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Posts in Canada

Tar Sands: “No Safe Way to Market”
Andy Rowell
Nov30
The top brass of BP and Shell will have not been amused this morning when they opened their Financial Times to see a half page advert staring at them about the ecological cost of the tar sands. The advert, entitled: “Tar sands – 23 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil” demands that…
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Tar Sands: Britain is “Canada’s Partner in Crime”
Andy Rowell
Nov28
Late last week on the eve of the Durban climate talks, the British Climate Change secretary, Chris Huhne boasted that Britain was showing “leadership” in the UN negotiations. But whilst Britain is bragging about leading the climate change fight, it is still leading the pro-tar sands charge in Europe; a somewhat hypocritical position. This dirty…
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Dead-End Oil
Andy Rowell
Nov14
So the Europeans don’t want it. And by delaying the decision on Keystone XL for eighteen months, it looks like Obama and America doesn’t want it either. Despite one of the most aggressive marketing and public relations campaigns ever seen by the oil industry and Canadian government to try and sell the dirty tar sands,…
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“Yes we can, stop the pipeline.”
Andy Rowell
Nov07
Yesterday, over 12,000 people came from across North America and Canada to the White House to call on President Obama to stop the highly controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The thousands of protesters, some carrying a long black inflatable replica of a pipeline, formed a human chain around the White House. Some chanted “Yes we can,…
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$frack$
The Downsides of “Extreme Energy”
Andy Rowell
Nov02
So its official: fracking causes earthquakes. Just minutes ago, a report published by the oil company Cuadrilla as to whether its drilling operations caused two “earthquakes” back in April and May, concluded that fracking was the “highly probable” cause of the small seismic events. Cuadrilla suspended fracking operations in June, over fears of a link…
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Shell “Threatens” the EU with Long-Term Exit
Andy Rowell
Oct31
Last Friday, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, announced that it had doubled third quarter profits to $7.2 billion. So where is this cash coming from? Let’s not forget that Shell has spent millions over the last fifteen years trying to remould its image from a dirty oil company implicated in human rights abuses to a…
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Britain Backs Canadian Bullying Over Tar Sands
Andy Rowell
Oct26
Britain was joined by some Eastern European countries yesterday in backing Canada in its dirty fight to force the EU not to discriminate against the tar sands in the Fuel Quality Directive. A meeting of European environment experts yesterday had been expected to vote on a proposal by the European Commission to give a different…
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Talking Dirty in the President’s Ear
Andy Rowell
Oct25
The revolving door between the Obama Administration and TransCanada keeps on spinning, despite a decision on the hugely controversial pipeline just weeks away. Let’s not forget the first revolving door story, which revolves around Paul Elliott, who is TransCanada’s lobbyist promoting Keystone XL. Elliot worked for Hilary Clinton during her 2008 campaign. Recently released embarrassing…
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From selling cigarettes to dirty oil
Andy Rowell
Oct24
For anyone who has watched the parody film “Thank you for smoking”, they would know that being a spin doctor for a tobacco company is one of the more dubious ethical career choices. If anyone had the inclination, there are thousands of internal tobacco industry documents online that show that the tobacco industry has systematically…
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Senators Express “Serious Concern” Over KXL
Andy Rowell
Oct18
Last week I blogged about the revelation that the US State Department had actually assigned an important Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to a company with financial ties to the pipeline company itself, TransCanada. The final contractor chosen – Cardno Entrix – was recommended by TransCanada despite the fact…
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