Environment

A top expert who helped write the government's latest Keystone report previously consulted on three different TransCanada projects—a fact the State Department tried to hide.

Andy Kroll – March 21, 2013

Late on a Friday afternoon in early March, the State Department released a 2,000-page draft report downplaying the environmental risks of the northern portion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would ferry oil from Canada's tar sands to refineries in Texas, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

But when it released the report, State hid an important fact from the public: Experts who helped draft the report had previously worked for TransCanada, the company looking to build the Keystone pipeline, and other energy companies poised to benefit from Keystone's construction.

Nation's lobbying laws among the weakest, energy industry gets top access

Andrew Nikiforuk – December 5, 2012

Polaris Institute report calls for public inquiry into how oil money is distorting Canada's democracy. Image via Shutterstock.Oil and pipeline companies, including seven of the world's largest corporations, have intensified their lobbying efforts in Ottawa over the last four years and held 2,733 meetings with public officials.

These lobbying efforts directed by 27 energy companies and eight industry associations appear to have resulted in dramatic public policy changes such as the gutting of specific environmental legislation.

Mike De Souza – November 5, 2012

Environment Canada scientists have confirmed results published by researchers from the University of Alberta showing contaminants accumulating in the snow near oilsands operations, an internal federal document has revealed. They also discovered contaminants in precipitation from testing in the region.

But the researchers were discouraged from speaking to reporters about their findings, first presented at a November 2011 conference in Boston of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, says the document, released to Postmedia News through access to information.

Nathan VanderKlippe – October 31, 2012

The National Energy Board has launched a major audit of TransCanada Corp., after a whistle blower’s revelations about problems in the pipeline company’s operating practices.

In a letter sent to Calgary-based TransCanada, the NEB said it will examine the integrity management programs at almost all of the company’s pipelines, including its natural gas systems and Keystone pipe.