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Post by clone on Nov 29, 2011 8:41:06 GMT -8
William Marsden's book Fools Rule: About the politics of climate change By William Marsden, Excerpted from Fools Rule: Reproduced by arrangement with Knopf Canada. October 22, 2011 William Marsden’s new book takes us to United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen and Cancún, and on expeditions to Canada’s Arctic. Here is an excerpt from Fools Rule: Inside the Failed Politics of Climate Change: www.montrealgazette.com/news/William+Marsden+book+Fools+Rule+About+politics+climate+change/5589597/story.htmlStupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care) William Marsden, 2007 Now, Marsden is an investigative journalist, and this is very much a piece of investigative journalism. This should not be read as a slag: it is an engaging, well written book that makes a very clear and important case. www.mikepowell.ca/general/2007/11/23/a-mule-with-a-spinning-wheel/
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Post by clone on Dec 6, 2011 13:33:22 GMT -8
Shell accused of lowballing environmental impact of oilsands expansion Last Modified: 12/5/2011 5:00 PM EDMONTON - Newly filed documents say Shell Canada's environmental study of its proposed oilsands expansion should be rejected because it is woefully out of date and lowballs probable industrial development by a factor of 12. A report to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency by the Oilsands Environmental Coalition points out that Shell's (NYSE:RDS) look at the cumulative effects of development in the region doesn't include anything proposed since 2007. Since then, says the report, there have been 11 new projects proposed within the study area and more than a billion dollars has been spent acquiring oilsands leases. www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/breakingnews/shell-accused-of-lowballing--environmental-impact-of-oilsands-expansion--135040508.html
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Post by total fr on Dec 8, 2011 12:22:09 GMT -8
Total's Alberta oil sands project gets green lightThu Dec 8, 2011 1:40pm EST CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The Canadian government gave Total SA (TOTF.PA: Quote) approval on Thursday to start construction on its C$9 billion ($8.9 billion) Joslyn North oil sands project in Alberta, marking the fifth mining development in the vast crude deposit. Total, the French oil major, and its Canadian, U.S. and Japanese partners aim to start production in 2017-18, hitting a peak of 100,000 barrels a day. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver announced the decision as controversy spreads at home and abroad over the environmental impact of developing and transporting oil sands crude. Ottawa has made boosting and diversifying exports of the unconventional oil a top priority. More: ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCATRE7B71SU20111208
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Post by clone on Dec 8, 2011 17:50:14 GMT -8
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Post by clone on Dec 12, 2011 15:13:24 GMT -8
Canada says invoking right to quit Kyoto protocol Reuters – 38 minutes ago OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will formally withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said on Monday. "As we've said, Kyoto for Canada is in the past ... We are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto," he told reporters. ca.news.yahoo.com/canada-withdrawing-kyoto-official-says-212835999.html
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Post by 89 to 10 on Dec 17, 2011 14:53:54 GMT -8
Senate passes payroll tax cut and spending bill Reuters – 1 hr 14 mins ago Republicans used the tax bill to push for quick U.S. approval of TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline project, which is backed by labor unions but opposed by environmental groups. The legislation requires Obama to approve construction of the pipeline from Canada to U.S. Gulf of Mexico facilities within 60 days or declare that it is not in the national interest. Obama wanted to take a year, beyond November's elections, to review the project. news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-agree-2-month-payroll-tax-cut-extension-003819166.htmlDecember 02, 2011. Republicans introduced legislation in the Senate this week that would force the State Department to issue a permit within 60 days to kick start the project critics say Obama delayed until after next fall's election to keep his environmental base onside and money flowing to his re-election bid. www.torontosun.com/2011/12/02/keystone-xl-safest-pipeline-ever-congressional-hearing-told
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Post by clone on Dec 17, 2011 14:58:06 GMT -8
Canada energy regulator lax on pipelines: watchdog Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:56am EST CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canada's energy regulator has failed to make adequate checks to ensure pipeline operators fix safety problems uncovered at their facilities and keep emergency procedures up to date, the country's Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development said on Tuesday. In a report to Parliament that raises serious questions about the safety of moving dangerous goods through pipelines and along highways, Commissioner Scott Vaughan also said the federal environment ministry has been lax in enforcing regulations and slow to deal with shortcomings in training of officers. Vaughan released the report as the National Energy Board and environmental regulators prepare to conduct hearings into Enbridge Inc's C$5.5 billion ($5.3 billion) Northern Gateway Pipeline to the Pacific Coast from the Alberta oil sands. The project is opposed by environmentalists and many aboriginal groups, partly due to fears of pipeline ruptures and oil spills along the route and in coastal waters. The NEB regulates 71,000 km (44,000 miles) of oil and gas pipelines in Canada, more than half of them less than 30 years old, but nearly a third built between 30 and 50 years ago. More than 12 percent are more than half a century old. ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCATRE7BC2HA20111214
