So Mordor is getting a makeover. Big-time. There is a concerted, multi-faceted public relations campaign going on to greenwash the tar sands. Dirty black is trying to become virgin white, or so that’s what they want. According to three Albertan cabinet ministers, the tar sands are a “Canadian jewel” that should be celebrated and exploited. … Read More
tar sands
Utah Approves America’s First Tar Sands Mine
For the last eighteen months, Canada has increasingly come under the international environmental spot-light for its catastrophic exploitation of the dirty, polluting tar sands. Grim images of Alberta being strip mined have been beamed around the world as Canada has become the dirty man of the Northern hemisphere. It is said that large parts of … Read More
The Boom Times Are Back
From one disaster to another.. Early on during Deepwater, I blogged on how the Canadians were looking to exploit the spill to push their dirty oil. The fact has not been lost on the industry bible, the Petroleum Economist, (PE) which notes in its July edition that “whisper it, but the US’ misfortune could be … Read More
Clean tar sands and safe deepwater drilling “more PR than reality.”
The industry’s PR response from Deepwater is shaping up nicely. This is the industry message: We will give you improved safety and you give us resumed drilling. The Gulf of Mexico represents energy security and jobs for the boys to boot. The tar sands of Canada also represent energy security, so if you let us … Read More
Investors Warned Tar Sands are a “Slow Motion” Oil Spill
Earlier this month, I blogged how the tar sands lobby was trying to exploit BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill. Well the pro-tar sands argument has once again been blown out of the water by a report from the social investment network, Ceres. It argues that the environmental and financial risks of producing oil in Canada’s … Read More
Tar Sands Lobby Tries to Exploit Spill
I was talking to a colleague who works on oil issues yesterday about the Gulf of Mexico spill. As we chewed over the unfolding disaster, he said “the trouble is that the spill might make Canada’s tar sands more attractive for American politicians.” Right on cue, hours later another colleague sent an article from the … Read More
Avatar director: Tar sands Are “Black Eye” to Canada
When faced with a PR battle, one of the fossil fuel industry’s tactics is to set up a supposed grass-roots organisation or “Astroturf” organisation. So Citizens for the Environment had no citizens in it – it was just a front for big oil and other polluting industries. The Global Climate Coalition was also no such … Read More
When two worlds collide – the chardonnay wins
If you have never been to an oil company AGM it is worth going to watch two parallel words colliding for a few hours. On the one side are the protestors arguing passionately for the company to listen to how their activities are destroying someone’s homeland or are polluting the earth. Up on the top … Read More
Tar Sands Dominates BP’s AGM
Oil Giant BP faces a barrage of criticism from investors at today’s AGM at the Excel Centre in London Docklands over the environmental cost of its controversial tar sands project in Canada. BP’s showcase presentation to investors and shareholders is being overshadowed by a resolution tabled by over 140 shareholders asking the oil firm to … Read More
Chinese Buy $5 Billion Stake in the Tar Sands
Timing, they say, is everything. Yesterday I blogged on the US military’s latest warnings on peak oil and how we face a severe energy crunch. The military planners examined different production methods and flagged up potential problems. With the Canadian tar sands they warned that “legal constraints may discourage investment.”