Russia Funding Anti-Fracking Activists In The West?

[Anonymous]

We have found the smoking gun. No surprise here as OPEC funds anti-oilsands scumbags, Putin lines the pockets of anti-fracking nutjobs. I donèt blame Putin or OPEC dictators. After all, they re just looking out for thir natin's economic best interests. This is a lot more than you can say for the federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair.

On Thursday, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary-general of NATO, declared that Russia has infiltrated western environmentalist groups. Rasmussen said Vladimir Putin is using them to demonize natural gas fracking in Europe, in order to keep the west dependent on Russia's state-controlled gas company, Gazprom.



"I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engages actively with so-called non-governmental organizations, environmental organizations working against shale gas - obviously to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas," he said.



It's not shocking that Putin would use propaganda in the west. He's a former KGB agent, who uses propaganda against his own people. He's in the middle of a slow-motion invasion of Ukraine. He's not the polite sort. He doesn't believe in rules, except to trap his opponents. It would be shocking if he didn't undermine fracking in the west, which would On Thursday, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary-general of NATO, declared that Russia has infiltrated western environmentalist groups. Rasmussen said Vladimir Putin is using them to demonize natural gas fracking in Europe, in order to keep the west dependent on Russia's state-controlled gas company, Gazprom.



"I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engages actively with so-called non-governmental organizations, environmental organizations working against shale gas - obviously to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas," he said.



When Putin worked for the KGB, they made use of fellow travellers in the west, typically in the "peace movement," to try to disarm the west. But also in the labour movement, to foment strikes to cripple western industry, such as Britain's coal industry. It's a practice he continues today. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was hired by Putin as a senior Gazprom executive. Is that payment for keeping Germany dependent on Russia today? Or a reward for services rendered when Schroeder was in office? It's fair to ask, given NATO's revelations and Putin's biography.



Environmentalism is dominated by an international, professional cadre of activists.

Greenpeace

 is a $400 million a year multinational corporation. The Hewlett Foundation alone has spent $500 million fighting against western energy companies. Environmental NGOs spend billions fighting our own countries - but never OPEC countries. You'd have to be naïve to think that's a coincidence.



Do Russia or OPEC fund environmentalists in Canada, too? The Tides Foundation out of San Francisco spends $150 million a year on radical causes, including funding 25 different anti-oil and gas lobby groups in Canada. Their website proudly boasts that their specialty is keeping the identity of their funders a secret.



Do they take money from OPEC or Putin? That's the thing about secrets - they're secret.



Last week, I put the question to five leading anti-oil and gas activists in Canada, all of whom take money from foreign foundations. The most vocal opponents of the Northern Gateway Pipeline - Tzeporah Berman, Ben West, Kai Nagata and Mike Hudema - and the most active anti-fracking lobbyists, the Council of Canadians. Did any of their dark money come from Russia or OPEC governments?



Not one of them answered me - though they have all engaged with me before.



Why wouldn't they just say "no" if they didn't? Why the coyness? It's an audacious accusation - but it was made by no one less than the NATO chief.



They kept silent - not that their denials would be credible, in the face of NATO's report. But their silence speaks volumes.



It's an outrage that so many anti-oil lobbyists in Canada have charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency - they literally get to give out tax receipts for their war on our jobs.



Even more outrageous is that no mainstream media have any curiosity as to who is paying these meddlers, and are never so rude as to ask.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2014/06/20140622-111306.html">http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/st ... 11306.html">http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2014/06/20140622-111306.html

[Anonymous]

Now is he time for Europe to consider alternate, more reliable sources for oil and LNG. Canada is as reliable an energy exporter as any nation could find.

OTTAWA — The federal government is concerned about the latest claim that Russia is trying to use its energy resources as a tool to pressure its neighbours.



Instead of threatening to cut off oil and gas to its European customers, Russia is allegedly helping non-governmental groups to spread misinformation about hydraulic fracturing — known as fracking — in order to help keep Europe dependent on Russian energy.



The accusation came from the secretary-general of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who said Thursday that Russia was actively working with environmental groups to plot against

fracking.



"I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engages actively with so-called non-governmental organizations, environmental organizations, working against shale gas obviously to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas," he said.



Employment Minister Jason Kenney said Friday that whether or not Russia is helping to spread lies about shale gas development, the continent needs more energy options, particularly from Canada.



He said Canada needs to build pipelines that travel east to help reduce Europe's dependence on Russian oil and gas.



"All of this links together," Kenney said.



Green groups denied any involvement with the Russian government in anti-fracking campaigns, and Russia's state-owned news service RT was quick to post a story denying Russian involvement.



"Greenpeace had 30 of its people locked up in (Russian) prisons last year, threatened with 15 years in jail," says a spokesman for Greenpeace, quoted in RT. "The idea we're puppets of Putin is so preposterous that you have to wonder what they're smoking over at NATO HQ."