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ogallala waterjellyland
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Post by ogallala waterjellyland on Dec 17, 2011 15:10:57 GMT -8
Nebraskan pipeline opponents defy eco-warrior stereotype September 28, 2011 <snip> They actually live over the Ogallala Aquifer, where near-the-surface groundwater fills fence post holes almost as soon as they are dug. They run cattle across a Sand Hills ecosystem so fragile that just one year of overgrazing can render the land useless for seven. Their lifetime of experience has made them highly skeptical of studies — by both TransCanada and the State Department — that conclude environmental damage from an oil spill would be limited and localized. The water is not static — it moves, Bruce says, and oil spilled into it will move, too. "Them scientists are not telling the truth about that ground," he told Postmedia News during a break in the Lincoln hearings. "The person that was born and raised there actually understands it much better than somebody that studies it. He knows what it does." One pipeline ally, John McCollister of the Platte Institute, said Nebraskans are locked in an "ideological fight between environmental extremism and free-market forces." But the Boettcher brothers hardly fit the eco-warrior image. They wear ball caps, western shirts and blue jeans. Scott boasts a handlebar moustache — and no one in Turner Valley or Pincher Creek, Alberta, would blink an eye if they saw either them on the street. Bruce and Scott stress their opposition to Keystone XL isn't driven by 'not-in-my-backyard' selfishness, but what they believe is common sense. "We are not extremists," Bruce Boettcher says. On the ranch where Bruce lives — near the town of Bassett, just a few hundred metres from the proposed pipeline route — the land is an unstable blend of sand and gravel, held in place by native grasses. On the hills that rise above the wet spots, the sand can be so fine that a disturbance can produce a massive "blowout" that even longtime residents have trouble containing. "We go out there at a certain time of year so you can put up the hay. And it'll be just like driving on jelly," says Scott Boettcher. www.montrealgazette.com/health/Nebraskan+pipeline+opponents+defy+warrior+stereotype/5472527/story.html
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Post by tax cut on Dec 20, 2011 11:32:22 GMT -8
Congress and Keystone XL: A National Disgrace Posted: 12/18/11 10:51 PM ET The Congress is ending the year much as it began -- playing politics with our nation's future and putting American families at risk to score partisan points. In the closing act to a shameful year of paralysis and indecision on the issues that matter most, House Republicans held common-sense tax relief for American families hostage to a holiday gift to Big Oil. After the GOP-led House welded the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline rider onto the tax-relief bill, the Democratic-led Senate went along for the ride, passing a bad piece of legislation rather than being accused of blocking a needed tax cut. www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-redford/keystone-xl-payroll-tax-cut_b_1156993.html
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Post by 5 of 6 states on Dec 20, 2011 11:38:00 GMT -8
Expedited decision could kill Keystone XL project December 18, 2011 WASHINGTON — The White House sent new signals Sunday that President Barack Obama may be forced to kill TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oilsands pipeline if his administration is forced to make a decision on the project within 60 days... According to Calgary-based TransCanada, the company proposing Keystone XL, approval of a presidential permit would allow “construction of the pipeline to begin in five of the six states” that it would cross. “The only state in which construction could not begin immediately is Nebraska, where the route of the pipeline is being shifted to avoid the Sandhills,” the company said in a statement. www.calgaryherald.com/news/Expedited+decision+could+kill+Keystone+project/5879224/story.html
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after said and done
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Post by after said and done on Dec 22, 2011 22:15:42 GMT -8
www.scribd.com/doc/76259666/Oilsands-Pollution 15pp ‘Secret’ Environment Canada study warns of oil sands’ impact on habitat Dec 22, 2011 – 1:52 PM ET OTTAWA — Contamination of a major western Canadian river basin from oil sands operations is a “high-profile concern” for downstream communities and wildlife, says a newly-released “secret” presentation prepared last spring by Environment Canada that highlighted numerous warnings about the industry’s growing footprint on land, air, water and the climate. The warnings from the department **contrast** with recent claims made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister Peter Kent that the industry is being unfairly targeted by environmentalists who exaggerate its impacts on nature and people. business.financialpost.com/2011/12/22/secret-environment-canada-study-warns-of-oil-sands-impact-on-habitat/
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Post by clone on Dec 23, 2011 13:35:29 GMT -8
Cornell GLI Study Finds Keystone XL Pipeline Will Create Few Jobs Previous Studies Are Misleading; Project May Kill More Jobs Than It Creates. Cornell GLI’s new report, Pipe Dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL examines the job impacts of TransCanada Corportation's Keystone XL Pipeline, the proposed pipeline that would transport tar sands oil almost 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. The report reviews claims made by TransCanada and the American Petroleum Institute that the project will create 20,000 construction and manufacturing and 119,000 (direct, indirect and induced) jobs. www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/Keystonexl.html__________________________________ Pipe dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL - September 2011 (pdf, 40pp) www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/GLI_KeystoneXL_Reportpdf-2.pdfEMPLOYMENT FACTS: THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE (pdf, 2pp) www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/CU_KeystoneXL_FIN_090811_v2.pdf
