Key to conflict: How battle for Marib is crucial to Yemen war

Issued on: 28/09/2021 - 

A grab from an AFPTV video shows a Yemeni pro-government fighter firing at positions of the Iran-backed Huthi rebels as they inch closer to the loyalists' last northern bastion, the strategic city of Marib, on September 27 - AFP

Dubai (AFP)

Yemen's Huthi rebels are drawing closer to the strategic city of Marib, whose seizure from the government could be a pivotal moment in the seven-year war.

The Iran-allied Huthis are in the midst of a major push to take the city, with hundreds from both sides killed in fierce fighting this month.

Here are some key facts about Marib and its strategic role:

- 'Military weight' -

Marib is the last northern bastion of the internationally recognised government, which was driven from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and is now based in the southern city of Aden.

If it falls into rebel hands, not only would the Huthis control all the north, but it could also facilitate the capture of other provinces.

Marib has "significant military weight" for the government, said Ahmed Nagi of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.

"It carries the symbolic course of the conflict, with it being the area the Huthis have not been able to seize despite relentless efforts over the past six years, even before the intervention of the Saudi-led coalition" from 2015, he told AFP.

A picture taken on March 5 shows smoke billowing during clashes between forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Huthi rebel fighters in Yemen's northeastern province of Marib - AFP/File

Capturing Marib would also give the Huthis leverage in any negotiations with the government.

Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalek Saeed said this week that the ongoing battle "is not one for (nearby) Shabwa or Marib, but a battle for all Yemenis", according to the official Saba news agency.

"The fate of the battle will determine the future of Yemen."

- Energy wealth -

Marib province boasts oil and gas reserves, making it a major economic prize.

The Safer oil refinery, established in 1986, is one of two in Yemen with the capacity to produce 10,000 barrels per day, according to Yemen's ministry of oil and minerals.

Yemenis attend the mass funeral of Huthi rebel fighters killed in battles with Saudi-backed government troops in the Marib region, at the capital Sanaa's al-Saleh Mosque, on June 20 

Mohammed HUWAIS AFP/File

In a 2019 report, the ministry said production had reached 20,000 bpd.

Marib governor Sultan al-Arada says production has so far not been affected by the fighting and that Marib supplies gas to the entire country, even areas under rebel control.

Nagi said there was an "economic dimension" to the battle.

"The Huthis are aggressively fighting to control the resources of Marib," he said.

- North-south gateway -

Marib is about 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, connected via a major highway. It also lies near another highway that leads to the south of Saudi Arabia.

A tank is pictured at a position of Yemen's Saudi-backed government fighetrs near the frontline facing Iran-backed Huthi rebels in the province of Marib, on June 19 - AFP/File

Its location is significant not only because of its proximity to Sanaa but also because it sits at a crossroads between the southern and northern regions.

The city has several historical sites, and is surrounded by mountains and valleys. It is said to have been the capital of the ancient Saba kingdom, best known for the Queen of Sheba.

- Peace talks? -

Controlling Marib would significantly strengthen the rebels' hand in any peace talks, if they decide to return to the negotiating table.

Yemeni children are pictured at the Jaw al-Naseem camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of the northern city of Marib, on February 18, in the Saudi-backed Yemeni government's last northern bastion

 Nabil ALAWZARI AFP/File

The last talks took place in Sweden in 2018, when the opposing sides agreed to a mass prisoner swap and to spare the city of Hodeida, where the port serves as the country's lifeline.

But despite agreeing to a ceasefire in Hodeida, violent clashes have since broken out between the rebels and pro-government troops around the city.

- Humanitarian risks -

Marib had between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants before the war.

A mother with her malnourished child at a treatment centre in Yemen's western province of Hodeida on September 25

 Khaled Ziad AFP/File

But its population has ballooned to hundreds of thousands, as Yemenis fled frontline cities for its "relative stability" and the chance to maintain a livelihood, according to Nagi.

The government says there are 139 camps in Marib province, hosting approximately 2.2 million people.

But these displaced civilians are now again caught in the line of fire.

The United Nations has warned that civilians are at grave risk due to the military escalation, which has forced many to flee towards new displacement sites as fighting nears.

- Array of forces -

Opposing the Huthis are pro-government forces who include local tribes, backed by a Saudi-led coalition and its airpower.

"The coalition stands by the national army by providing air and logistical support," Marib governor Sultan al-Arada said in March.

A grab from an AFPTV video shows Yemeni pro-government fighters on September 27 - AFP

"If it were not for air support, the situation could have been different."

The Huthis, meanwhile, consider Marib "one of the main frontlines of the aggressors' war on Yemen".

They claim it is "an arena for occupying foreign forces and a bowl swarming with dark forces and organisations from Al-Qaeda, Daesh (Islamic State) and the Muslim Brotherhood".

According to Nagi, fighters of the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced Al-Islah party were a strong presence on the battlefield.

"Al-Islah is present in most provinces in the country, but many of its members fled to Marib since it is a safer region and they fight within the ranks of the government army and the tribes," he said.

© 2021 AFP

Battle for 'future of Yemen' as rebels close on key city


Issued on: 28/09/2021 -

A grab from an AFPTV video shows a Yemeni pro-government fighter firing at positions of the Iran-backed Huthi rebels as they inch closer to the loyalists' last northern bastion, the strategic city of Marib, on September 27 - AFP

Dubai (AFP)

Yemen's Huthi rebels could be on the verge of changing the course of the war as they close in on a key northern city, experts say, warning millions of refugees are at risk.

Hundreds of fighters have died in fierce clashes this month after the Iran-backed insurgents renewed their campaign for Marib, the government's last bastion in the oil-rich northern region.

Seizing Marib would be a game-changer, completing the rebels' takeover of Yemen's north while giving them control of oil resources and the upper hand in any peace negotiations.

It also raises fears for the more than two million refugees living in camps in the region after fleeing other frontline cities during the long-running conflict.

"The battle of Marib will determine the future of Yemen," Abdulghani Al-Iryani, a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

"Huthis control most of the governorate and are closing in on the city."

The severe threat to Marib comes just over seven years after the rebels overran the national capital Sanaa, just 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the east, in 2014.

A grab from an AFPTV video shows Yemeni pro-government fighters looking at positions of the Iran-backed Huthi rebels near the loyalists' last northern bastion, the strategic city of Marib, on September 27 - AFP

The takeover prompted the Saudi-led intervention to prop up the government the following year.

The grinding war has created what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis with millions of displaced people on the brink of famine.

"The refugees will probably pay the highest price for this destructive war," said Iryani.

- Air bombardments -

Marib sits at a crossroads between the southern and northern regions and is key to controlling Yemen's north. If it falls, the Huthis could be emboldened to push into the government-held south, analysts say.

A picture taken on February 8, 2018 shows Saudi soldiers standing guard as workers unload aid from a Saudi air force cargo plane at an airfield in Yemen's central province of Marib 

ABDULLAH AL-QADRY AFP/File

Ahmed Nagi, of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, said they have made significant advances after opening new fronts around Marib in recent weeks.

If they seize the city, "the Huthis will use Marib to advance towards the southern governorates bordering it", he told AFP.

The Huthis began a big push to seize Marib in February and, after a lull, they renewed their campaign this month, prompting intense air bombardments from coalition forces.

"Losing Marib to the Huthis could change the course of the war," said Elisabeth Kendall, researcher at the University of Oxford's Pembroke College.

"It would be another nail in the coffin of the government's claim to authority and would strengthen Huthi leverage in any projected peace talks."

According to Iryani, there still lies the possibility that Marib's tribes and parties, which fight on the government side, accept a Huthi deal to spare the city destruction.

Yemen AFP

"It's unlikely that they will fight their way into the city. More likely, they will strike a deal. Neither side wishes to engage in a bloody urban battle," he said.

"The offer stipulates the local government disavow the coalition, declare neutrality and share the governorate's resources with (the rebels in) Sanaa.

"In return, Huthis will leave the city alone and recognise its local government."

- 'Dire' fallout -

The city had between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants before the war, but its population has ballooned as Yemenis fled there from other parts of the country.

A Yemeni man next to burning tyres during protests calling for the removal of the Saudi-backed coalition government and deteriorating economic and living conditions, in Yemen's third city of Taez on September 27 

AHMAD AL-BASHA AFP

With about 139 refugee camps in the province, according to the government, hosting approximately 2.2 million people, the displaced civilians are caught in the line of fire once again.

"As they disperse, it will be harder for them to access humanitarian assistance and, with the spectre of famine looming over Yemen, the Marib battle will make it more imminent," said Iryani.

Kendall said "if the rebels seize Marib, the impact on the humanitarian situation will be dire", while Nagi predicted a "huge" disaster.

About 80 percent of the 30 million people in Yemen, long the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, are dependent on aid.

While the UN and the US are pushing for an end to the war, the Huthis have demanded the reopening of Sanaa airport, closed under a Saudi blockade since 2016, before any ceasefire or negotiations.

Sixty-seven Yemeni rebels and pro-government troops have been killed in recent fighting for Marib, military sources said Monday - AFP

"Taking over Marib will not push the Huthis to accept the brokered peace or even to be committed to it if it is accepted," said Nagi.

"On the contrary, it encourages Huthis to move to the other southern parts to ensure its full control over all Yemen."

© 2021 AFP

Increasing Arctic freshwater is driven by climate change

by Kelsey Simpkins, University of Colorado at Boulder

Sea ice in the ocean in northern Baffin Bay in September 2008. Credit: Alex Jahn

New, first-of-its-kind research from CU Boulder shows that climate change is driving increasing amounts of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean. Within the next few decades, this will lead to increased freshwater moving into the North Atlantic Ocean, which could disrupt ocean currents and affect temperatures in northern Europe.


The paper, published July 27, 2020 in Geophysical Research Letters, examined the unexplained increase in Arctic freshwater over the past two decades and what these trends could mean for the future.

"We hear a lot about changes in the Arctic with respect to temperature, how ecosystems and animals are going to be affected," said Rory Laiho, co-author and PhD student in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. "But this particular study gives an added perspective on what's happening physically to the ocean itself, which then can have important implications for ocean circulation and climate."

Since the 1990s, the Arctic Ocean has seen a 10% increase in its freshwater. That's 2,400 cubic miles (10,000 cubic kilometers), the same amount it would take to cover the entire U.S. with 3 feet of water.

