Tag Archives: Transcanada

by | May 3, 2013 · 3:00 pm

Obama’s former communications director’s firm does PR for Keystone XL pipeline, tar sands rail transport

By Steve Horn, May 3, 2013. Source: DeSmog Blog

Anita_DunnDouble-dipping is a “no go” in the real world of eating chips and salsa with a circle of friends but an everyday reality in the world of lobbyists and PR professionals.

Enter double-dipper Anita Dunn, former White House Communications Director for President Barack Obama who now runs the firm SKDKnickerbocker (Squier Knapp Dunn), a firm that ”brings unparalleled strategic communications experience to Fortune 500 companies, political groups and candidates, non-profits, and labor organizations.”

Dip one: TransCanada Corporation, which SKDK does public relations work for, as revealed in an Oct. 2012 New York Times investigation. TransCanada is the multinational corporation currently building the contentious southern half of theKeystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline, following the dictates of a March 2012 Obama Administration Executive Order. Within months, the fate of the border-crossing Alberta to Port Arthur, TX KXL export pipeline will also likely be decided by the U.S. State Department.

Dip two: Another SKDKnickerbocker client is the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the American Petroleum Institute trade association equivalent for the freight rail industry. Even without KXL – as covered previously on DeSmogBlog - tar sands crude can be moved to targeted markets via freight rail (coupled with pipeline capacity increases of other tubes and potential barging along Lake Superior).
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by | April 9, 2013 · 12:11 pm

Breaking News: Oklahoma Grandmother Locks Herself to Keystone XL Heavy Machinery — Halts Construction of Tar Sands Pipeline

April 9, 2013. Source: Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance

nancyOklahoma grandmother Nancy Zorn, 79, from Warr Acres, has locked herself to a piece of heavy machinery effectively halting construction on TransCanada’s Keystone XL toxic tar sands pipeline. This action comes in the wake of the disastrous tar sands pipeline spill in Mayflower Arkansas, where an estimated 80,000 gallons of tar sands spilled into a residential neighborhood and local waterways.

Using a bike-lock, Zorn has attached her neck directly to a massive earth-mover, known as an excavator, which has brought construction of Keystone XL to a stop.  Zorn is the second Oklahoma grandmother this year risking arrest to stop construction of the pipeline, and her protest is the third in a series of ongoing civil disobedience actions led by the Oklahoma-based coalition of organizations, Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance.

“Right now our neighbors in Arkansas are feeling the toxic affect of tar sands on their community. Will Oklahoma neighborhoods be next?” asked Zorn before taking action today. “I can no longer sit by idly while toxic tar sands are pumped down from Canada and into our communities. It is time to rise up and defend our home. It is my hope that this one small action today will inspire many to protect this land and our water.”
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by | April 3, 2013 · 9:00 am

TransCanada seeks commitments to ship Alberta oil to Quebec, New Brunswick

April 2 2013. Source: The Canadian Press

Crew work on construction of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline east of Winona, Texas, on Dec. 3, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, The Tyler Morning Telegraph, Sarah A. Miller

Crew work on construction of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline east of Winona, Texas, on Dec. 3, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, The Tyler Morning Telegraph, Sarah A. Miller

CALGARY – TransCanada Corp. is trying to determine whether there is enough interest in its proposal to convert its existing natural gas pipeline and ship oil from Alberta as far east as New Brunswick.

The Calgary-based energy company announced Tuesday that it is seeking firm commitments from parties interested in the idea, which would see oil transported along an existing pipeline into Quebec, and possibly extending that line into the port city of Saint John, N.B.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who has expressed support for the project, said TransCanada’s announcement was an encouraging step forward

“Our government supports the opportunity for our refineries to process substantially more Canadian oil, generating Canadian jobs and making our country less reliant on more expensive foreign oil,” Oliver said in Ottawa. Continue reading →

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by | March 22, 2013 · 4:30 pm

Canadian and US aboriginal groups vow to block oil pipelines

March 21, 2013. Source: The Guardian

First Nation Canadians protest against the destruction and pollution of the tar sands industries at Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photo: Ashley Cooper/Corbis

First Nation Canadians protest against the destruction and pollution of the tar sands industries at Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photo: Ashley Cooper/Corbis

An alliance of Canadian and US aboriginal groups vowed on Wednesday to block three multibillion-dollar oil pipelines that are planned to transport oil from the Alberta tar sands, saying they are prepared to take physical action to stop them.

The Canadian government, faced with falling revenues due to pipeline bottlenecks and a glut that has cut the price for Alberta oil, says the projects are a national priority and will help diversify exports away from the US market.

But the alliance of 10 native bands – all of whose territories are either near the crude-rich tar sands or on the proposed pipeline routes – complain Ottawa and Washington are ignoring their rights.

