Tag Archives: Fossil fuel lobbyists

Energy

The feds raised doubts about a climate scientist’s LNG research; He says they sounded like fossil fuel lobbyists

By Carl Meyer & Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporters

Edward Burrier chuckled as he told his colleagues what he thought about an academic paper written by a prominent U.S. climate scientist.

Burrier, a director of public policy at Canadian fossil fuel giant TC Energy, said the study was largely to blame for public skepticism about whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) is as environmentally friendly as the oil and gas industry claims.

“One quoted study that drove a lot of this initial activism … said that LNG is worse than coal,” Burrier said.

Continue reading The feds raised doubts about a climate scientist’s LNG research; He says they sounded like fossil fuel lobbyists →
Energy, Politics

A Peek Into Big Oil’s Playbook with Environmental Defence

Environmental Defence just released a report showing that last year oil and gas company lobbyists were targeting the Conservative Party, in preference to the Canadian Government, by more than a 2 to 1 ratio. Cortes Currents interviewed Emilia Belliveau, lead author of ‘Big Oil’s Playbook, A Summary of Big Oil’s 2024 Federal Lobbying’ and asked Max Thaysen, from the Cortes Island Climate Action Network for his insights.  

Emilia Belliveau:  “Environmental Defence is a charity, so we are nonpartisan. What I can do is simply relay the facts, which are that the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party did not take any lobbyist meetings. The NDP took a very small number, four. Then you have most of the lobby meetings targeting the Federal Liberals and the Federal Conservatives. The Federal Liberals had 62 meetings with ministers and 29 meetings with backbencher MPs, and Conservative MPs took 216  lobby meetings.”

Continue reading A Peek Into Big Oil’s Playbook with Environmental Defence →
Cost of Climate Change

Turning Down the Heat Part 3: It’s Time to Kick Some Ass  (ie – Mobilize People Power)


By Max Thaysen and the Cortes Island Climate Action Network

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal… To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

We’ve got the receipts, we just need to break the door down (aka build and wield power). 

Continue reading Turning Down the Heat Part 3: It’s Time to Kick Some Ass  (ie – Mobilize People Power) →
Energy

Poll Finds 54% of Canadians Support Prioritizing Renewable Energy

54% of the respondents to a new poll from Abacus Data stated they think Canada should prioritize the development of renewable energy, 36% would like to see a ‘balanced approach’ and 11% would rather prioritize fossil fuels. 

“ We commissioned Abacus to run this polling for us and see where Canadians stand in terms of their support for renewable energy and around reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. What’s clear is that a majority of Canadians want to see government action to phase out fossil fuels and prioritize renewable energy. Canadians know that renewables are a win, win, win. We know that they save people money. They mean lower energy bills. Renewables mean cleaner air. They mean job creation. So the benefits are huge,” explained Julia Levin, Associate Director for National Climate, Environmental Defence.

Continue reading Poll Finds 54% of Canadians Support Prioritizing Renewable Energy →
Politics

Candidates are making election promises on behalf of ecosystems that can’t vote

By Sidney Coles, Capital Daily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The future of the natural systems we rely on to meet our basic needs—food, water, and shelter is being rolled into campaign promises made by sitting and would-be MLAs across the CRD.  In the run-up to the Oct. 19 election, it’s important to remember that these ecological systems aren’t constrained by riding or ideological boundaries. They will be constrained, however, by environmental policies that impact them, and so impact us all.

Because of their overarching effect on the way we live, work, play, and sustain ourselves, campaign promises concerning the environment and climate should trump all, but they don’t.  It’s understandable that as people struggle to pay rent, mortgage, heating, and grocery bills each month, it’s easy to forget the horrifying impacts of the 2021 heat dome in which 619 people in BC died and the disruptions the washout along the Malahat Highway caused that same year.

Continue reading Candidates are making election promises on behalf of ecosystems that can’t vote →