The salinity in the ocean isn't the same everywhere, and the Arctic Ocean's surface waters are already some of the freshest in the world due to large amounts of river runoff.

This freshwater is what makes sea ice possible: it keeps cold water at the surface, instead of allowing this denser liquid to sink below less dense, warm water. In this way, the Arctic Ocean is much different than other oceans. But as more freshwater exits the Arctic, this same stabilizing mechanism could disrupt the ocean currents in the North Atlantic that moderate winter temperatures in Europe.

Such disruptions have happened before, during the "great salinity anomalies" of the 1970s and 80s. But these were temporary events. If too much cold freshwater from the Arctic continuously flows into the North Atlantic, the ocean turnover could be disrupted more permanently.

Ironically, this would mitigate the impacts of global warming during winter in northern Europe for a while. But disrupting the ocean currents could have negative effects for climate long-term and on the North Atlantic's ecosystems.

Nares Strait, between Greenland and Canada, as seen from space. Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

A signal in the noise


The main mission of the research for Alexandra Jahn, lead author of the new study and assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, and her graduate student, Laiho, was to differentiate between natural variability cycles in Arctic freshwater amounts and climate change's impact. They examined the results from an ensemble of models run from 1920 to 2100.

"When we look at all the simulations together, we can see if they all do the same thing. If so, then that's due to a forced response," said Jahn. "If those changes are big enough so they could not occur without increasing greenhouse gases in the model simulations, that's what we call the emergence of a clear climate change signal. And here we see such clear climate change signals for the Arctic freshwater during the current decade."

Their results showed that Nares Strait, which runs between Greenland and Canada and is the most northern gateway between the Arctic and more southern oceans—will be the first place to see a freshwater export increase attributable to climate change in the next decade. Other straits farther south and east, including Davis and Fram straits, will be next to show this signal.

The researchers also ran the models through different emissions scenarios to see if these changes will be affected by humans' emissions choices in the next few decades. They looked at the "business as usual" (over 4 degrees Celsius warming by the end of the century) scenario and what would happen if humans limited warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the upper end of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) targets for this century.

They found that the change in freshwater in the Arctic Ocean and the amounts moving through the northern straits were unaffected since they will be subject to an increase in freshwater before the 2040s—and the decisions made globally in the next few decades will not influence them, as these climatic changes are already in motion. But in the second half of this century, the two scenarios diverged, and increases in freshwater amounts were seen in more places in the high-warming scenario than in the low-warming scenario.

"What this work is showing us is that we're probably already experiencing the first of these changes, we just can't tell from the direct observations yet," Jahn said.

All water from the Arctic Ocean eventually ends up in the North Atlantic. But timing is everything. Being able to predict the timing of the emergence of climate change signals will allow scientists to monitor upcoming changes in real time, and better understand how changes in the Arctic Ocean can impact climate worldwide.

"It fills a gap in our current understanding, and helps us ask new questions about what physically is happening in the Arctic," said Jahn.

More information: Alexandra Jahn et al. Forced Changes in the Arctic Freshwater Budget Emerge in the Early 21 st Century, Geophysical Research Letters (2020).

DOI: 10.1029/2020GL088854

Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters

Provided by University of Colorado at Boulder

After Years of Angst, Canada’s Oil Pipeline Problem May Be Over

Kevin Orland and Robert Tuttle Bloomberg June 23, 2020



(Bloomberg) -- The shortage of pipeline space that has hamstrung Canada’s oil producers for years may finally be over -- just not in the way they had hoped.

The pandemic-induced oil crash prompted Canadian companies to cut about 1 million barrels of daily crude output, freeing up space on the country’s previously congested pipelines. With that production likely slow to return and as many as three new conduits slated to be built in the next three years, the industry may have years of cheap, plentiful shipping capacity ahead.

That’s a significant turnabout for a country where, until Covid-19 hit, the lack of pipelines out of Western Canada was a central political and economic issue, often pitting the oil-rich province of Alberta against the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

But the pipeline relief came only because oil producers had to adapt to a dramatic drop in demand and low prices that are causing mounting financial losses. Some had spent heavily to ramp up their ability to ship crude by rail and now find themselves stuck with idled tanker cars and loading terminals.

The industry “achieved the dream of going long pipeline in Western Canada but for all the wrong reasons,” said Kevin Birn, IHS Markit’s director of North American crude oil markets.

Enbridge Inc., which typically has to ration space on its Mainline pipeline system, had spare capacity in recent months, a rare occurrence. Shipments of crude by train, the main alternative to pipelines, have plunged as well. April crude-by-rail exports fell 55% to about 156,000 barrels a day, according to the Canada Energy Regulator. That trend appears to have continued into May, with about 49,000 barrels a day moving by rail, according to Genscape.

Until recently, the problem had been just the opposite. The lack of enough shipping capacity forced producers to sell their crude at wide discounts to benchmark U.S. prices, hurting Alberta’s economy. The industry accounts for about a 10th of Canada’s gross domestic product and a fifth of its exports.

Trudeau’s approach to the issue has varied. On one hand, he shelled out C$4.5 billion ($3.3 billion) to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline and save a key expansion from being scrapped. On the other, he rejected Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway project 

THIS WAS A SAFER BETTER ECOLOGICAL ROUTE THAN KITIMAT, THOUGH IT TOO IS OPPOSED BY FIRST NATIONS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS, IT FITS WITHIN THE PLANS FOR A DEEP WATER PORT OFF PRINCE RUPERT THE PIPELINE WOULD BE BUILT ALONG THE EXISTING YELLOWHEAD HWY https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=NORTHERN+GATEWAY

implemented regulations that industry groups have said will make it impossible to build new pipelines. Those moves contributed to Trudeau’s Liberal party losing all of its parliament seats from Alberta and Saskatchewan in an election last year.

But through all the turmoil, and many delays, three major pipeline projects are expected to enter service by the end of 2023: TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL, Enbridge’s expansion of its Line 3, and the Canadian government’s expansion of the Trans Mountain line. The projects would add a combined 1.79 million barrels of daily shipping capacity out of Alberta, an almost 50% increase.

For now, with producers reducing output because of the pandemic, the current pipeline system should be able to handle flows, Birn said. Oil-sands companies will be slower to bring production back online until they have more certainty that a recovery is underway, bridging the gap until the new lines are running, he said.

The need for the pipelines in the immediate term has been deferred or delayed because of the dramatic reduction in demand,” he said. “Covid-19 may have bought the industry some time.”

To be sure, those start dates are by no means certain. Line 3 already was stalled by a year because of permitting delays, and the project continues to face opposition in Minnesota. Keystone XL, after more than a decade since it was first proposed, is still facing legal challenges in Montana, and Trans Mountain also continues to face resistance from some indigenous communities in British Columbia.

In the meantime, some companies are stuck with investments in rail that they won’t need.

Cenovus Energy Inc., which suspended crude-by-rail shipments in March, had signed three-year deals in 2018 to transport 100,000 barrels of oil a day, and it also owns the Bruderheim rail-loading facility near Edmonton. Executives said on their first-quarter conference call that the idled crude-by-rail program costs them about C$18 million a year, including the expense of storing unused rail cars.


Rail continues to be a part of the company’s “portfolio approach” to transporting its crude over the long-term, said Sonja Franklin, a Cenovus spokeswoman. The majority of the costs associated with the rail program are variable, she said.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Canadian unit, Imperial Oil Ltd., is in a joint venture on a rail terminal next to its Strathcona refinery in Edmonton. The roughly C$170 million facility can load trains with 100 to 120 cars, for about 210,000 barrels of daily shipping capacity. Imperial executives said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call in May that rail volumes for April had plummeted to 10,000 barrels a day, less than 5% of the facility’s capacity.

Imperial declined to comment.

With crude demand and oil-sands production likely to remain reduced until new pipelines come online, those rail facilities could stay underused for some time, barring a major technological advancement that makes oil-sands crude cheaper to produce, said Fernando Valle, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

“We could be pretty much set for most of this decade unless there’s a breakthrough,” Valle said.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

World’s first CO2 storage service soon ready in Norway


By AFP
September 25, 2024


Wildfires in Canada have generated record CO2 emissions

 - Copyright Nova Scotia Government/AFP/File Handout

Pierre-Henry DESHAYES

Norway is set to inaugurate Thursday the gateway to a massive undersea vault for carbon dioxide, a crucial step before opening what its operator calls the first commercial service offering CO2 transport and storage.

The Northern Lights project plans to take CO2 emissions captured at factory smokestacks in Europe and inject them into geological reservoirs under the seabed.

The aim is to prevent the emissions from being released into the atmosphere, and thereby help halt climate change.

On the island of Oygarden, a key milestone will be marked on Thursday with the inauguration of a terminal built on the shores of the North Sea, its shiny storage tanks rising up against the sky.

It is here that the liquified CO2 will be transported by boat, then injected through a long pipeline into the seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles), for permanent storage.

The facility, a joint venture grouping oil giants Equinor of Norway, the Anglo-Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies of France, is expected to bury its first CO2 deliveries in 2025.

It will have an initial capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, before being ramped up to five million tonnes in a second phase if there is enough demand.

“Our first purpose is to demonstrate that the carbon capture and storage (CCS) chain is feasible,” Northern Lights managing director Tim Heijn told AFP.

“It can make a real impact on the CO2 balance and help achieve climate targets,” he said.



– Prohibitive cost –



CCS technology is complex and costly but has been advocated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), especially for reducing the CO2 footprint of industries like cement and steel, which are difficult to decarbonise.

The world’s overall capture capacity is currently just 50.5 million tonnes, according to the IEA, or barely 0.1 percent of the world’s annual total emissions.

In order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era, CCS would have to prevent at least one billion tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by 2030, the IEA says.

The technology is still in the early stages, and has been slow to develop because of prohibitive costs — compared to the price companies have to pay for CO2 emission quotas, for example.

It therefore depends heavily on subsidies.

“Public support was and will be crucial to help such innovative projects to advance, especially as CCS costs are still higher than the costs of CO2 emissions in Europe,” said Daniela Peta, public affairs director at the Global CCS Institute.

The Norwegian government has financed 80 percent of the cost of Northern Lights, which has been kept confidential.

The Scandinavian country is Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer.

The North Sea, with its depleted oil and gas fields and its vast network of pipelines, is an ideal region to bury unwanted greenhouse gases.

