News Release
August 15, 2006
For Immediate Release:
Petroleum money drives Conservative climate change
skepticism
Prime Minister Stephen Harper must come
clean about who is driving his anti-Kyoto agenda, say two
Liberal MPs.
Hon. John Godfrey, Liberal Environment Critic, and Mark Holland,
MP for Ajax-Pickering, charge that Harper’s policies are being
driven by climate change skeptics closely aligned with the
Conservative Party and funded by petroleum companies.
The two were responding to a
report in Saturday’s Globe and Mail
outlining how Harper crony Barry Cooper was involved in
channeling petroleum money to Friends of Science, an anti-Kyoto
lobby group, through the University of Calgary.
“It’s clear the Prime Minister is prepared to ignore mainstream
science, which has overwhelmingly concluded that human activity
is a major contributing factor to climate change,” said Mr.
Godfrey. “This Globe and Mail report begs many questions as to
what is fuelling Conservative party denial that man-made climate
change exists.”
“The ties between the Conservatives, fraudulent science, and the
petroleum industry appear to be quite an incestuous network,”
says Holland. “Not since big tobacco twisted medical science to
find cigarettes harmless has there been such an extensive
campaign of misinformation to deceive the public on one of the
most important issues of our time.”
Calgary-based Friends of Science is an organization of Canadian
and international climate change skeptics, of which, a majority
appear to have close links to the petroleum industry. The group
runs advertising and produces scientifically dubious research
and editorial comment questioning mainstream science on climate
change, arguing that it is either not a problem or that it is
not caused by human activity. In fact, just last April, Friends
of Science was responsible for submitting an open letter to
Prime Minister Harper (printed in the National Post), which
insisted allocating funds to initiatives to mitigate climate
change “would be irrational” and expressed the hope that the
group could “furnish [Harper] with more information on this
crucially important topic.”
Mr. Cooper is a member of what has become known as the Calgary
School, a group of right-wing University of Calgary professors
considered mentors to Harper and whose thinking has molded
Harper’s political agenda. The group is closely aligned with the
Fraser Institute, a British Columbia right-wing think tank
partly funded by the petroleum industry. Mr. Cooper, a political
scientist at the University of Calgary, directs the Alberta
Policy Research Centre of the Fraser Institute.
In addition to Mr. Cooper, petroleum lobbyist Morten Paulsen
also has close Conservative ties. Mr. Paulsen is registered as a
lobbyist for Friends of Science, as well as several petroleum
companies including Conoco-Phillips Canada, and Kinder Morgan
Canada Inc. Paulsen has long been active in the federal
Conservative Party and its Reform/Alliance predecessors, serving
as Preston Manning’s communication director, managing MP Art
Hanger’s 2004 election campaign, and also holding high-ranking
positions with the Alberta Conservatives.
John Weissenberger, a petroleum geologist, is another of
Harper’s closest friends, who has also written a number of
anti-Kyoto articles.
“I think it’s safe to say the Prime Minister’s views on climate
change and various right-wing issues have been heavily
influenced by Mr. Weissenberger,” says Holland.
Tom Harris, once a legislative assistant to former Conservative
Environment Critic Bob Mills, has been a prolific writer of
anti-Kyoto op-ed pieces, typically quoting scientists associated
with Friends of Science. He is a lobbyist with High Park Group,
a firm with a number of energy industry clients. Previously
working as an associate with the public relations firm APCO
Worldwide (Canada), he organized a news conference of climate
change skeptics in 2002. Most of those who spoke at the news
conference have ties to both Friends of Science and the
petroleum industry.
Outspoken climate change skeptic Gwyn Morgan, former CEO of
EnCana, is a Harper crony and Conservative fundraiser. He is a
trustee with the Fraser Institute. Harper attempted in April to
appoint Morgan to oversee patronage appointments, but Morgan’s
appointment was blocked by opposition MPs concerned about
comments he’d made linking immigrants with crime.
“Financial links between the petroleum industry and climate
change skeptic groups in the United States are well documented,”
says Godfrey. “We need more transparency about who is behind
this campaign in Canada.”
Exxon Mobil Corporation in the U.S., for example, outlines on
its website its funding of academic research showing that
millions of dollars have gone to organizations opposing action
to address climate change. Among its contributions in 2003 and
2004 were $60,000 U.S. each year in funds for climate change
policy research to the Fraser Institute.
-30-
For further information:
Richard McGuire, Executive Assistant
Office of Mark Holland, M.P., Ajax-Pickering
(613) 995-8614
Cédrick Beauregard
Office of the Hon. John Godfrey, M.P., Don Valley West
(613) 992-6990
|
