Sands shifting under Alberta oil sector
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
November 18, 2008
CALGARY -- Environmental organizations in Canada and the United States are stepping up their campaign to derail Alberta's oil sands and seeking funding from deep-pocketed endowments including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Presentations made to the Fund and other potential donors obtained by the Financial Post show a multitude of green groups, including the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, Oregon-based Corporate Ethics International and Alberta-based Pembina Institute, have formed a coalition to broaden their attack on the Canadian sector, targeting politicians, regulators, investors, communities and the media.
In the July presentations, made over the Internet and co-ordinated by the Rockefeller Fund, the groups said they are looking for $7-million a year for activities such as lawsuits, organizing and education.
They said they want to raise the negatives of the oil sands industry, boost the costs of producing them, stop infrastructure development and enroll key decision-makers.
Among the successes so far, they list increased media attention and the Alberta government's $2-billion fund for carbon capture and storage. The groups highlight the U.S. Midwest and Western regions as being "ripe" for anti-oil sands campaigns and talk about "preventing" the proposed modification of U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission rules on oil sands reporting, which they say would encourage the business.
The presentations show unflattering images of oil sands mines and refineries. Pictures of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach are shown beside a banner that reads: "Canada, Keep Your Dirty Oil!"
Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, a senior attorney with the NRCD and one of the presenters, said the environmental movement is uniting against the oil sands because it sees its extraction as "very destructive" to the environment and a major cause of global warming. The NRCD is already fighting two lawsuits in the U.S. -- one targets TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone pipeline between the oil sands and the U.S. Gulf Coast and the other BP PLC's Whiting, Ind., refinery expansion.
"They lock us into a future that is not sustainable," she said. "And what we really believe is that we have better energy choices right now. What you are seeing with a campaign that starts to bring in so many different groups is that this is really the critical issue of the next 10, 20 years."
Dan Woynillowicz, director of external and strategic relations at the Pembina Institute and another participant in the presentation, said green groups are becoming more aggressive because they believe the Alberta and Canadian governments aren't addressing the oil sands' significant problems.
The oil sands are "a nasty and dirty business ... and there is widespread agreement that those issues need to be urgently addressed," he said.
Mr. Woynillowicz said the green movement wants to move North America's economy away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy production and consumption, a model that coincides with what "President-elect (Barack) Obama has put forward."
The two representatives didn't know how much of the $7-million has been raised.
The Rockefeller Fund said it awarded Corporate Ethics International in July a US$200,000 grant.
In a statement, Corporate Ethics said the money would be used "to stem demand for tar sands-derived fuels in the United States by building awareness of the growing amount of dirty tar sands fuels entering the United States from Alberta, Canada, and encouraging consumers, including companies and cities, to commit to avoiding use of these fuels."
Rockefeller Fund manages about US$1-billion for descendants of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil Co., predecessor of U.S. oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, all of which are oil sands developers.
Other major endowments supporting anti-oil sands causes include the US$6-billion Pew Charitable Trusts, a legacy of J. Howard Pew, founder of a company that eventually became oil sands pioneer Suncor Energy Inc., and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a legacy of the co-founder of computer giant Hewlett Packard with assets of more than US$7-billion.
David Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the July presentation promotes extreme views and he doesn't think the strategy will be successful.
"We'll certainly do everything that we can do to make sure that it isn't, because we do believe that oil sands is a very important part of the economy in Alberta and in Canada and we believe it can be developed responsibly," he said.