– Greenwashing? –

Northern Lights is part of an ambitious 30-billion-kroner ($2.9 billion) scheme dubbed “Longship” — after the Viking ships — of which the state has provided 20 billion kroner.

The plan initially included the creation of two CO2 capture sites in Norway.

While the Heidelberg Materials cement factory in Brevik is expected to begin shipping its captured emissions to the site next year, snowballing costs have forced the waste-to-energy plant Hafslund Celsio in Oslo to review its plans.

In addition, Northern Lights has also secured cross-border deals with Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara and energy group Orsted to bury CO2 from an ammonia plant in the Netherlands and two biomass power stations in Denmark.

Some environmentalists worry the technology could provide an excuse to prolong the use of fossil fuels and divert funds needed for renewable energies.

They have also raised concerns about the risk of leaks.

“Northern Lights is ‘greenwashing’,” said the head of Greenpeace Norway, Frode Pleym, noting that the project was run by oil companies.

“Their goal is to be able to continue pumping oil and gas. CCS, the electrification of platforms and all of these kinds of measures are used by the oil industry in a cynical way to avoid doing anything about their enormous emissions,” he said.

WHO KILLED HVALDIMIR THE WHITE WHALE?!

‘Russian spy’ whale Hvaldimir found dead in Norway

The white beluga was found off the southwest coast at Risavika Bay by a father and son who were out fishing.

Hvaldimir was first spotted off the coast of northern Norway in 2019 [Jorgen Ree Wiig/Sea Surveillance Service/Handout/NTB Scanpix via Reuters]

Published On 2 Sep 2024

A beluga whale nicknamed Hvaldimir, after his strange harness prompted suspicions he was a Russian spy, has been found dead in the southwest of Norway.

The whale’s carcass was discovered floating off Risavika Bay in southern Norway on Saturday by a father and son who were out fishing, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported.

“Hvaldimir was not just a beluga whale; he was a beacon of hope, a symbol of connection, and a reminder of the deep bond between humans and the natural world,” Marine Mind, a nonprofit organisation that had been tracking his movements, said on social media.

Hvaldimir, a combination of the Norwegian word for whale, “hval”, and the first name of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, was first spotted off Norway’s far northern coast in 2019.

His man-made harness, with what appeared to be a mount for a camera stamped with the words “Equipment St Petersburg”, fuelled speculation that he was a “spy whale“.

Norwegian officials said Hvaldimir may have escaped an enclosure and been trained by the Russian navy as he appeared to be accustomed to humans.

Moscow has never responded to the speculation.

Hvaldimir was thought to be between 14 and 15 years old [File: Jorgen Ree Wiig/Sea Surveillance Service/NTB Scanpix via Reuters]

After Hvaldimir was found dead, his carcass was lifted out of the water with a crane and taken to a nearby harbour for further examination.

“We’ve managed to retrieve his remains and put him in a cooled area, in preparation for a necropsy by the veterinary institute that can help determine what really happened to him,” marine biologist Sebastian Strand told NRK, adding that no major external injuries were visible on the animal.

Strand, who has monitored Hvaldimir’s adventures for the past three years on behalf of Marine Mind, said he was deeply affected by the whale’s sudden death.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” Strand said. “He was apparently in good condition as of [Friday). So we just have to figure out what might have happened here.”

Hvaldimir was 4.2 metres (14ft) long, weighed 1,225kg (2,700 pounds) and was thought to be between 14 and 15 years old.

Over the past five years, he had been seen in several Norwegian coastal towns and it was clear that he was very tame and enjoyed playing with people, NRK said.

Norwegian media speculated that rather than being a “spy whale”, Hvaldimir had actually been a “therapy whale” of some kind.

Beluga whales, whose habitat is the northern waters of Greenland, Norway and Russia, usually live to between 40 and 60 years of age.

 

Hvaldimir: a Beluga whale found dead in Norway… and also alleged ‘Russian spy’?



A white whale wearing a harness was seen by fishermen off the coast of northern Norway in April 2019. On Sunday, an NGO that tracks his movements said the whale, nicknamed ‘Hvaldimir’ had been found dead. — Picture courtesy of Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries via AFP

Monday, 02 Sep 2024 

STOCKHOLM, Sept 2 — A Beluga whale whose strange harness sparked suspicions it was trained by Russia for spying purposes has been found dead in Norway, according to an NGO which tracks his movements.

-Advertisement-

Nicknamed “Hvaldimir” in a pun on the Norwegian word for whale, hval, and its purported ties to Moscow, the beluga first appeared off the coast in Norway's far-northern Finnmark region in 2019.

At the time, Norwegian marine biologists removed an attached man-made harness with a mount suited for an action camera and the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” printed on the plastic clasps.

Norwegian officials said Hvaldimir may have escaped an enclosure and may have been trained by the Russian navy as he appeared to be accustomed to humans.

Moscow has never issued any official reaction to speculation that he could be a “Russian spy”.

On Saturday, the beluga's lifeless body was discovered off the southwest coast at Risavika by Marine Mind, an organisation that has tracked his movements for years.

“I found Hvaldi dead when I was scouting for him yesterday like usual,” Marine Mind's founder Sebastian Strand told AFP.

“We had confirmation of him being alive little more than 24 hours before finding him floating motionlessly,” he added.

Fredrik Skarbovik, maritime coordinator at the port of Stavanger, confirmed the beluga's death to the VG tabloid newspaper.

Strand said the cause of the whale's demise was unknown and no visible injuries were found during an initial inspection of Hvaldimir's body.

“We've managed to retrieve his remains and put him in a cooled area, in preparation for a necropsy by the veterinary institute that can help determine what really happened to him,” Strand added.

With an estimated age of around 14 or 15, Hvaldimir was relatively young for a Beluga whale, which can live to between 40 and 60 years of age.

Beluga whales can reach a size of six metres (20 feet) and generally tend to inhabit the icy waters around Greenland, northern Norway and Russia.

Those include the Barents Sea, a geopolitically important area where Western and Russian submarine movements are monitored.

It is also the gateway to the Northern Route that shortens maritime journeys between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. — AFP

Vivian Krause to ‘Oil Mafia’ Supporters: ‘the Environmentalists Have Won’

The researcher who inspired Alberta’s Energy War Room isn’t done with the alleged conspiracy to landlock Canadian fossil fuel.

April 14, 2023 by DeSmog 

LONG READ


By Taylor Noakes on Desmog

Vivian Krause may well claim the title of the Canadian woman who launched a thousand op-eds.

For over a decade Krause’s claim — that American philanthropic organizations are influencing Canadian environmental groups — provided the basis for hundreds of editorials alleging a far-reaching conspiracy to landlock Canadian oil and gas resources. Columnists pointed to Krause’s research as evidence that American-backed eco-radicals had taken over federal and provincial governments in Canada, halted major pipeline projects, and “played right into the business interests of U.S. billionaires by becoming their useful idiots.”

In recent years Krause has selectively pushed back against such claims, taking legal action against some publications that suggested she linked U.S. oil interests to anti-pipeline efforts. While Krause maintains that she never explicitly stated there were commercial interests behind environmental campaigns against the tar sands, she has nonetheless stated her belief the American economy has benefited considerably. Canadian Press issued a correction and apology to Krause for a 2021 story that made this link more explicit. But most of the high-profile columnists and politicians who referenced her work went unchallenged when concluding environmental protest constitutes foreign political and economic interference, or benefits the American energy sector.

Krause’s research laid the foundation for a $3.5 million public inquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns and their funding. She’s been credited by Alberta premiers Danielle Smith and Jason Kenney for inspiring the $30 million Canadian Energy Centre, also known as the Energy War Room, which aims to counter what it has described as “domestic and foreign-funded campaigns against Canada’s oil and gas industry.”

Alberta’s public inquiry found no wrongdoing by environmentalists, yet Krause continues to entertain speculation about foreign-funded radicals unwittingly serving the interests of international producers in online spaces run by fossil fuel industry supporters.


Krause rolled out a familiar set of research during a talk to an online group calling itself the Canadian Oil Mafia. Krause told supporters that environmentalists have won the public relations war for Canadians’ hearts and minds, and did not challenge any conspiratorial ideas raised during the hour-long session.

Krause’s claim that environmentalists have won was out of step with the tens of billions of dollars in annual subsidies still paid out to the fossil fuel sector by governments in Canada, the Trudeau government’s purchase of the TransMountain pipeline in 2018, the fact that Canada’s oil sands production hit a record high of 3.6 million barrels a day in the first half of 2022 — largely due to new pipeline capacity across North America — and the record-smashing profits that Canadian oil producers are posting these days, to name just a few examples.

Moreover, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2021 Canada was responsible for 51 percent of total U.S. petroleum imports, including crude oil, and 62 percent of its total crude oil imports, making Canada far and away the primary source of foreign oil to the United States.

Krause’s talk, which took place on Twitter Spaces in June 2022, was hosted by Sohaib Abbas and kicked off with, appropriately enough, the Chad Cooke Band’s song Oil Man.

Abbas is the organizer of the Canadian Oil Mafia, whose stated mission is: “To have a positive impact educating others on the Generational Opportunity in the Canadian Energy Industry.” The group consists of people who have made investments in the fossil fuel energy sector, or who otherwise support it. The Canadian Oil Mafia consists of a Twitter Spaces group and, up until a few months ago, a website that sold merchandise featuring pro-oil slogans. Abbas regularly hosts online events featuring speakers commenting on the fossil fuel industry.

Krause’s June presentation was titled: “Sabotaging of Canadian Oil and Gas.” Twitter recorded 679 people tuning into the event, with an average of about 200 participants throughout Krause’s talk.

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After the musical introduction a co-host identified as Mark provided a summary of some of the difficulties experienced by the Canadian oil patch in recent years, from the vantage point of people who feel the Canadian fossil fuel sector has been denied fair access to the global oil and gas market.

The introduction went over some well-trod (if misleading) claims about how Canada “couldn’t get its oil to tidewater” before veering off into speculation about Hollywood celebrities allegedly partying with the Saudi Royal Family while attacking Canada’s oil and gas sector. In fact, Canadian oil exports are at all-time highs, nearing $14 billion CAD in June of 2022, with oil sands production reaching 3.5 million barrels per day in 2021, much of which was pumped south to the Gulf of Mexico through new pipeline infrastructure, including Enbridge’s Line 3.