Fracking has lead to the highest natural gas boon in the United States in nearly three decades. However, the practice has been banned in numerous jurisdictions, including Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic, following successful anti-fracking campaigns by environmental groups.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/20/feds-weigh-in-on-allegations-russia-behind-anti-fracking-movement">http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/20/fe ... g-movement">http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/20/feds-weigh-in-on-allegations-russia-behind-anti-fracking-movement

[Gary Oak]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10911942/Russia-in-secret-plot-against-fracking-Nato-chief-says.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... -says.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10911942/Russia-in-secret-plot-against-fracking-Nato-chief-says.html

[Anonymous]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10911942/Russia-in-secret-plot-against-fracking-Nato-chief-says.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... -says.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10911942/Russia-in-secret-plot-against-fracking-Nato-chief-says.html

Congratulations dipshit, this is the first cogent post you've ever fucking made.

[Romero]

Pennsylvania Finally Reveals Fracking Has Contaminated Drinking Water Hundreds Of Times



For the first time, Pennsylvania has made public 243 cases of contamination of private drinking wells from oil and gas drilling operations.



As the AP reports, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection posted details about the contamination cases online on Thursday. The cases occurred in 22 counties, with Susquehanna, Tioga, Lycoming, and Bradford counties having the most incidences of contamination.



In some cases, one drilling operation contaminated the water of multiple wells, with water issues resulting from methane gas contamination, wastewater spills, and wells that simply went dry or undrinkable. The move to release the contamination information comes after years of the AP and other news outlets filing lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests from the DEP on water issues related to oil and gas drilling and fracking.



Pennsylvania has become a battleground state on issues relating to the impact of oil and gas operations, specifically fracking, on health and the environment. Earlier this month, Pennsylvania doctors, nurses, and health policy experts called on the state to investigate claims that the Department of Health tells employees not to talk to residents who come to them with complaints of supposed fracking-related health effects. And water water contamination from fracking and drilling operations has become common, in Pennsylvania and in other states — West Virginia, too, has linked some water complaints to fracking, and according to a 2013 report, chemicals from oil and gas wastewater pits have contaminated water sources in New Mexico at least 421 times.



http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/29/3477184/pennsylvania-fracking-water-contamination/">//http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/29/3477184/pennsylvania-fracking-water-contamination/

The fracking industry, governments and right-wing media are desperate to keep sweeping this all under the rug, but you can't argue against reality. It's happening everywhere all over the world. This too:

Oklahoma Gets Hit With 20 Earthquakes In One Day



Oklahoma's Geology Survey recorded an unprecedented 20 small earthquakes across the state on Tuesday, highlighting the dramatic increase of seismic activity that has occurred there as the controversial process of fracking has spread across the state.



Cornell University geophysics professor Katie Keranen is the latest researcher to produce a scientific study showing a probable connection between earthquakes wastewater injection, finding in July that the more than 2,500 small earthquakes that have hit Oklahoma in the past five years can be linked to it.



The OGS says that as it is now, the chances of a large, damaging earthquake happening in Oklahoma are small. However, some scientists have warned that seismic activity stands to get stronger and more dangerous as fracking increases.



http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/20/3473502/oklahoma-hit-with-20-earthquakes/">//http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/20/3473502/oklahoma-hit-with-20-earthquakes/

[Romero]

Soaring Oil Debt



Last July the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which has collected mundane statistics on energy matters for decades, quietly revealed that 127 of the world's largest oil and gas companies are running out of cash.



They are now spending more than they are earning. Profits have lagged as expenditures have risen. Overburdened by debt, these firms are selling assets.



The math is simple. The 127 firms generated $568 billion in cash from their operations during 2013-2014 while their expenses totalled $677 billion. To cover the difference of $110 billion, the energy giants increased their debt load or sold off assets.



Most companies are now investing in high-cost and high-risk projects to mine difficult hydrocarbons such as bitumen or shale oil, according to Carbon Tracker. Hydraulic fracturing, the land equivalent of ocean bottom trawling, adds to the cost of oil, too.



It's not only the firms deploying fracking that are racking up high debt loads. Chinese state-owned corporations, for example, plopped down $30 billion to develop junk crude in the oilsands over the last decade.



But with a few exceptions, none of the investments are making a good dollar return due to the difficult and costly nature of mining messy bitumen as well as problematic quality of the reserves, combined with huge cost overruns.



Goldman Sachs now reckons more than half of the oil companies listed on the stock market are spending five times more than what they did in 2000 chasing extreme hydrocarbons.



http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/08/29/Soaring-Oil-Debt-Summer/">//http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/08/29/Soaring-Oil-Debt-Summer/

[Anonymous]

^I guess someone forgot to tell the TIDES funded TYEE this,

Suncor Q4 profits rise as oil sands production hits record high

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/04/suncorenergy-results-idUSL2N0L81WA20140204">http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/ ... WA20140204">http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/04/suncorenergy-results-idUSL2N0L81WA20140204



However, cost cutting is the name of the game right now all over the globe in our industry. It's not about scarcity of resources anymore. Companies are realizing they have far more assets than they are ever going to have capital to be able to exploit ...they feel they have to structurally change their business model. They are not going to be throwing capital at everything for the next while. Even with that though oil and gas deals rose 23% in the first half of the year in Canada.



I got to say though the TYEE is bucking the trend. Most anti-Canadian mouthpieces want us to believe that "big oil" is racking up billions by exploiting us all....YAWN!!