Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, June 20, 2011

Canada spent $1M to lobby U.S. on unproven carbon capture technology

OTTAWA—Newly released documents show Canada has spent $1 million on a travelling salesman peddling an unproven technology that has been a darling of the Conservative government.

The documents show the federal government hired a special adviser on climate change and energy to lobby key players in the United States over energy and environmental issues.

The job description includes promoting carbon capture and storage, a made-in-Canada but still unproven technique for pumping greenhouse gas deep underground.

The government created the job in 2009 and documents show the budget for the extra lobbying was more than $1 million over two years.

The need for the job arose from the so-called Clean Energy Dialogue that Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced two years ago with Barack Obama during the U.S. president’s maiden trip to Ottawa.

Conservative cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats are working with their American counterparts on a host of environmental and energy issues — including carbon capture and storage.

Origin
Source: Toronto Star 

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