Asked to comment on this discrepancy, Krause wrote in an emailed statement to DeSmog that “the fact that the industry has recently been profitable does not change the fact that Northern Gateway, Energy East and Keystone XL were canceled.” Though all three of these proposed pipelines were controversial and elicited strong opposition from environmentalists, Northern Gateway’s cancellation was caused in large part by the Federal Court of Appeal rejecting the project due to insufficient consultation with Indigenous groups. The latter two were both canceled by TransCanada Energy (now called TC Energy).

Despite the presentation’s title, Krause did not directly demonstrate who was responsible for allegedly sabotaging Canada’s fossil fuel sector. Participants seemed to already believe the sector had been sabotaged and that environmentalists were responsible.

What Krause offered was the insinuation of guilt by association, and much of that was based on what Krause claims to have discovered about campaigns against the salmon farming industry in British Columbia, and not the fossil fuel sector.

Krause said the issue of salmon farming was particularly contentious in British Columbia in the 1990s, as farming practices were damaging wild salmon habitats (arguments that have been confirmed by recent research). The BC government instituted a divisive moratorium that had the support of environmentalists, including the David Suzuki Foundation.

Krause claimed that she had found evidence suggesting wild salmon had greater concentrations of mercury than farmed salmon, and that studies issued by the Suzuki Foundation — concerning the negative environmental impacts of salmon farming — were flawed. She stated that her efforts to bring this to the attention of the foundation were rebuffed, and this caused her to split with Suzuki, whom she said she once supported. This she claimed was the moment that set her on a course to investigate the money trail behind prominent Canadian environmental groups.

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Krause was emphatic that “…the same organizations using the same strategies, the same tactics, and sometimes involving the same scientific journals, the same activists, the same people with the same approach that had sabotaged salmon farming in British Columbia (…) were now turning their eyes to Alberta oil,” but never provided any specific proof.

One host asked whether Krause believed an increase in the number of applications or approvals from the Alberta Energy Regulator starting in 2010 had “tipped off” environmental activists.

Krause responded that the Rockefeller Brothers Fund had been funding the Suzuki Foundation on matters related to the north coast of BC and that, after the California energy crisis and the September 11th terrorist attacks of 2001, that the fund began reorienting its focus toward energy security. Krause said that the Rockefeller fund then became more involved in advocacy and activism circa 2004, providing money to set up meetings in Canada as well as to “develop a strategic plan to address oil and gas development in B.C.” Krause also said the same fund gave “Canadian environmental groups $100,000 each” though without specifying which groups were funded, which she said was “…to prevent the development of a pipeline and tanker port on the north coast of B.C.” She continued, saying that the same funder then provided millions more in the middle aughts to what she termed activist groups.

“Those of us who have a different vision for our country, our future, we need to realize that we’re in a battle of ideas,” Krause said. “It’s not just the best ideas that win. It’s the team that works the hardest. The people that wanted to sabotage all these projects, they worked really hard. They raised a lot of money. They’re winning right now.”

Krause reiterated that environmental activists have successfully sabotaged the “projects that could have enabled our country to be part of the global energy market.”

Krause described how the best intentions of the environmental movement had, as she described it, negatively impacted the lives of ordinary people. “That is one of the things that motivated me — I have no time for people who falsely malign hardworking people. And we saw an entire industry that’s been falsely maligned, unfairly smeared,” said Krause.

Krause again used fish farming examples to support her allegations of manipulation of the fossil fuel sector. She said that the environmentalist effort against the BC salmon farming industry had been done specifically to aid the Alaskan commercial salmon fishing industry: “Alaska had a flourishing commercial salmon fishing industry. And then there was the competition from the farmed salmon. What happened is the Packard Foundation put this program together to help the Alaskan commercial fisheries reposition their product. And they did it by de-positioning or de-marketing the competition,” Krause said. “This was about market access and what they were doing by funding the activist groups was blocking market access. So they were mitigating the trade impacts by exaggerating the environmental impact.”

Krause alleged that the same groups turned their attention to Alberta oil in 2010, and adopted the same strategies for the same purpose. This, Krause explained, was done all while being mindful not to offend Saudi Arabian interests, and so it was Canadian oil that came to be demonized by American ENGOs.

“They didn’t want to talk about the geopolitics, especially after 9/11,” Krause said. Instead, she claimed the US built up its alternative energy supply “in the name of saving the planet rather than in the name of getting off Saudi oil.”

Canadian tarsands oil first surpassed imports from Saudi Arabia in 2004, a consequence of the American invasion of Iraq. By 2014, the United States was importing less oil and petroleum products than at any time in the previous two decades, but this was a consequence of reduced demand and increased domestic production, not a transition to alternative energy sources. Increased American production resulted in a global oil glut by the end of 2014. At Saudi Arabia’s insistence, OPEC maintained their production rate, pushing the price of a barrel of oil down to below $50 by early 2015. This in turn caused both American and Canadian oil production to plummet. It led to major layoffs in the oil patch and contributed to the chronic difficulties experienced by Canada’s fossil fuel sector in subsequent years.

Krause was asked why American philanthropic organizations chose to focus their energies on landlocking Canadian oil and gas, to which she responded Canada was the only country that could help the United States transition off of imported Saudi Arabian oil, which she claimed ranged from 40 to 60 percent of all the oil consumed in the United States.

While Canada did replace Saudi Arabia as the primary foreign source of oil imported into the United States in 2004, Saudi Arabian exports to the United States were already declining, falling from a high of 1.77 million barrels per day in 2003 to 530,000 in 2020. Similarly, U.S. oil imports from the Persian Gulf fell over the same period, from an all time high set in 2001, when imports from the region accounted for 23 percent of the U.S. total, down to less than 16 percent in 2018. Current data reveals that Saudi Arabia only accounted for 5 percent of total American petroleum imports, including crude oil. Canada, by contrast, accounted for 51 percent in the same year, continuing a more or less consistent trend that reaches back to the 1990s.

These facts undermine Krause’s claims that the conspiracy to sabotage Canada’s oil and gas sector was successful. As a percentage of its total oil import, the United States is more dependent on Canada today than it has been on Saudi Arabia at any point in the last four — nearly five — decades.

Krause opined that the other reason American philanthropic groups targeted Canada is because, in Krause’s words, “we’re easy to push around,” which was readily accepted by the audience.

“We’ve made ourselves an easy target by never fighting back and never pushing back (…) that’s why I talked so much about salmon farming, because if you want to know the future of the activism against Canadian oil, look at salmon farming. They had just shown that you can bully an industry, an entire industry, and have it discontinue investing in a particular country. It worked on fish. Why not try it on oil?”

The Canadian Oil Mafia latched on to this narrative in particular, with the cohost identified as Mark stating: “We are such a punching bag.”

Given reports that the Canadian government provided more than $18 billion in verifiable subsidies to the fossil fuel sector in 2022, Krause’s claim that the environmental movement has won anything is difficult to believe.

Taylor C. Noakes is an independent journalist and public historian.

—

Previously Published on desmog

Jason Kenney launches the Alberta witch hunt for ‘foreign-funded activists’

July 5, 2019 Markham Hislop Markham on Energy

Premier Jason Kenney flanked by Doug Schweitzer left), Sonya Savage, and Steve Allan. Source: Government of Alberta.

In tip of the hat to 1950s McCarthyism in United States, wags are calling inquiry the “Un-Alberta Activities Committee”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney launched the “public inquiry into the foreign funding of anti-Alberta energy campaigns” Thursday afternoon. During this speech Kenney railed against the “misinformation” supposedly spread by pipeline and oil sands opponents, completely missing the irony that his own speech was filled with lies, half-truths, and errors of fact.

Long-term Calgary accountant Steve Allan will head up the inquiry. He is the board chair for Calgary Economic Development and “a respected volunteer and community leader who advocates for economic development, poverty reduction, sports and the arts,” according to the government’s press release

Tzeporah Berman.

The question is, what exactly can Allan accomplish since he can only call witnesses from within Alberta and the objects of his ire – such as Tzeporah Berman – reside in British Columbia or Ontario? During Phase I, he will “conduct a paper review, interview witnesses and complete additional research”  and in Phase II he “may hold a public hearing, if necessary.”

As the Canadian journalist who has reported most extensively about foreign-funded anti-pipeline and oil sands activism, I can assure readers there is very little “paper” for Allan to read. Sure, he can review Vancouver blogger Vivian Krause’s “research,” but as an acc0mplished and ethical professional, he will quickly recognize the limitations of her work: she has only done half the job.

For a decade Krause combed IRS databases searching for payments from American charitable foundations like the Tides Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to Canadian environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) like Greenpeace and Stand (formerly Forest Ethics), Berman’s ENGO. The available information included applications and covering letters from the foundations to the ENGOs.

That’s where she stopped.

During the interviews for my deep dive on her conspiracy narrative, Debunked: Vivian Krause’s Tar Sands Campaign conspiracy narrative, I interviewed over a dozen of the ENGOs and often asked them if Krause had followed up to ensure the funding was actually spent on activism, as she claims in her many blog posts and Postmedia op-eds. The answer was, no.

This email answer from Alison Henning, Tides Canada director of communications, is typical: “I slogged through a whole bunch of archived emails I could get access to back to 2014. Although in one email I found she asked a question about where the funding went, for the overwhelming majority, she would simply list a whole bunch of info she had collected, and then ask for us to reply and confirm it was correct.”

Vivian Krause.

Sloppy research methodology then resulted in wrong conclusions, like lumping unabashedly activist ENGOs like Dogwood Initiative and Greenpeace in with Pembina Institute (a Calgary-based energy policy think tank) and Keepers of the Athabasca, which was involved in community education and environmental monitoring.

Even though Krause made the Tar Sands Campaign the centrepiece of her ENGO criticisms, she left out critical information that didn’t jibe with her conspiracy narrative. For instance, the Tar Sands Campaign received $40 million over 10 years, but after then Alberta Premier Rachel Notley launched the Climate Leadership Plan the US foundation funding dried up and in 2019 is less than $1 million, according to my interview with Berman.

How ironic that when Kenney said today that it “has seen foreign special interests secretively spending tens of millions of dollars to thwart Alberta’s economic development by landlocking our energy – but it stops now,” the US funding of the Tar Sands Campaign has virtually stopped all on its own.

That was hardly the Premier’s only faux pas.

