Some good news today to kick off your weekend. Because of the overwhelming support from people like you across the country, so far government funds will go to workers not big oil executives. Over 400 EcoSociety supporters joined thousands of other Canadians and sent letters telling the Government that workers and their families need support, not big oil CEOs.
“Just because we’re in one crisis right now doesn’t mean we can forget about the other one — the climate crisis that we are also facing as a world and as a country,” said Prime Minister Trudeau today.
Trudeau announced almost $2 billion to clean up orphan wells in BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. This will help oil and gas workers put their skills to work cleaning up the mess made from oil companies going bankrupt and walking away from wells in rural areas. There’s also another over $1 billion going to reduce methane and help the East Coast offshore industry reduce emissions.
While of course it would be better if the big oil companies cleaned up their mess instead of using taxpayer money, in this time when workers are struggling to support their families, getting oil and gas workers focused on cleaning up the land is an important step forward.
Oil Lobbyists Lose Out
Earlier today our friends at Environmental Defence released a secret memo that the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) sent to the federal government with an outrageous list of demands that has very little to do with this pandemic. It included: no new climate policies, stopping monitoring toxic pollution, stopping indigenous rights work, no increases on the price on carbon pollution, no environmental impact reports for big oil and gas projects, weakening methane regulations, and no reporting on their lobby meetings, so they can secretly try to pressure governments to put big oil first.
Your voice matters. Even with all their money and lobby meetings, the big oil lobby could not beat out people power this time. People need to come before polluters and profits.
Read the story here: https://globalnews.ca/news/6832608/coronavirus-trudeau-alberta-bc-saskatchewan-energy-industry-orphan-well-cleanup/
Read the memo here: https://environmentaldefence.ca/2020/04/17/capp_covid_memo/