eca_review_2019_08_15

2 A ugust 15'19 HANNA/CORONAt ION/stE ttLER, AB. ECA REVIEW
GUEST EDITORIAL
It’s a GEM of a
misleading report
by Tim McMillan, President and CEO
Canadian Association of
Petroleum Producers
It’s summer in Canada and the last
thing on many people’s minds is foreign-funded
activist groups working
against a Canadian industry. Sadly,
this tactic continues to gain traction in
the media.
For a long time, these specialinterest
groups have targeted Canada’s
natural resources by slapping our oil
and natural gas industry with ‘dirty’
labels. They make false claims about
environmental impacts or, worse, misrepresent
themselves as scientific
experts to gain public support.
“
Partisan environmental
reports like the recent one
from gEM abound with
misinformation regarding
natural gas - and the media
has failed to fact check.
This has never been more evident
than with the Global Energy Monitor
(GEM) and the recent release of a
report alleging that liquefied natural
gas – one of the world’s cleanest forms
of energy – is dirtier than coal.
The report was filled with unsubstantiated
statistics and little context,
and was written by two environmental
campaign researchers and someone
who studied parasites. None is an
expert in resource development.
Who is GEM?
According to public information, it’s
an international non-government
organization “in support of fossil fuel
phase-out.” No one on GEM’s team is
based in Canada or even appears to be
Canadian.
They were previously known as
CoalSwarm, a group that has targeted
Canadian operations in the past and
continues to do so under a new name.
In fact, GEM is funded by the United
States-based Rockefeller Brothers
Fund and the Sierra Club Foundation,
among others.
Despite the fact anyone with Internet
access could discover that the GEM
report was far from academic, not peer
reviewed and produced for the sole
purpose of attacking Canada’s energy
industry, the organization gained a lot
of national media attention.
“
OPINION
The report has been disputed and
largely debunked by the Canadian
Association of Petroleum Producers
(CAPP), LNG Canada, the BC LNG
Alliance and Brad Hayes, adjunct professor
of Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences at the University of Alberta.
GEM is not unique. It’s just one in a
series of opponents taking aim at
Canada’s natural resources. Groups
like GEM masquerade as non-partisan
academic organizations, cherrypicking
convenient data from other
sources to create campaigns that, at
least for now, appear to target Canada.
As Canadians head into the federal
election in October, groups like GEM
are strategically poised to attack any
Canadian-made energy policy that
doesn’t include the 100 per cent phaseout
of fossil fuels.
That’s an unrealistic scenario based
on the rise in global energy demand.
The world needs more energy and a
significant amount is being produced
from sources that don’t have Canada’s
high environmental and social
standards.
Canada should be the world’s supplier
of choice to help lift other nations
out of energy poverty, reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions and displace
less-responsible sources of energy like
coal.
With the world’s population expected
to grow to more than nine billion
people by 2040, the International
Energy Agency forecasts total global
energy demand will rise 27 per cent
over 2017 levels. Oil and natural gas
will account for 53 per cent of the total.
CAPP represents about 80 per cent of
Canada’s oil and natural gas production
and advocates on behalf of
industry. We are a lobby group, and
have always been open and transparent
about who we are and what we
do.
We also provide education tools to
communities, other industries and
institutions. We collect and share facts,
data and statistics about Canada’s oil
and natural gas resources. We provide
information about our best practices,
technology and innovation, and our
relationships with Indigenous businesses,
partners and communities.
But lately, it seems all we do is refute
a lot of misinformation. We’re fact
checking and doing the background
work many Canadians expect their
media outlets to do – which doesn’t
appear to have been done in this case.
There is still time for change. It is up
to all Canadians – the public and the
media – to ask questions and distinguish
fact from fiction, and to try and
avoid being manipulated by foreignfunded
activist groups.
Together, we can make a difference.
The opinions expressed are not necessarily
the opinions of this newspaper.
MAIL BAG
Being mistreated
Dear Editor,
You’ve been brainwashed if..... you
believe that President Trump is a
racist and white supremacist and you
have not checked his record on race
relations.
You’ve been brainwashed if you
believe the “SQUAD” should be
immune from scrutiny and criticism
because they are women of colour.
You’ve been brainwashed if you
believe that adolescents and teenagers
need their parent’s permission to go on
a field trip but they can join a GSA,
take puberty blockers or have an abortion
and the parents are not to be
informed.
You’ve been brainwashed if you
believe newspapers should receive
$595 Million from the Canadian government
and who gets the money is
decided by left wingers who detest
anything remotely conservative.
I have heard the rabidly left wing
Toronto Star will receive $110,000 per
week but haven’t been able to confirm
it.
You’ve been brainwashed if you
think Alberta should happily participate
in equalization while having our
resources landlocked by the ROC
because it is the Canadian way.
You’ve been brainwashed if you
think Catherine McKenna is a
coherent Environment Minister.
You’ve been brainwashed if you
believed PM Trudeau was going to
balance the budget by 2019.
I believe enough people have been
brainwashed by the liberal media and
politicians that they will allow themselves
to be bought with borrowed
money and re-elect Justin Trudeau.
Finally, you’ve been brainwashed if,
or when that happens, Alberta should
quietly carry on being mistreated
rather start the process of separation.
Gord Snell
Three Hills, Alta.
Correction
In the Aug. 1 edition of the ECA
Review under the obituary titled
“Taught herself how to make many
crafts”, Irene Nielsen’s name was
incorrectly spelled twice. The ECA
Review sincerely apologizes for this
error.
NANA’S BLOG
Customs, traditions
and weddings
by Lois Perepelitz
A wedding will not only bring two
people together, it brings two families
together.
Most of the time this will go
smoothly but even when the families
are from the same area, there are still
some worries. When the families are
from different countries then you
really worry.
A very good friend of mine, I call her
my part-time daughter, met a young
man from New Zealand and we were
all so happy for her because they are
such a perfect match.
The only thing that worried us was
that he was taking her to the other side
of the world.
We worried about his people
accepting her and if she would be
lonely so far from home. Would she be
able to fit in with their customs?
They decided to have their wedding
in Canada, in our very scenic area of
Squamish and Whistler B.C.
They had a whole week of events
planned so the two families could get
to know each other.
Turn to Caring, Pg 5
REast Central Alberta
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