For instance, he told reporters that the US foundations “enlisted and financed dozens of Canadian and American interest groups to execute these activities.” This is incorrect. Canadian First Nations, ENGOs, communities, and scientists began meeting in 2006 and they created the Tar Sands Campaign, as a coalition that ranged from 60 to 100 organizations over the years, in 2008 and Canadians were always in charge, despite having an American coordinator from 2008 to 2011.

Here’s another Kenney error of fact: “Vivian Krause has also revealed that since 2009, the American-based Tides Foundation and its Canadian affiliate gave at least 400 payments, totaling $25 million to Canadian American and European interest groups specifically to oppose the construction of pipelines in Canada.” Tides Canada is in no way affiliated with Tides Foundation, according to its CEO Joanna Kerr, they simply share a name because Canadian founders were impressed by the American example.

Steve Allan.

Furthermore, Tides Canada does not fund anti-pipeline activism, says Kerr, though it does fund pipeline-related projects, such as helping indigenous communities adapt to the economic and environmental effects of oil and gas extraction and transport.

Then there’s this whopper, which I have no qualms about calling a flat out lie: “The consequences for Albertans are plain to see: tens of thousands of job losses, thousands of business closures, a negative economic growth and massive increases in public debt.”

Alberta oil patch job losses began in early 2015 and were caused by the fall of crude oil prices from over $100 per barrel to less than $30 the following year, with heavy crude benchmark Western Canadian dipping below $20 in early 2016. Oil prices and oil prices alone were responsible for the devastation in the Alberta economy. Job losses due to constrained pipeline capacity didn’t begin until early 2018 after a November leak on the Keystone pipeline. WCS prices didn’t plunge again until late summer and throughout the fall as rising production finally overwhelmed the Canadian pipeline system.

Unfortunately, space prevents us from explaining the full catalogue of Kenney’s own misinformation campaign.

According to Doug Schweitzer, minister of justice and solicitor general, Allan will submit his report by July 2, 2020. In addition to the $2.5 million budget, the government will also provide administrative and technical support to the inquiry.

Like his boss, Schweitzer missed another irony: the inquiry will cost about three times the amount of the 2019 US foundation funding to the Tar Sands Campaign. Maybe less, though, if Allan skips the public hearing portion of the inquiry because he has no one to question since all the ENGOs are in Vancouver opposing the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline project.

VIVIAN KRAUSE BACKGROUNDER

Vivian Krause | The Narwhal

https://thenarwhal.ca/topics/vivian-krause/

Vivian Krause is a controversial writer critical of Canada's environmental charities. Krause claims American foundations are exercising foreign influence over ... Corbella: Krause asks why Trudeau changed charity laws for activists ... https://calgaryherald.com/.../corbella-krause-questions-why-trudeau-changed-charity-la... 2 days ago - Those are just two of the many questions asked by Vivian Krause during a sold out Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday at ... Vivian Krause (@FairQuestions) | Twitter https://twitter.com/fairquestions?lang=en The latest Tweets from Vivian Krause (@FairQuestions). Following the money behind environmental & political activism. Vancouver, British Columbia. About Vivian Krause CONTACT INFO - Rethink Campaigns - TypePad https://fairquestions.typepad.com/rethink.../about-the-author-vivian-krause.html

About Vivian Krause CONTACT INFO. At The Financial Post, they call me the girl who played with tax data and uncovered the foreign funding of Canadian green ... Vivian Krause News, Articles & Images | Financial Post https://business.financialpost.com/tag/vivian-krause Read the latest news and coverage on Vivian Krause. View images, videos, and more on Vivian Krause on Financial Post. Vivian Krause | DeSmogBlog https://www.desmogblog.com/vivian-m-krause ivian Maureen Krause is a Canadian researcher and blogger based in Vancouver. She began her blog Fair Questions in 2009 and has used it as a platform to ... The inconvenient truth about Vivian Krause - EnergiMedia https://energi.media › Markham on Energy Unfortunately, they are not getting it from Vivian Krause, Licia Corbella, and the Calgary Herald ... In the first one, Krause refers to a cap on Alberta oil production. Anti-pipeline campaign was planned, intended, and foreign-funded ... https://www.jwnenergy.com/.../anti-pipeline-campaign-was-planned-intended-and-for... Jun 27, 2019 - Weyburn – Vivian Krause has spent the better part of a decade digging into foreign funding backing campaigns to block Canadian... Vivian Krause: The Cause of Oil Price Discounts - Canada Action https://www.canadaaction.ca/vivian_krause_talks

Vivian Krause: The Cause of Oil Price Discounts. If you understand the importance of the energy sector to Canada's economy, and you know it has been

Alberta to hold $2.5-million public inquiry into funding for oil and gas foes

July 4, 20196:12 PM The Canadian Press3 Comments

CALGARY – The Alberta government will hold a public inquiry into environmental groups that it says have been bankrolled by foreign benefactors hell-bent on keeping Canada’s oil and gas from reaching new markets while letting oil production grow unabated in the Middle East and the United States.

“They often say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. This public inquiry will be sunlight on the activities of this campaign,” Premier Jason Kenney said Thursday.

“It will investigate all of the national and international connections, follow the money trail and expose all of the interests involved.”

He said the inquiry — with a budget of $2.5-million — will find out if any laws have been broken and recommend any appropriate legal and policy action.

“Most importantly, it will serve notice that Alberta will no longer allow hostile interest groups to dictate our economic destiny as one of the most ethical major producers of energy in the world.”

Steve Allan, a forensic and restructuring accountant with more than 40 years of experience, has been named inquiry commissioner.

Allan’s ability to compel witness testimony and records is limited to Alberta.

But Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer said much of the information Allan will need is publicly available and he’ll be able to travel outside Alberta to gather more.

The first phase of the inquiry is to focus on fact finding, with public hearings to follow if necessary. Allan is to deliver his final report to the government in a year.

Opposition NDP member Deron Bilous said the inquiry is the equivalent of hiring someone to do a glorified Google search.

“This is a fool’s errand,” he said.

“I don’t believe this will help Alberta further its interests in accessing pipelines and expanding our market access.”

Kenney said deep-pocketed U.S. charities have been deliberately trying to landlock Alberta resources for years by funnelling money to an array of Canadian groups. Many of his assertions are based on the writings of Vancouver researcher Vivian Krause.

He blames those groups for the demise of several coast-bound pipelines that would have helped oilsands crude get to markets besides the U.S., as well as delays in building the Trans Mountain expansion to the west coast.

Krause said earlier this week that while the U.S. energy industry has benefited from anti-Canada “demarketing” campaigns, she has found no evidence commercial interests are involved.

She and Kenney both agreed it’s because Canada is an easy target.

“We’re very easy to pit against each other — Quebec, the West,” Krause said.

Kenney said Canada has been the kid in the school yard most easy to bully.

“I think they understood that this country amongst all of the major energy producers would be the most easily intimidated by this campaign,” he said. “And you know what? They were right.”

Kenney government launches inquiry into foreign-

funded groups that criticize Alberta’s oil industry

By Adam MacVicarDigital Journalist Global News

GLOBAL NATIONAL: ALBERTA PREMIER LAUNCHES $2.5-MILLION INQUIRY INTO OIL 

WATCH: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is launching an inquiry into foreign-funded interest groups, which he says are targeting the province's oil sector. The $2.5-million initiative is supposed to focus on fact-finding, and may involve public hearings. But as Heather Yourex-West explains, critics question whether it will make a difference.

Alberta’s provincial government is launching an inquiry into foreign-funded interest groups with campaigns against Alberta oil.

Premier Jason Kenney made the announcement on Thursday, appointing forensic and restructuring accountant Steve Allen to commission the inquiry.The authority of the $2.5-million inquiry will be limited to Alberta and won’t be able to compel testimony from outside Alberta. However, there will be an information review, research and witness interviews involved.

The second phase of the inquiry could also include public hearings.


“There’s never been a formal investigation into all aspects of the anti-Alberta energy campaign,” Kenney said.

“The mandate for Commissioner Allan will be to bring together all of the information.”

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READ MORE: Kenney says higher risk tolerance, ability to act quickly key for Alberta energy ‘war room’

Kenney pointed to research conducted by Vivian Krause, whose studies have led her to believe the push against the oilsands is funded by American philanthropists in an effort to landlock Alberta oil so it cannot reach overseas markets, where it would attain a higher price per barrel.

According to Kenney, the inquiry will look at the broad picture of these interest groups, but will target groups funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Tides Foundation and the Sea Change Foundation.

“[The campaign’s] main tactics have been disinformation and defamation, litigation, public protests and political lobbying,” Kenney said.

There are currently no laws preventing environmental groups from from accepting donations from outside of Canada or for advocating for action on the environment and climate change.

LISENT Energy journalist Markham Hislop joins Danielle Smith to discuss the Kenney government’s new inquiry 

According to Kenney, the regulations were changed by the federal government lifting limits on political activity by these groups.

Kenney said he would seek advice from the commissioner on whether questionable spending by these groups prior to the amendments to the law could be a legal issue the province could address. He also vowed to bring in a law that bans foreign money from Alberta politics.

The premier said the inquiry isn’t an attack on free speech. He also said groups within Alberta could be subject to provide public testimony to the inquiry.

Kenney said the biggest question is around the interest these groups have in the Canadian energy sector.

“I believe having foreign interest groups funnel tens or perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars into a campaign designed massively to damage our vital economic interests is a matter of the greatest public concern,” Kenney said. “The energy industry and the emissions challenge are global. The question then is, why is the anti-energy campaign so overwhelmingly and disproportionately focused on one major producer?

“Why aren’t these groups running campaigns to block pipelines in the United States to the same extent that they have in Canada?”

READ MORE: Ottawa won’t rush into sale of Trans Mountain pipeline to Indigenous groups: Sohi

Federal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi was in Calgary on Thursday for an address to the city’s chamber of commerce. He said foreign influence should be a concern but that he believes there should be reflection into why there has been a challenge to get pipelines built.

“We should always be concerned if foreign influence is trying to influence policy in your country, or the development of resources in your country,” Sohi said. “But I think we need to look inside within Canada: why are we not able to build pipelines?

I think you will find reasons within our own country for not moving forward with those projects.”

Not everyone is on board with the inquiry.

NDP economic development critic Deron Bilous called the inquiry a fool’s errand, and said the government is spending money on trying to find somebody to blame for the position the province is in.

“What the premier is trying to do is change the channel on his abysmal record thus far as far as job creation,” Bilous said. “What Albertans want to see is job creation. What they don’t want to see is a glorified witch hunt.”

