Thank you very much.
Good morning, everyone.
I will be making my remarks in English, but I would be happy to answer any questions in either French or English.
My name is Vivian Krause. Over the past five years I have followed the science and the money behind environmental campaigns. I've written a series of articles published in the Financial Post and elsewhere. I also write a blog called Fair Questions. I'm not part of an industry, political party, or a campaign.
As I prepared to testify today, I watched a short video at the website of the joint review panel for the Northern Gateway project. In that video, the chairperson of the panel, Sheila Leggett, says the decision that the panel will be making is on whether the Northern Gateway is in the public interest of our country. She emphasizes that public participation is important, and that the panel is focused on making sure it has a process that is open, fair, and transparent. With the backing of government and the oil industry, one of the most powerful industries in the world, it's expected the proponents of the Northern Gateway will have significant resources at their disposal. This is common knowledge. When the public hears from the spokespeople from the ministry and government, we consider the source.
What hasn't been known until recently, however, is that some of the opponents of various pipeline projects and the campaigns against the Canadian energy sector also have some deep-pocketed supporters south of the border. I belive that in order for the joint review panel to conduct its work in a manner that is open, fair, and transparent, funding on all sides should be out in the open. In my review of the American tax returns of the foundations funding the environmental movement both in the U.S. and in Canada, I've traced $300 million that has gone from American charitable foundations to environmental campaigns affecting our country. Most of my analysis is based on American tax returns because the IRS requires greater disclosure than the CRA.
The $300 million is from roughly 850 grants that I've traced from ten foundations. In addition to these foundations, an additional dozen or more American foundations have granted substantial funds to Canadian environmental groups. By my analysis, American funding from the foundations that I've followed has increased tenfold over the past decade, from about $4 million in 2000 to $50 million in 2010. Of the $300 million in American funding that I've traced, at least $30 million is specifically for campaigns targeting the oil and gas industry in Canada.
As I see it, the campaign against Canadian energy is one side of a two-sided coin. The other side of the coin is the creation of the renewable energy industry. In trying to understand the campaign against Canadian oil and the pipeline projects that are the lifeline of the Canadian energy sector, I think this is perhaps the most important insight that I can offer. This thinking is reflected in the strategy paper entitled “Design to Win”, which is prepared by the California Environmental Associates and funded by all of the big American foundations that are funding the campaign against Canadian oil. In that document, there's a diagram that clearly spells out that consumer and voter campaigns are funded in order to influence politicians to create the context for, and I quote, “massive shift in investment capital from dirty to clean energy”.
Of course, the dichotomy between dirty and clean energy is a bit of a false dichotomy in the sense that the so-called clean energy industry also has some negative environmental impacts. Underneath this dichotomy is another dichotomy, which of course is between energy that has historically been largely or partially from foreign oil imports and an industry that has been created that is primarily domestic.
The campaign to shift from dirty to clean energy, as it appears to me, is also about reducing dependence on imported oil, and increasing energy independence. In fact, if you read the fine print, you will find that American foundations say this themselves in their strategy papers, that one of their interests is in increasing American energy security and American energy independence.
In the media coverage in the public debate over the last few weeks, there have been several recurring questions. I'd like to speak briefly to each of these. The first question is, so what? Environmentalists have downplayed the extent of their American funding by saying the oil industry has foreign investors, and the environmental impacts of the oil industry are global, so it's fine for the environmental movement to source its funding globally. These are valid points. I will argue, though, that at the heart of the funding matter is not just the foreign nature of the funding; it's the fact that the money involved is big, and that it's coming from billion-dollar foundations, and in one case a hedge fund billionaire. And the funders that are funding this strategy are funding science as a marketing tactic to sway market share, to manipulate markets, and in some cases to protect trade interests. If thousands of Alaskan families say they are giving $25 or $30 to B.C. environmental groups, that would be foreign funding, but I don't think it would bother us, because in fact if there is a major oil spill, Alaska would be affected.
What we see here is the opposite of that. It's not small amounts of money from a large number of foreign sources; it's very large amounts of money from a very small number of billion-dollar foundations. Actually, my blog and most of my writing has been about the science and the money behind environmental campaigns. Really, it's the use of the flawed science and some of the exaggerated claims that are my biggest concerns. Some of what the environmental organizations are saying is simply untrue. This brings me to ask who is funding these campaigns and why.
Another question that comes up is the question of who is calling the shots. Environmentalists insist that they're in the driver's seat. However, this does not quite ring true for me, because most of the foundations funding these campaigns don't accept unsolicited proposals. In other words, they have their own ideas.
The third issue is what we might call the constituency issue. This is an important question for the joint review panel. When an organization receives a substantial portion of its funding from foreign sources, who does that organization represent? For example, RAVEN, a small first-nations group that campaigns heavily against the proposed Prosperity Mine in B.C., reported in its tax return for 2009-2010 that 83% of its funding is from outside Canada. When an organization is that heavily funded by foreign funding, whose interests is it representing? Are they Canadian interests or the interests of its foreign funders, or perhaps both?
Incidentally, I've also seen grants that mention specific mines and other specific projects. In one case, it was a ski resort, the Jumbo Glacier ski resort, in British Columbia.
When billionaire funders are involved in influencing public opinion and public policy on a major issue of national importance, I think the money should be out in the open, whether the billionaire funders are American or Canadian. I believe that this applies to foreign investment and philanthropy, as well.
Going forward, I hope that the CRA will require the same level of disclosure as the IRS. If that had been the case, this would have been out in the open over the last ten years. I also hope, as I've said before, that government and industry will begin a dialogue directly with the American foundations that are funding the campaign against Canadian energy. These foundations give away $1 billion a year. I don't know that they can be outspent, even by the oil industry. They've already spent hundreds of millions of dollars in our country, so I think it's clear that they're serious about what they're doing.
I think the time has come for dialogue directly between the Canadian energy industry and the American foundations that are funding the campaign against it.
Thank you very much.