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Post by bechtel on Jan 2, 2012 14:53:30 GMT -8
Mike Klink: Keystone XL pipeline not safe Posted: Saturday, December 31, 2011 11:50 pm There has been a lot of talk about the safety of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. I am not an environmentalist, but as a civil engineer and an inspector for TransCanada during the construction of the first Keystone pipeline, I've had an uncomfortable front-row seat to the disaster that Keystone XL could bring about all along its pathway. Despite its boosters' advertising, this project is not about jobs or energy security. It is about money. And whenever my former employer Bechtel, working on behalf of TransCanada, had to choose between safety and saving money, they chose to save money. More: journalstar.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/mike-klink-keystone-xl-pipeline-not-safe/article_4b713d36-42fc-5065-a370-f7b371cb1ece.html
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Post by the mandate on Jan 12, 2012 6:49:37 GMT -8
december 12, 2011 www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/12/11/weston-carson-lobbying.htmlThat's when he left to head up a newly created Alberta-based think-tank, the Canada School of Energy and Environment, supposedly to help develop new sources of green energy. Ex-PMO aide Carson's lobbying probe completeLocated at the University of Calgary, the school was funded with a special $15-million grant from the Harper government. Carson was its first head. Only weeks after his appointment was announced, Carson was seconded back into Harper's service as a senior adviser during the 2008 federal election campaign, and for several months after that, he was back working in the PM's office. During that time, he appeared to have lobbied high-ranking bureaucrats to help him obtain a $25-million federal grant to establish *another new research institute — Carbon Management Canada* — which he would also go on to head. That prompted Harper's then chief of staff, Guy Giorno, to write two letters to the federal ethics commissioner in an apparent attempt to contain any damage from Carson's actions. Carson returned to his post as head of the Canada School of Energy in February 2009, changing the mandate of the organization from green energy research to public relations strategies aimed at cleaning up the image of the oil sands.******************* The centre is a tri-party collaboration between the Universities of Alberta, Calgary and Lethbridge, whose original mandate was to coordinate and support research and commercialization in energy and environment through institutes established at each university. www.cautbulletin.ca/en_article.asp?SectionID=1332&SectionName=President%27s%20Column&VolID=322&VolumeName=No%205&VolumeStartDate=5/17/2011&EditionID=34&EditionName=Vol%2058&EditionStartDate=1/13/2011&ArticleID=3253********************* �This can become the go-to place in Canada for research into the environment and alternative and clean energy,� said Carson. Each of the founding universities has a coordinating structure within its institution to organize its efforts, and expected contributions, to the CSEE. At the U of A, this entity is known as the School of Energy and Environment; at the U of C, the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy; and at the U of L, the Water Institute. www.uleth.ca/notice/display.html?b=300&s=10345********************* greenwash news...Mulroney: National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (March 31st, 2011). NRTEE was created by Mulroney in 1988 in response to the international Brundtland Commission, which cemented the idea of sustainable development in the minds of policy makers. It produces policy analysis reports on environmental issues, including water, climate change, and air quality. And as of 2011, it too is chock full of Conservatives with at best a vague connection to environmental science. sixthestate.net/?p=1387
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Post by clone on Jan 12, 2012 6:58:59 GMT -8
Oil lobby's financial pressure on Obama over Keystone XL pipeline revealed Study shows money flowing to oil lobby ahead of decision on tar sands pipeline in the November elections Wednesday 11 January 2012 11.03 GMT New analysis of oil industry contributions to members of Congress has revealed the level of the oil lobby's financial firepower that Barack Obama can expect to face in the November elections if he refuses to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Obama has until 21 February to make a decision on whether to approve the pipeline, under a compromise tax measure approved late last year. America's top oil lobbyist warned last week that the president would face "huge political consequences" if he did not sign off on the project to pump tar sands crude across the American heartland to refineries on the Texas coast. The Canadian government is also on the offensive, with an attack this week on "jet-setting celebrities" opposed to tar sands pipelines. At the same time, TransCanada executives have embarked www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/opinion/job-creation-and-our-energy-choices.html on a letter-writing campaign. Now Maplight, an independent research group in Berkeley, California, that tracks the influence of money in politics, has conducted an analysis of oil industry contributions maplight.org/content/72909 to members of Congress supporting the pipeline. www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/11/oil-lobby-money-obama-keystone
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