According to Justice Minister and Attorney General Doug Schweitzer, the inquiry will take a year to complete and a report will be delivered to the government on July 2, 2020 with recommendations on how the government should proceed.© 2019 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Research project maps most powerful players in the fossil fuel industry and examines ‘pervasive’ reach into Canadian society

By Omar MoslehStar Edmonton

Wed., July 3, 2019timer5 min. read

EDMONTON—A new database of the most powerful players in the energy industry paints a picture of a tight-knit network of oil companies, institutions and businesses with “pervasive” influence over Canada’s corporate, political and civil sectors.

The Corporate Mapping Project — a six-year joint initiative between the University of Victoria, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Alberta-based Parkland Institute — lists a “who’s who” of the energy industry in what is called the Fossil-Power Top 50 and explores their reach into wider society.

The organizations are split into three categories: “Emitters,” who are directly involved in energy extraction; “enablers,” organizations such as banks and regulators that support energy extraction; and “legitimators,” which are organizations accused of persuading the public or political elites that an “urgent shift away from dependence on fossil fuels is unfeasible or unnecessary.”

Bill Carroll, the co-director of the project and a sociology professor at the University of Victoria, said the assortment of industry-friendly organizations join forces to push a narrative that the approach to tackling climate change and energy diversification should be “business as usual.”

“I think it has a massive influence,” Carroll said. “At a cultural level, the industry has put together a narrative that many people have bought into, and not just into Alberta, that this industry is at the centre of life and we could not live without it.

“Meanwhile the climate crisis is getting worse and worse. … It’s frankly irresponsible for people to be engaging in effect a kind of denialism at this point,” he added.

That characterization of the level of influence the energy industry wields over government policy contradicts Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s contention that the province is under siege by environmental groups who want to landlock Alberta’s oil, Carroll said.

“I think it’s largely the opposite,” he said, arguing that the energy industry is “the biggest obstacle to real action on climate change today.”

The Fossil-Power Top 50 includes 21 oil-and-gas companies as emitters, with all but two of those headquartered in Calgary.

The list of Enablers includes big banks such as Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada, as well as regulators such as BC Oil and Gas Commission and the Alberta Energy Regulator. The most diverse list is the Legitimators, which includes industry advocacy groups, think tanks, lobby groups, universities, media organizations and more.

“It reaches into other cultural and political areas of life, through think tanks and industry groups and lobbying and so on … Canadians should be very concerned about how power is concentrated, and how to some extent, it constrains and compromises our democracy,” Carroll said.

Some of the so-called Legitimators are energy advocacy groups, such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Canadian Gas Association and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

Others, such as The Fraser Institute and Rebel Media, are linked to conservative views. Then there are two schools: Edwards School of Business, affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Calgary.

The University of Calgary, in particular, has attracted controversy in the past due to questions about the energy industry’s influence.

In 2016, the Canadian Association of University Teachers launched a probe investigating the university’s relationship with pipeline company Enbridge. They found evidence of a conflict of interest over a corporate-funded research centre. The university’s board of governors said the associations’s investigation “lacked legitimacy.”

Carroll said the university has excellent researchers and has put out good work on climate change and energy diversification, but said it’s more of an institutional issue at the school. He pointed to the university’s governance board, which includes at least one oil industry executive.

He did note the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy has “churned out a lot of material that says we need to stick to business as usual and continue to grow this sector,” adding that the school’s former director, Jack Mintz, sits on the board of Imperial Oil.

Trevor Tombe, an associate professor of economics and a research fellow at the School of Public Policy who has written extensively about Alberta’s carbon tax in news publications and social media, said the energy industry “unequivocally” has no undue influence at the school.

“I think the University of Calgary like every university worth its salt … allows its researchers the space to pursue their own agendas as they see fit,” Tombe said.

Tombe frequently comments on the economic implications of a carbon tax and has countered myths about the tax on social media. He said he’s received “zero pushback” from anyone at the university.

“In terms of climate change and carbon-tax policy in particular, there are a number of faculty members here at the University of Calgary who have really been at the forefront of that conversation. … If anything the university encourages that,” Tombe said.

Carroll said the bigger question is how much corporate representation universities should have on their boards of governors, their highest governing bodies. The boards guide the university’s strategic vision and make sure resources and finances are being used to meet the university’s objectives and mission statement.

One of the trends Carroll has noticed since the oil downturn is that, as smaller and medium-sized oil and gas companies have shuttered or been absorbed by larger corporations, power and corporate influence is being consolidated at the top.

“It’s very tightly organized at the top, not in conspiratorial way in the sense that people are meeting together and planning and scheming, but the connections are very dense,” Carroll said, noting that in some cases oil executives sit on each other’s boards.

The top 50 list is part of a larger list of 200 Canadian-based energy companies and the Corporate Mapping Project, which examines their links to the corporate sector in Canada.

In 2017, the Corporate Mapping Project collaborated with the Toronto Star, National Observer, Global News, the Michener Awards Foundation and four journalism schools investigating the impacts of the oil and gas industry on Canadian communities. This resulted in an investigative series called The Price of Oil, which is ongoing.

Update - July 3: This story has been updated to include the fact that this newspaper has done collaborative work with the Corporate Mapping Project.

Omar Mosleh is an Edmonton-based reporter covering inner-city issues, affordable housing and reconciliation. Follow him on Twitter: @OmarMosleh 

Conspiracy theory: Alberta oil blockaded by U.S. interests

Lie Tracker Conspiracy Theories, Gaslighting, Pipelines January 7, 201919 Minutes

If a Billion-$ industry can be easily blockaded by the chump change of NGOs, perhaps oil and pipeline companies which can outspend them 100-1 need new CEOs?

The elephant in the room and the inconvenient truth for politicians who traffic in this tin-foil absurdity is that the majority of the oilsands is – or was before the downturn – foreign-owned. The Major oilsands investors have no problem getting their product to market because they are integrated with refineries in Texas and because they have pipeline and rail contracts to move their product.

The million-$-question is how are our Charities/NGOs able to allegedly target only the small producers in the oilsands?

Politicians like Jason Kenney use conspiracy theorists like Krause to achieve their own ends – perpetuating the fallacy of victimhood reels in the gullible and keeps them focused on the divisive deflection, not on holding the Government accountable for gutting fiscal capacity so that they can justify massive cuts in public services, de-regulation, & privatization.

1) It’s also a deflection from their failures. Northern Gateway failed in court because the Harper Government didn’t consult Indigenous groups. That failure also affected Kinder Morgan’s TMX pipeline. Mr Kenney was Harper’s lieutenant and after 10 yrs in his Government, he failed to get a pipeline to tidewater.

2) It’s a distraction to keep Albertans angry at the “other” and fixated on his promise that he alone will fix it. Where have we heard this before? Right … Trump!

3) Kenney’s 2019 election promise of setting up a $30 Million “war room” to crucify the pipeline opposition of our Charities/NGOs is a deflection from his previous Government’s failure with Vivian Krause as point person to do just that.

4) Harper’s Krause-inspired witch hunt against Charities for their political activities failed spectacularly when Charities won in court: CRA loses court challenge to its political-activity audits of charities.

Furthermore, new Legislation passed in December removes all limits on political activities of charities.

5) Harper’s witch hunt also drove millions in donations to the NGOs/Charities: Environment charities may benefit from new Alberta premier’s vow to fight them

On Keystone XL, spending of Proponents vs NGOs/Charities Opposed!

Revealed: Canadian government spent millions on secret tar sands advocacy
Harper government ads used image from pipeline company 

Legislation passed in December 2018 removes all limits on political activities of charities

Despite the landmark court ruling and new Legislation passed in December that removes all limits on political activities of Charities; and, the fact BC residents cannot be compelled to testify for an AB inquiry, Premier Kenney announced a $2.5 million witch hunt against BC environmental groups.

Jason Kenney launches the Alberta witch hunt for ‘foreign-funded activists’

Oil prices and oil prices alone were responsible for the devastation in the Alberta economy. Job losses due to constrained pipeline capacity didn’t begin until early 2018 after a November leak on the Keystone pipeline. WCS prices didn’t plunge again until late summer and throughout the fall as rising production finally overwhelmed the Canadian pipeline system.

Stellar articles on Krause’s conspiracy:

Debunked: Vivian Krause’s Tar Sands Campaign conspiracy narrative

“Canadian money, not American, fueling anti-pipeline/oil sands activism”

“Krause’s conspiracy narrative is deeply flawed and she makes critical mistakes that essentially invalidate her argument.”

Research project maps most powerful players in the fossil fuel industry and examines ‘pervasive’ reach into Canadian society

“That characterization of the level of influence the energy industry wields over government policy contradicts Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s contention that the province is under siege by environmental groups who want to landlock Alberta’s oil….”

How Vivian Krause Became the Poster Child for Canada’s Anti-Environment Crusade

Krause took center stage as 3 parliamentary hearings and a Senate inquiry between Jan and Jun of 2012 and attempted to cast doubt on the integrity of Canadian environmental charities. Her claims critiquing foreign donations to environmental charities became the talking points of then PM Harper and cabinet. It prompted an $8 million witch hunt by the CRA of the “political activities” of charities – many of which were concerned about the impact of climate change with the massive oilsands expansion hinted at by Harper. Krause took credit for initiating these CRA audits while she received speaking fees from the oil/mining industries for laundering her conspiracy theories.

Feds also beneficiary of private U.S. grants

Conveniently ignored by Krause is how much money the Harper government received from some of the wealthiest private organizations in the U.S. including the same organizations that gave to Canadian environmental groups:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/feds-also-beneficiary-of-private-u-s-grants-1.7574

Rise of the new Alberta energy populism: Is oil/gas industry weaponizing Vivian Krause’s conspiracy nonsense?

“The Vancouver blogger almost singlehandedly feeds Alberta’s victimhood complex, which is one of the principal characteristics of modern populism.”
…
“So, welcome to populist politics Alberta-style, folks, where facts are optional and indignation is a constant state of mind, thanks in part to Vivian Krause. Don’t say that you weren’t warned.
https://energi.news/markham-on-energy/rise-of-the-new-alberta-energy-populism-is-oil-gas-industry-weaponizing-vivian-krauses-conspiracy-nonsense/

The inconvenient truth about Vivian Krause

Excerpt: “What I am disputing is the conclusions she draws from that research — conclusions that she shared on Wednesday in Calgary at the Indigenous Energy Summit, as reported by Corbella in her Herald column today.

