The committee brought together the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) with deputy ministers from Natural Resources, Environment Canada, Alberta Energy and Alberta Environment to synchronize their lobbying offensive in the face of mounting protest and looming international regulations targeting the Alberta crude.
Environmental organizations criticized the existence of a committee they said they were hearing about for the first time.
“I’m old-fashioned enough to believe that there should be a separation between oil and state, but with these types of secret committees it’s hard to see any daylight between them,” said Keith Stewart, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace.
He said the federal government is working increasingly closer with oil companies as they attempt to polish the image of the “dirtiest oil on earth” and undermine climate-change policies in the United States and Europe that stand to curb the industry’s expansion.
“We’re seeing that the government is becoming the advocacy arm of the oil industry, whether that’s to kill environment regulations abroad or to rhetorically attack environmental groups and First Nations,” Stewart said.
“I think that most Canadians would agree that while oil may still run our cars for now, it shouldn’t ever run our government.”
CAPP spokesperson Travis Davies said the industry lobby group, which represents 150 oil and gas companies, was invited to join the committee by the federal government.
“We exchange information on oilsands outreach activities,” Davies said. “For instance, when governors or groups wanted to come visit the oilsands, we needed to be at the table. It was about basic coordination.”
Davies said the committee has communicated about the work the industry lobby group did at its office in Washington and coordinated the “asks” they made during foreign outreach.
“It wasn’t about messaging. We could say, ‘have you talked to them? What work have you been doing?’ We want to make sure we don’t double up or duplicate our work.”
Though CAPP says oilsands development is expected to contribute $84 billion annually to the Canadian economy over the next 25 years, climate scientists say the oilsands must be drastically cut to prevent further global warming and dangerous changes in the planet’s ecosystems.
The Conservative government’s withdrawal in December from the Kyoto Protocol, the only globally binding agreement for emissions reductions, was widely criticized as a move to defend the industry and its plans for three-fold expansion.
“The fact that the Harper government and oil companies are conspiring behind closed doors is another indication the Alberta tarsands’ environmental costs, human rights violations and massive carbon emissions have become an international embarrassment,” said Clayton Thomas Muller, the oilsands campaign director for the Indigenous Environmental Network.
The “Oilsands Clean Energy Coordinating Committee” is mentioned in a January 2011 briefing memo to Natural Resources deputy minister Serge Dupont.
The memo details talking points for a meeting with CAPP president Dave Collyer, including that the federal government aims to “ramp up” its lobbying in the United States and Europe over the next year and half.
A spokesperson for Natural Resources Canada said the committee meets occasionally, mostly by teleconference.
“Some referred to this group as an oilsands steering committee or a clean energy steering committee. However, there was never any formal mandate given to the group and the purpose is to informally share information,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that officials with Natural Resources Canada continue to meet with Alberta officials and industry representatives, though would not confirm if it was under this name or another.
According to government documents, the plans to establish such a committee appear to first have been discussed at a March 2010 meeting in Calgary involving high-ranking officials from CAPP, former PMO adviser Bruce Carson, CEOs from oil and gas companies and senior federal and Alberta government officials.
The group suggested forming a “federal-provincial-industry working group” or “Deputy Minister-CEO steering committee” to increase collaboration and “on-the-ground coordination.”
Lobbying by federal officials has helped delay a Fuel Quality Directive in Europe that would stick a dirty label on oilsands for causing more emissions than conventional oil, thereby discouraging its import for use as transportation fuel.
After an inconclusive vote last month, which environmentalists say was heavily swayed by Canadian pressure, European environment ministers will reconsider the Fuel Quality Directive in June.
The Harper government has threatened a trade war over the measure, which could set a global precedent and close off foreign markets to the Alberta crude.
Canadian and Alberta officials and industry groups have successfully lobbied against similar state-level fuel efficiency standards in the United States, but were dealt a blow when U.S. President Obama denied the Keystone XL pipeline, which producers were expecting to use to ship oil to the US Gulf Coast.
The wave of environmental protest has shifted focus to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, while the Harper government has characterized the opposition as “radicals” manipulated by foreign interests.
The revelation of the secret government-industry committee comes on the heels of an announcement that Environment Canada will try to “strengthen” cooperation with the oil sector by assigning a senior official to head up the newly formed Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, a partnership of a dozen major oilsands companies.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Martin Lukacs
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