obama must veto ‘atrocity’ of Keystone XL tar sands pipeline
By: Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian (UK) | June 15, 2013 Former vice-president says oil pipeline is ‘really a losing proposition’ and demands climate plan promised at inauguration…
-
Londoners arrested for protesting petrocrat Stephen Harper, tar sands
By: Obert Madondo Twitter: @Obiemad Environmental activists protesting “petrocrat” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and our dirty tar sands were arrested at the British Parliament earlier today, The…
-
Keystone XL Pipeline Lobbyists Have Deep Ties to White House
By: Pratap Chatterjee TransCanada and the provincial government of Alberta are paying former advisors to the Obama administration – as well as former staff of…
Al Gore says Obama must veto ‘atrocity’ of Keystone XL tar sands pipeline
By: Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian (UK) | June 15, 2013
Former vice-president says oil pipeline is ‘really a losing proposition’ and demands climate plan promised at inauguration
Al Gore has called on Barack Obama to veto the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, describing it as “an atrocity”.
The former vice-president said in an interview on Friday that he hoped Obama would follow the example of British Columbia, which last week rejected a similar pipeline project, and shut down the Keystone XL.
“I certainly hope that he will veto that now that the Canadians have publicly concluded that it is not safe to take a pipeline across British Columbia to ports on the Pacific,” he told the Guardian. “I really can’t imagine that our country would say: ‘Oh well. Take it right over parts of the Ogallala aquifer’, our largest and most important source of ground water in the US. It’s really a losing proposition.”
Londoners arrested for protesting petrocrat Stephen Harper, tar sands
By: Obert Madondo Twitter: @Obiemad
Activists outside the British Parliament protest Canada’s tar sands. (Photo: Facebook/Idle No More UK Solidarity Action)
Environmental activists protesting “petrocrat” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and our dirty tar sands were arrested at the British Parliament earlier today, The Guardian (UK) and other media report.
The protesters, identifying themselves as Love Canada, Hate Tar Sands, were arrested after climbing the roof of the British Parliament building with T-shirts saying ‘oil out of politics’, ‘stop Harper’ and ‘stop the tar sands’. They also spilled molasses on the floor outside the building.
The activists criticized the UK government for inviting Harper to deliver the first speech by a Canadian PM to the British Parliament since 1944. Harper addressed legislators in the House of Lords.
Keystone XL Pipeline Lobbyists Have Deep Ties to White House
By: Pratap Chatterjee
Keystone Pipeline Handout
TransCanada and the provincial government of Alberta are paying former advisors to the Obama administration – as well as former staff of the Hillary Clinton and John Kerry presidential campaigns – to help them lobby for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to transport tar sands fuel to the U.S.
The pipeline from Alberta – which is to be built by TransCanada – has been delayed for over four years pending approval from the U.S. State Department which has final say because it crosses the international border. President Barack Obama is expected to announce a decision this fall in consultation with John Kerry, who took over the State Department earlier this year from Hilary Clinton.
Stephen Harper’s fate is in the pipeline
Source: iPolitics
While the Senate seizes the spotlight in Ottawa, another threat to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s agenda is unfolding in capitals on opposite coasts. In both Victoria and Washington D.C., governments are weighing in on the future of oil pipelines which hold the key to Western Canada’s economic and political destiny — and that of the federal Conservative party.
The two fronts are related, as the inability to control one could jeopardize the achievement of the other by torpedoing the Conservatives’ ambitions to displace the center of political power in Canada.
TransCanada has a ‘culture of non-compliance’: engineer to Senate committee
Source: The Hook
Evan Vokes, a pipeline safety whistleblower and materials engineer, told a Canadian Senate committee yesterday that TransCanada Corporation “has a culture of non-compliance,” but the company says it takes “great exception” to Vokes’ claims that it does not take safety and compliance issues seriously.
Calgary-based TransCanada is the proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline to ferry raw bitumen to the Gulf of Mexico.
The multi-billion dollar pipeline would accelerate tar sands production, which on a per barrel basis creates three to four times more climate-changing emissions than conventional oil.
Vokes, an expert on pipeline welding practices, worked for TransCanada for five years and was fired without cause in 2012 after persistently raising concerns about the company’s safety practices.
Harper Conservatives spend on Keystone XL ads, while cutting environment funding
By: Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada | Press Release:
OTTAWA, May 27, 2013 – “Canadians should be outraged that the federal government is shoving millions of taxpayer dollars into American advertising to promote Keystone XL,” says Dave Coles, President of Canada’s largest energy workers’ union.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada has learned that since 2010-11 Natural Resources Canada has increased its advertising budget by 7000%.
Extreme Energy development is a risk for investment and the planet, Indigenous delegates tell Royal Dutch Shell shareholders
By: Polaris Institute | Press Release:
Tuesday May 21st, The Hague, Netherlands – Today members of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and the Native Village of Point Hope, Alaska attended the Royal Dutch Shell AGM to confront the Chairman and Board over Shell’s decision to pursue highly risky ‘extreme energy’ projects without adequate consultation and accommodation of Indigenous communities. Projects such as Arctic off-shore drilling and tar sands will have little long term benefit for the company, and expose it to reputational damage, political and financial risk, including litigation.
Canada Petro State 