“Krause says at the end of 2012 the Rockefeller Brothers specified that its money was to be used to “bring about a cap on the production of oil from Alberta.”

Sound familiar?

“Your premier put a cap on the oilsands,” Krause reminded the attentive crowd. “That’s exactly what the Rockefeller Fund funded the activists to do, was to pressure the government to put that cap on.”

Read those four sentences carefully.

In the first one, Krause refers to a cap on Alberta oil production. In the third and fourth sentence, a production cap magically becomes the Alberta government’s 100 megatonne oil sands emissions cap.

Notice the conflation between the oil sands and all oil extraction and between emissions and production. 

Krause’s remarks are even contradicted by the Financial Post story that’s linked in Corbella’s column.”
… [emphasis added]
https://energi.news/markham-on-energy/__trashed/

Note Krause’s lack of logic: The Rockefellers divested from oil before Premier Notley was elected! Moreover, the Rockefellers’ fund doesn’t lobby people in other countries on how they should govern their Countries or their Provinces. She hasn’t a clue what philanthropy actually means!
https://www.rbf.org/mission-aligned-investing/divestment

Band leader counters column’s claims that U.S. interests fund anti-mine fight

“In Business in Vancouver’s December 13-19 edition, Vivian Krause continues to perpetuate conspiracy theories that make no sense and are deeply offensive to First Nations. (See “U.S. funding against Prosperity mine: $2 million for B.C. mining reform.”)

A former salmon farming industry executive, Krause has a number of theories that imply that First Nations do not speak for themselves. For example, she claims that opposition to salmon farming is a U.S.-funded plot to promote Alaskan wild salmon, when in fact it is driven by B.C. First Nations and non-aboriginal wild salmon fishermen seeking to preserve their resources and industries and by people from all walks of life who can see the overall reality and long-term impacts to wild salmon.

She also claims opposition to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is a plot by U.S. environmental foundations to secure tarsands oil for the U.S. by preventing its export to Asia.

Now, in her BIV column, she extends her conspiracy theories to support for mining reform in B.C. and specifically for the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s fight to protect its traditional lands and sacred Teztan Biny (Fish Lake), Yanah Biny (Little Fish Lake) and Nabas from one of B.C.’s worst-ever mine proposals – the Prosperity Mine project.

Krause implies that millions of dollars have poured into the Tsilhqot’in fight as a campaign from U.S. environmental funders to promote their country’s economic interests. This is laughable and deeply offensive.

Laughable because, in facing a company that has already spent $100 million on its mine campaign and a provincial government that spends taxpayer dollars to support this company, the Tsilhqot’in have worked on a shoestring to seek justice in this matter.

Deeply offensive because, as with all her conspiracy theories, Krause portrays us as pawns in some sinister plot to promote U.S. commercial interests. In doing so she demeans our sovereignty as First Nations and trivializes our serious issues, not to mention the honourable intentions of those who share our vision of a province that places respect for the environment and proven aboriginal rights above the interests of one mining company.

The facts are available to any trained researcher who genuinely seeks the truth. The campaigns Krause attacks as the commercial initiatives of foreign funders are all domestic issues that First Nations have long fought for. They are our issues.

Any funding we receive comes with no strings attached. Funders do not control or direct us. Any funding we can find is earned, in the sense that it is provided by those who believe that we deserve to be able to stand up for our rights and environment.

We are grateful to all funders, such as Victoria-based RavenTrust, one of the groups Krause singles out in her BIV article, for tirelessly seeking funds to help us. Much of the help we receive is time volunteered by Canadian groups and individuals, including many local residents.

If some of funding raised by RavenTrust comes from foreign sources, then what of it? This generosity is to support our story, not foreign interests.

Despite Krause’s insinuations, the Tsilhqot’in have not received millions of dollars, not even remotely close. We are constantly scrambling to find the resources to respond to the latest moves by the company and the province to press ahead with the discredited Prosperity Mine proposal.

We now face an environmental review for a Prosperity Mine proposal that the original review, based on studies by the company and Environment Canada, found to be worse than the plan rejected last year. This burden is a serious challenge for our people financially and from a community-health perspective as we struggle against a company, industry and provincial government that appear to have no shortage of funds or human resources.

We are proud that so many Canadians support us and that U.S. funders are willing to help based on the merits of our cases. We are also pleased that in the larger picture, we are not the only ones seeking to improve the archaic and unbalanced mining laws in B.C.

We are amazed any credence is given to the twisted logic that portrays our position as undemocratic and unpatriotic. Krause herself has admitted she has no evidence to support her claims, and experts such as the National Post’s Jonathan Kay, author of a book on conspiracy theories, dismiss her allegations.

Our proud Tsilhqot’in seek an honourable reconciliation of our aboriginal rights and title, beginning with respect for our deep cultural connection to Teztan Biny and the region surrounding it. We hope BIV readers will see through Krause’s sloppy research and disrespect for our autonomy and recognize that her article and this mine proposal should be dismissed.”
https://biv.com/article/2012/01/band-leader-counters-columns-claims-that-us-intere

More RESOURCES

Canada upside down

Excerpts: “When scientists become the enemy of government, the language shifts, and suddenly they are “environmentalists” and “radicals” “bad” and “anti-Canadian.”

“This is a very bizarre twist, and here’s why:

Five years ago, the Harper government was thrilled to do business on exactly the model that it now vilifies as anti-Canadian money laundering. It entered into a conservation agreement to protect the Great Bear Rainforest in partnership with several American foundations in an agreement negotiated by Tides Canada.”

Because it is here in Kitimat, and in BC’s protected forests and coastal waters, that the Enbridge pipeline proposal will meet its fiercest opposition.

Here’s a fair question. Does the location of the proposed Northern Gateway tanker route through the protected waters and coastline of the Great Bear Rainforest — funded by the Moore, Hewlett and Packard foundations in a Tides Canada deal — have anything to do with the fact that all of these organizations are now being pilloried by the very government that partnered with them?

Has the federal government decided to get out of the Great Bear Rainforest partnership, and calculated that the best way is to vilify and smear its own partners?

Just asking.

Meanwhile, it might be worth getting to know if we’ve really been palling around with terrorists.

With enemies like these, who needs friends?

Here then, are some of the American foundations which have been named and accused by our government of fraudulent money-laundering and ugly” “anti-Canadian” conduct:”

…. See article for list of organizations. 
https://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/world/truth-behind-attack-charities-and-scientists-canada

“Truthiness” and the right’s attack on Canada’s charities

Excerpts: “Charity is about reducing poverty. Its [sic] about advancing education and …its [sic] about advancing religion,” she wrote on her blog.

As a factual statement, that’s flat wrong. As an opinion, it’s a dangerous fiction that should set off alarm bells, because this is precisely how to silence dissent.

On a per capita basis, Canada is second in the world — behind the Netherlands — in its charitable and volunteer activity.

No small potatoes, you might say.

If this looks a lot more like a molehill than a mountain, never you mind. It’s still political gold to purveyors of inflammatory rhetoric.
…
https://master.vancouverobserver.com/politics/commentary/stephen-colbert-truthiness-and-harper-governments-attack-canadas-charities

The World According To Krause

This supposed scandal has been hiding in plain sight for almost a decade, and almost none of the key facts holds up to scrutiny. A veritable cottage industry has grown up promoting one of the most politically convenient conspiracy theories in recent memory.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sandy-garossino/vivian-krause-us-oilsands-oil-sands-alberta-bc_b_2220651.html

How to recognize insurgents who threaten democracy.

Rick Mercer’s take-down of a foreign nationalism talking point is hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZf5fC9v2qE

That Time a Foreign-Owned Newspaper Called Out Environmentalists for Taking Foreign Money to Fight a Foreign-Funded Pipeline

“… where’s the outrage over foreign ownership of Canadian natural resources?

There are plenty of really difficult conversations we need to have as Canadians about our energy future. How environmental non-profits are being funded frankly isn’t one of them. But hey, it’s an effective distraction technique.”

““Readers may find it difficult to believe that an industry which exported product worth $129 billion in 2014 — whose members include some of the biggest players in the national economy, players who could easily outspend American charities by a factor of a hundred — can feel like victims of the environmental movement, but they do,” Markham Hislop wrote.”
https://thenarwhal.ca/time-foreign-owned-newspaper-called-out-environmentalists-taking-foreign-money-fight-foreign-funded-pipeline

Presentation suggests intimate relationship between Postmedia and oil industry

So it’s not okay for foreign charitable contributions to cross borders but it’s okay for an American-controlled Newspaper chain in Canada to collude with our oil industry?

“The ad proposal suggested “topics to be directed by CAPP and written by Postmedia,” with 12 single page “Joint Ventures” in the National Post, as well as 12 major newspapers including the Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald and The Times Colonist.“
https://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/postmedia-prezi-reveals-intimate-relationship-oil-industry-lays-de-souza

Industry-Funded Vivian Krause Uses Classic Dirty PR Tactics to Distract from Canada’s Real Energy Debate

EXCERPT: “But as the blogger-turned-newspaper-columnist has run rampant with her conspiracy theory that American charitable foundations’ support of Canadian environmental groups is nefarious, she has continually avoided seeking a fair answer.

If Krause were seeking a fair answer, she’d quickly learn that both investment dollars and philanthropic dollars cross borders all the time. There isn’t anything special or surprising about environmental groups receiving funding from U.S. foundations that share their goals — especially when the increasingly global nature of environmental challenges, particularly climate change, is taken into consideration.

Despite this common-sense answer, Krause’s strategy has effectively diverted attention away from genuine debate of environmental issues, while simultaneously undermining the important role environmental groups play in Canadian society.

Creating Diversions a Trademark of Oil Industry Strategy

This diversion strategy is a well-known tactic of the oil industry. A strategy document leaked yesterday details how one of the world’s most powerful PR firms, Edelman, advised TransCanada to undermine opponents to the Energy East pipeline.

Edelman recommended TransCanada apply pressure to opponents by “distracting them from their mission and causing them to redirect their resources.” To achieve that, Edelman advises TransCanada to work with “supportive third parties who can in turn put the pressure on, particularly when TransCanada can’t.”

Sound familiar?”

