Corruption

The pipeline dream lurking in Canada's wild

By Steve Kallick | December 10, 2007

ONE OF many ways to combat global warming is to replace our dirtiest, carbon-polluting fuels, especially coal and oil, with cleaner fuels like natural gas. So proponents of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, an 800-mile megaproject to tap into Canada's natural gas reserves, now say that's their plan. They want us to believe, somehow, that building this massive project through Canada's Boreal Forest wilderness will be good for the environment. Not surprisingly, a closer look at the facts suggests otherwise.

The Pew front groups and Gang Green are in Bali this week to lobby for boreal forest carbon credits. Faced with the unpleasant reality that the boreal forest is now likely a net carbon producer due to forest fires and insect outbreaks, all caused by global warming, the Pew are now lobbying to get the carbon stored in peatlands over thousands of years counted as carbon credits in the post-2012 Kyoto Treaty. If successful, this would set the Kyoto carbon emissions baseline back from 1990 to the time of the ice age!

Please Join Us for a Forest Day Side-Event

The NRDC, another heavily Pew-funded member of Gang Green, makes these radical demands about the tar sands, in their fact sheet posted on the web-site of the Pew front-group, the International Boreal Conservation Campaign:

"To immediately stem the development under way of tar sands projects in Canada’s Boreal forest, we should support conservation and environmentally sustainable development in the area, including:
- Interconnected network of protected areas and corridors to maintain the ecological integrity of
the Boreal forest and wildlife habitat.

Akaicho Land Trust "Largest Ever" [Doesn't Include Entire Thelon Region]
By LEA STORRY, SRJ Editor 30.NOV.07

Some historic and sacred places of the Akaitcho Dene First Nations have recently been protected for the time being by Ottawa. Approximately 62,000 sq km of land have been preserved from further development.

“It’s a good news story,” said Dennis Bevington, Western Arctic Member of Parliament (MP). “It says a lot about the hard work and efforts the Akaitcho Dene First Nations have put into this.”

See the full fact sheet at:

http://www.transcanada.com/news/2007_news/20071121.html

Bruce Power jumping into Alberta nuclear project

Jon Harding, Financial Post
Published: Thursday, November 29, 2007

CALGARY -- Bruce Power LP, operator of Canada's largest nuclear plant in western Ontario, has signed a letter of intent to buy some assets from Energy Alberta Corp., the private Calgary-based company that had planned to build a nuclear reactor in northern Alberta.

As part of the transaction, Bruce Power, which is majority owned by Calgary-based pipeline giant TransCanada Corp., will acquire exclusive rights to use CANDU technology in Alberta.

Pembina Institute Releases Report, Hosts Forum on "Unlikely Allies"

Media Contact: Ed Whittingham

Calgary-November 28, 2007-The Pembina Institute, a national environmental think tank, today released a case study compendium and hosted a forum on innovative partnerships between unlikely allies who help make resource development sustainable. The unlikely allies comprise resource companies and their external stakeholders such as communities, landowner associations and environmental groups. This is the first report of its kind to document Canada-based examples.

Weekend Edition
November 24 / 25, 2007
The Origins of Neoliberal Environmentalism
Justice Stephen Breyer and Cancer Bonds
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

Any man admired by both Senators Ted Kennedy and Orin Hatch can't be all good. And, in fact, Stephen Breyer's elevation to the highest bench illustrates concisely how, across the past twenty years, Kennedyesque liberalism and Hatchian conservatism have merged into a unified, pro-corporate posture.

US foundations give millions to Canadian environmental groups

By Dru Oja Jay, the Dominion

Since major foundations in the US began funding environmental groups in the late 1980s, many grassroots environmental activists have sounded the alarm about the rise of the "Big Greens." Featuring six-figure salaries and foundation funding, critics say the large environmental NGOs coopt grassroots movements and excercise control over what issues are brought up.

System Design in NW Alberta

Media coverage of energy developments often refers to the facilities TransCanada may construct to accommodate new sources of gas in Northwest Alberta. One recent article indicated TransCanada is building a direct pipeline from the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline to Fort McMurray. This is not the case.

To ensure customers have a clear understanding of TransCanada's plans for expansion of the Alberta System, we sat down with Dave Murray, Manager, Mainline Planning West for an overview of the subject.