Sunday, September 11, 2011

Ethical Oil?

There have been a number a number of media pieces on the Ethical Oil Institute.  They all ref this detailed post at Deep Climate, so that's probably the best place to start.  DC's unsurprising bottom line is that the EOI is almost certainly an industry astroturf group, sharing an office with McLennan Ross, an Edmonton law firm that works with players in the Alberta tar Sands.  I find the most interesting revelation to be that:

...the registration date of March 9, 2011 shows plans for the Ethicaloil.org were well underway long before Velshi’s initial blog posts in June, and indeed before the Canadian election campaign (which was called in late March).

...because Mr. Velshi originally treated the whole project as something he had started up on a personal whim.

Also worth noting is that the McLennan Ross contact at Ethical Oil is Thomas Ross, who served as Ezra Levant's lawyer during his run ins with the CHRC.  Ezra also serves on the board of Ethical Oil, and in fact is the fellow who coined the phrase.

8 comments:

Rotterdam said...

The oils sands are worth defending.
When the alternative is conflict oil, ours matches up very well.
Mr. Ignatieff and other level headed liberals came to realize this very quickly. President Obama and Secretary Clinton apparently see it as well.

Unknown said...

The oil sands aren't an alternative, they're an, addition to.

Anonymous said...

Ethical oil, conflict oil, what's the difference when it comes to climate change?

The oil companies are determined to keep us addicted to fossil fuels, and "ethical oil" is just another advertizing ploy to keep us guilt free. After all, they have to keep up the demand for their product so the ice will keep melting and they can reap even more profits in the Arctic.

Climate change? They know it happening. In fact, they are banking on it. Disgusting.

liberal supporter said...

Someone doesn't seem to understand the concept of "commodity".

Unless you replace ALL "conflict oil" with "ethical oil", then ALL oil is tainted equally.

You might as well claim that we are breathing ethical air, while the air in other countries is not.

Steve Bloom said...

The Ethical Oil meme was convincing enough for the Beeb (World Service radio) to give them equal time with Bill McKibben in a short debate re the pipeline 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure it was Velshi, but probably.

sharonapple88 said...

When the alternative is conflict oil, ours matches up very well.

What about Norway? If any country has the claim for ethical oil, it's Norway.

Anyong said...

shannonapple88 you are absolutely correct. Norway is the only country that can claim ethical oil. Canadians need to study Norway's system and that it refused to take anything less than 80% of revenue from its own oil resourses while oil companies including Exxon Mobile repeaing 20%. Actually, oil companies should only get 5 or 10%. Canada manages to get 20% what thievery on the part of oil companies. Also, every Canadian ought to take a little trip to Fort McMurray and have a look at the land scape. What an ungodly sight and the leathal damage done will last thousands of years.

Anonymous said...

@Anyong: Well put, lethal damage for thousands of years.

The Tar Sands are the gift that will keep on giving the world polluted air/water and soil long after all the oil is burned. So Canada is not only accelerating climate change, we are also becoming major polluters. Funny how this is never mentioned in debates about "ethical oil".