Convenient Conspiracy: How Vivian Krause Became the Poster Child for Canada’s Anti-Environment Crusade

EXCERPT: “An essential component of all public relations campaigns is having the right messenger— a credible, impassioned champion of your cause. While many PR pushes fail to get off the ground, those that really catch on — the ones that gain political attention and result in debates and senate inquiries — almost always have precisely the right poster child.

And in the federal government and oil industry’s plight to discredit environmental groups, the perfect poster child just so happens to be Vivian Krause. Krause describes herself as an “independent” researcher and a single mom asking “fair questions” about American funding of Canadian environmental groups. She blogged for many years in relative obscurity before becoming the federal Conservatives’ favourite attack dog.

Krause’s moment in the sun came in January 2012 when Joe Oliver, Canada’s then Natural Resources Minister, released his infamous letter decrying “foreign-funded radical” environmentalists for “hijacking” the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline review process.

Krause had primed the pump for the Conservatives to swoop in and achieve their goal — to discredit environmental groups by building a public narrative about them acting nefariously, thereby justifying spending millions of dollars on audits of charities’ political activities.

Never mind that philanthropic dollars cross international borders all the time. Never mind that the Northern Gateway proposal is sponsored by China’s state-owned oil company Sinopec, along with many other foreign oil companies. Never mind that there’s probably no more legitimate participation in a democracy than citizens signing up to speak at public hearings.

No, once you have a vendetta, inconvenient facts don’t matter. And Krause’s vendetta against environmental groups has been in the works for a long time — ever since she worked in public relations for the farmed salmon industry.”

SOURCEWATCH: Vivian Krause

Excerpt: “Vivian Krause, a resident of North Vancouver, British Columbia, is a controversial Canadian blogger who claims to investigate the funding of environmental organizations to expose foreign influence over Canadian nonprofits. She has been paid for speaking events by right-wing think tanks, business groups, the mining industry, and the oil and gas industry, mostly in Canada. In the year 2012, more than 90% of Krause’s income came from speaking honorariums from the mining and oil and gas industries.[1]
…
Farmed Salmon Industry Employment
Between January 1, 2002 and October 13, 2003,Vivian Krause served as Corporate Development Manager (North America) for Nutreco Aquaculture, then the world’s largest salmon farming company.[5]”

Ethical Oil attack ads expose un-“fairness” of Vivian Krause

Excerpt: “Relationship between funders and fundees

“Indeed, when our Executive Director, Jessica Clogg, pointed out that we, and not our funders, set our priorities, Ethical Oil essentially accused her of lying on the basis that we had received money for a specific purpose.
…
Once we receive a grant from a foundation to carry out our work, we are obligated to use the money for the purposes for which we requested it, or to return it, but the workplan and deliverables are our own – we don’t take orders from the funders.
…
Krause and Ethical Oil accuse U.S. Foundations of ignoring their public purposes

The “foreign” interests that Krause and Ethical Oil are so incensed about are U.S. charities (unlike the U.S. and other foreign corporations that are investing so heavily in the tar sands).  As such they are required by U.S. tax law to use their funds for purposes that are “public purposes”.  And that is what they are doing by funding us (giving money to help protect the environment – a well recognized charitable purpose).

Ethical Oil alleges that these foundations are using their charitable funding in a direct attempt to enhance the position of U.S. energy interests by undermining Canadian oil interests.
…
[the elephant in the room is: why would U.S. corporations that are invested in the oilsands and integrated with refineries in Texas blockade their own interests?]
…
By all means, let’s have some fair questions.

Let’s ask who is funding Ethical Oil’s current attacks on Canadians who have signed up to express their opposition to the Enbridge Pipelines. 

Let’s ask what influence big money – Canadian, U.S., Chinese or otherwise – is having on the Enbridge debate.”
…
https://www.wcel.org/blog/ethical-oil-attack-ads-expose-un-fairness-vivian-krause

An open letter to Canadian oil sands boosters: Stop whining and snivelling about environmentalists

Author: Markham Hislop.

Excerpt: “Stop thinking that the oil sands have some special dispensation that exempts them from criticism or opposition. They don’t.
….
Don’t demonize oil sands opponents – debate better, organize better, communicate better. The argument for oil sands development and the construction of pipelines is stronger, in my opinion, than the argument against.”

http://theamericanenergynews.com/markham-on-energy/open-letter-canadian-oil-sands-boosters-stop-whining-sniveling-environmentalists

Conspiracy theories are thrilling, but fall apart under scrutiny

Excerpt: “North Vancouver researcher Vivian Krause – who has a history of working for the salmon farming industry and for Conservative MP John Duncan – claims that the ongoing campaign to stop the expansion of oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s coast is really a U.S. protectionist ploy to lock up the oil from the oilsands. In Krause’s conspiracy plot, the Big Bad Guys are U.S. charitable foundations, such as the Tides Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and any Canadians fighting to stop oil tankers and the risk of oil spills they bring are unwitting dupes of these Machiavellian deep-pocketed U.S. funders.
…
Krause’s theory that U.S. funders aren’t interested in protecting the coast from oil tankers, but rather in maximizing the flow of oilsands crude to the United States, ignores an important fact -these same American foundations are also the main funders of the growing international campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline that would increase the flow of oilsands crude into the U.S. by almost one million barrels a day.  Funny how this important fact wasn’t acknowledged by Krause, who has drawn praise for her research skills – but then a conspiracy theorist never let a contrary fact get in the way of a good theory.”
…
But what is also overlooked by the conspiracy theorists of both extremes is the fundamental role the growing network of British Columbians from all walks of life has in funding and politically driving the No Tankers campaign.  Our No Tankers campaign has more than 75,000 supporters who donate and take action to stop oil tankers on B.C.’s coast.

It is ironic that we are being accused of being driven by U.S. interests when Dogwood Initiative’s founding mission is to reform the way in which British Columbia’s lands, waters and natural resources are managed by transferring power and control over a place to the people who actually live there. The right to decide is the basic right Dogwood Initiative has been fighting for since 1999 and our No Tankers campaign is grounded in the premise of “Our Coast, Our Decision.”

In the face of mounting pressure from the largest pipeline company in Canada, an undisclosed consortium of international oil companies funding Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, and a pro-oil sands, pro-Northern Gateway federal and provincial government, we have helped build a broad grassroots movement of working families, First Nations governments, businesses, chambers of commerce, municipal governments, tourism operators and fishermen willing to take action to prevent oil tankers from threatening our coast.  We solicit support for these efforts from anyone who shares our vision for the future of B.C. and who is willing to donate (as long as there are no strings attached). Fortunately, some Canadian and American foundations, along with a growing number of businesses and individual donors, almost all of whom are British Columbians, share our vision.”

Shooting the Messenger: Tracing Canada’s Anti-Enviro Movement

Excerpt: “Given the dismal reputation of the oilsands, the government had three options:
(a) clean them up by bringing in environmental legislation;
(b) discredit the people creating the negative image; or
(c) set up front groups to promote the industry, however dirty it may be.

In his discussion with Jacobson, Prentice suggested he would do
(a): “impose new rules on oil sands.” But he never did.

The federal government — which has promised to deliver oil and gas regulations since 2007 — offered no help.

Instead Prentice, along with the government of Alberta, got to work changing the oilsands’ image. The campaign began behind-the-scenes with intensive international lobbying focused on fighting the European Union’s proposed ‘dirty’ label for Albertan crude.

While those backroom meetings were taking place, another public strategy was being deployed to revive the image of the oilsands: demean those exposing the environmental disaster unfolding in Northern Alberta.”
https://thenarwhal.ca/shooting-messenger-tracing-canada-s-anti-enviro-movement

The Conservative government dropped the old trope of George Soros funding opposition to Canada’s oilsands when they found their Poster child to carry their placard into battle: Vivian Krause.

George Soros’ Open Society Foundation responds to Joe Oliver’s claims about enviro funding

““The Open Society Foundations are not funding environmental groups in Canada to oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline,” said foundation spokesperson Amy Weil.

When the Vancouver Observer reached Open Society to ask about their involvement, Weil said the organization was unaware of Oliver’s recent claims. According to Weil, their closest link to the pipeline debate is their support for groups working to achieve financial transparency in the oil industry.

“We do support some non-profit organizations working in Canada including Publish What You Pay, a global civil society coalition that campaigns for transparency in the payment, receipt and management of revenues from the oil, gas and mining industries,” said Weil.

She said, however, that the organization’s goal is related to fiscal transparency in the extractive sector—not to environmental issues.”

The Anti-Semitic Roots of Canadian Conservatives’ ‘Foreign Funded Radicals’ Attacks

“Vivian Krause, whose “research” is primarily cited in claims of “foreign funding,” hasn’t disclosed her own financing since 2011 (up until 2015, her Twitter account made critical references to Soros, but in recent years has tried to distinguish herself from such connections). Climate denying group “Friends of Science”—a frequent peddler of the “foreign funded” line—received a $175,000 donation from Talisman Energy in 2004 and listed in US coal company Peabody Energy’s 2016 bankruptcy documents as a creditor. Other astroturf groups like Oil Sands Action and Suits and Boots refuse to disclose sources of money.

FIFTH ESTATE: TransCanada and Keystone XL: The Money Pipeline

The Dark Money Krause claims blockades AB oil is reversed: untraceable American dark money was almost $200 Million in favor of Keystone.

Koch Brothers, Tea Party Billionaires, Donated To Right-Wing Fraser Institute, Reports Show

Krause also glosses over the fact that dark money flows into Canada in favor of pipelines. The toxic Koch brothers donate to the Fraser Institute & that’s proof that “foreign involvement in Canada’s environmental policy is a two-way street.”

Majority of Western Canada’s crude oil exports to US not exposed to record high discount between WCS and WTI

Krause also glosses over the fact the Majors in AB’s oilsands are mysteriously not blocked & get their product out of Alberta without problem. Majority of Western Canada’s crude oil exports to US not exposed to record high discount between WCS and WTI

Canada’s Kellyanne Krause, a BC resident, trolls Premier Notley

HTML: FAIR QUESTIONS to Krause’s trolling of Premier Notley

TWITTER: Timothy Huyer answered Ms Krause’s trolling

TMX is on hold because the initial approval failed to meet legal requirements. The statutory regime under which the approval is being done was enacted in 2012.

Are you suggesting pipelines should not have to comply with the law governing their construction?

1/

— Timothy Huyer (@tim4hire) March 23, 2019

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SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-koch-brothers-and-environment-july.html