They also say building the pipelines would boost carbon-intensive oil sands production and therefore speed up the pace of climate change. Continue reading →

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by | March 11, 2013 · 1:11 pm

BREAKING: 26 arrested at Transcanada office occupation outside Boston

March 11, 2013. Source: Tar Sands Blockade

KXLFuneral_FB-577x1024

Over 100 students and community members have just marched into TransCanada’s Westborough office and held a funeral mourning the loss of their future at the hands of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport the tar sands that climate scientists say will lock us into irreversible global warming. More than 25 protesters are risking arrest for refusing to leave the office in an act of civil disobedience.

Carrying a coffin emblazoned with the words “Our Future,” the protesters held flowers and sang an elegy as they marched in procession. Massachusetts Methodist clergy members and a group of mothers holding photographs of their children joined the youth in protest.

The action marked a sharp escalation of the protests in New England against the Keystone XL pipeline. In January, eight students locked and glued themselves at the same TransCanada office. Nationwide, the pipeline has already prompted civil disobedience outside the White House, direct blockades of construction, and the largest climate rally in US history. Todays action kicks off a week of solidarity actions being called for by our allies at the Tar Sands Blockade.  During the Stop Tar Sands Profiteers Week of Action, March 16th-24th protestors from across the country will target the offices of TransCanada and its investors.
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by | March 5, 2013 · 1:30 pm

Enbridge refuses to pay for ongoing damage study of Michigan tar sands disaster

By Jacob Chamberlain, March 4, 2013. Source: Common Dreams

As Keystone XL tar sands pipeline gets boost to move forward, Kalamazoo River still reeling from 2010 tar sands spill

Kalamazoo River cleanup. (John Grap/The Enquirer)

Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. is refusing to pay for an independent review designed to assess the ongoing environmental impacts caused by the nearly one million gallons of tar sands oil that spilled into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River following a pipeline rupture in 2010.

Kalamazoo River cleanup. (John Grap/The Enquirer)Trustees of the National Resource Damage Assessment group—which includes state and federal agencies—has repeatedly requested that the Canada based company help pay for two needed reviews of the vegetation and recreational areas affected by the spill.

However, the Detroit Free Press reportsthat Enbridge refused the requests on two occasions, in both June and October, saying enough data had already been collected.

“Absolutely not,” said Stephanie Millsap, a trustee representative for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to Enbridge’s claim.
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by | March 1, 2013 · 9:00 am

New documentary celebrates the voices of the Tar Sands Blockade

Note: Click here to watch the documentary.

-The GJEP Team

February 26, 2013. Source: Reader Supported News

In 2012, Texas landowners and environmental activists came together to organize resistance against adangerous pipeline being built by a Canadian corporation to bring tar sands oil from Alberta Canada to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. This project continues despite unprecedented opposition from indigenous communities, local farmers and even global environmental movements. From this struggle, a community of resistance was born that has attracted volunteers from around the continent who have successfully defied this multi-million dollar corporation with the power of non-violent direct action.

The film is meant to be both a celebration of the blockades’ achievements and a primer for those interested in joining the campaign. It explains the dangers of tar sands extraction and the risks to public health posed by the pipeline as well as the strategy of non-violent direct action that has been delaying the pipeline so far. Continue reading →

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by | February 5, 2013 · 10:30 am

Ottawa gives nod to east-to-west tar sands pipeline

February 2, 2013.  Source: CBC

Photo: Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press

Photo: Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press

The federal government is firming up its support of two projects that would see oil from Alberta piped to Atlantic Canada.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said he gave a tentative nod to one proposal in a meeting with industry giant Irving Oil.

“I met with Arthur Irving (Irving Oil’s chairman) and expressed the support of the government of Canada, in principle, for this initiative,” Oliver said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

TransCanada Corp. wants to convert an existing, underused natural gas line to bring oil from Western Canada to Quebec and New Brunswick.

It would be up to the National Energy Board to approve such projects, and TransCanada has not yet formally submitted the proposal for scrutiny.
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by | February 1, 2013 · 10:31 am

Video: International treaty to protect the Sacred from Tar Sands signing ceremony

February 1, 2013.  Source: Four Worlds International Institute

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by | January 22, 2013 · 4:30 pm

Obama under pressure after Nebraska governor signs off on Keystone XL

By Suzanne Goldenberg, January 22 2013. Source: The Guardian

Environmental activists protest against Keystone XL pipeline heading for the White House in DC on 18 November 2012. Photo: 350.org

Environmental activists protest against Keystone XL pipeline heading for the White House in DC on 18 November 2012. Photo: 350.org

Barack Obama‘s powerful call for climate action faced an immediate test on Tuesday, with the president forced into a decision on one of the most contentious items on his agenda: the Keystone XL pipeline.

A day after Obama made a strong commitment to climate in his inaugural address, the governor of Nebraska signed off on the pipeline, leaving it up to the White House to decide on the fate of the project.

“Construction and operation of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline … would have minimal environmental impacts in Nebraska,” Dave Heineman, the governor of Nebraska, wrote in a letter to the White House.

The approval now leaves the fate of a project seen as a litmus test of the administration’s environmental credentials entirely in Obama’s hands. Continue reading →

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