For decades, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has represented Big Oil’s interests, wielding a multimillion-dollar budget to set up astroturf campaigns to defend fossil fuels, deploy scores of lobbyists to shape government policy and attack critics. But in recent years, the oilsands majors appear to have become apprehensive about the industry lobby group and are going their own way.
Quebec became the first jurisdiction in the world Tuesday to explicitly ban oil and gas development in its territory after decades of campaigning by environmental organizations and citizen groups.
"Citizens rallied, citizens regrouped and actually won this fight because it was in their backyards … it would have had major impacts on their way of living on the territory," Émile Boisseau-Bouvier, Équiterre’s climate policy analyst, told Canada’s National Observer.
We may soon remember this week’s record-shattering heat as an historic low temperature mark. But that hasn't slowed down the oil and gas spin machine.
What if this week’s series of record-shattering high temperatures turned out to be tomorrow’s record low, the benchmark against which future years and decades of global warming will be measured?
With each mile of country that burns in wildfire, this unwavering support for the oil industry is looking more and more deranged. As wildfires spread across Canada, Justin Trudeau sought to showcase his commitment to responsible environmental stewardship. He told reporters that:
Through the Pathways Alliance, an organization of some of Canada’s largest oil producers, high-level bureaucrats were asked for long lead times and a ‘flexible, non-regulatory approach’ to usher in a limit on the sector’s air pollution
The Pathways Alliance plastered Toronto streetcars and Vancouver billboards with optimistic messages about its plan to slash pollution and help Canada meet its climate goals. Behind the scenes, the coalition of fossil fuel producers struck a different tone.
