@alienghic @Snoro And #PetroMasculinity is a good way to describe the #Oiligarchy, which espouses exploitation of others!

@penpencilbrush On the family that owns New Brunswick
By Abbie Moser / green issue / September 27, 2019

"How one family creates and curates a culture of fear throughout an entire province

"There are very few names that stir up as much debate and controversy in New Brunswick as “Irving” does. As Canada’s eighth wealthiest family, formerly the third wealthiest family in 2014, the Irvings are ranked 13th in terms of most extensive landownership globally, the largest private landowner in Maine, and the fifth largest private landowner in America—the Irving family have disproportionately impacted the historical and contemporary development of my home province. Strong opinions on the Irving family and its corporation are limited to residents of the province, and Canada’s most unknown and corrupt family has gone out of their way to ensure that it has remained this way for decades.

"With their current net worth of $7.38 billion, the Irving family had humble beginnings. The dynastic company got its start back in the 1920s when K.C. Irving started a small service station in his hometown of Bouctouche, New Brunswick. With persistence, he would eventually turn this service station into Irving Oil, a 3,000-franchise distributor across the east coast that controls more than 250 enterprises scattered across North America. None of the various companies that the Irvings own are up for public trade, allowing for no financial transparency. The Irving Oil refinery in #SaintJohn, New Brunswick is the largest oil refinery in all of Canada. The #LungCancer rates in Saint John also just so happen to be 50 percent higher than in #Fredericton and #Moncton, the province’s other major cities, and are likely linked to #environmental factors instead of smoking. Their empire spans from #energy, #forestry, #trucking, #construction, #shipyards, and hardware stores, to owning every single #newspaper in the province (no, I’m not exaggerating), and even a junior league hockey team. Together, the various companies, which are all privately owned by the family, are estimated to be worth $10 billion.

"To feed an oil refinery that produces up to 320,000 barrels a day, Irving imports 100 million barrels of oil each year, most of which comes from #SaudiArabia. The family owns more than 900 gas stations, railway lines, shipping companies, and paper & pulp mills. Supplying 60% of the gasoline in Boston, the Irvings are responsible for nearly one-fifth of American gasoline imports. They employ roughly one in every eight New Brunswickers and account for more than half of the province’s exports.

"K.C. believed heavily in vertical integration and instilled the values of loyalty, hard work, and attention to detail into his empire. He was one of the first Canadians to utilize offshore #TaxHavens, placing his companies in a trust in Bermuda. This move to Bermuda would eventually prompt a Canada Revenue Agency investigation that would reveal that the Irvings’ move allowed them to lower their tax bill by $142 million. Now, roughly a dozen Irving companies are based in Bermuda. Escaping taxes is something that the Irvings are professionals at now. Oil refineries in Alberta that produce the same daily quantity as the one that the Irvings own would pay roughly between $15-16 million a year in taxes while the Irving’s refinery gets away with paying only $5 million.

"The Irvings continue to exploit the province, the natural resources of which have allowed for their wealth and power to flourish, without giving as much as a dime back to the province, allowing for our provincial infrastructure and education systems to suffer. New Brunswick is the second poorest province in Canada—our median income is the lowest amongst the provinces, we have the highest unemployment rates, our provincial government is facing a $453 million deficit, and is paying $685 million a year towards debt-servicing costs. This family doesn’t stop at exploiting the environment; they continue to exploit New Brunswickers, without whom their fortune would not exist. In 2013, it was revealed that Moncton taxpayers paid $88,000 per year to the Moncton Wildcats hockey team to compensate for the loss of income in their corporate seats. Robert Irving owns this hockey team, and the citizens of Moncton were never told that their tax dollars would be distributed to the team. City council made this decision under the condition that another Irving business would establish operations in the city."

Read more:
https://thestrand.ca/on-the-family-that-owns-new-brunswick/

#Pollution #OilRefinery #Oligarchy #Oiligarchy #Toxic

Supreme Court clears way for #MountainValleyPipeline construction to proceed

By Ariane de Vogue and Ella Nilsen, CNN
Updated 2:06 PM EDT, Thu July 27, 2023

"The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for construction of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline to proceed, granting an emergency request from backers of the project that has the support of Congress and the Biden administration.

"The justices agreed to lift lower court orders that froze construction of the project while legal challenges play out.

"The Supreme Court’s order is a victory for #WestVirginia Sen. #JoeManchin, a conservative Democrat who has championed the project and pushed for it during #DebtCeiling negotiations in June.

"In the brief order, the court offered no extensive reasoning and no dissents were noted.

"The order came as the White House announced new actions to combat #climate-fueled extreme heat, which has been baking cities in the Southwest for weeks before moving Northeast on Thursday.

"Despite #ClimateActivists urging the Biden administration to stop approving #FossilFuel projects like the #MountainValley Pipeline, White House officials have been supportive of the pipeline since it was first introduced in Congress last year. More recently, administration officials including White House senior adviser #JohnPodesta and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm voiced support this year for the pipeline’s approval.

"The White House did not immediately return CNN’s request for comment on the Supreme Court allowing the pipeline to proceed."

Read more:

#SCOTUS #Manchin #StopThePipelines #KeepItInTheGround #Oiligarchy #Oligarchy #BigOil #BigOilKnew #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

The #UnitedStates isn't just an #Oligarchy, it's an #Oiligarchy! Yes, folks -- Oiligarchy is no game -- it's reality!
#BigOil #BigOilKnew

9) How about using #RICO to sue the #oil companies for the devastation wrought by the #ClimateCrisis?

For those not familiar with - RICO - Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act - a body of law designed to destroy organize crime aka the Mafia

An important case using RICO exposes the #oiligarchy to crippling fines. Should the suit succeed a new front will be opened up against the polluters

#ClimateChange
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/climate/climate-lawsuit-puerto-rico.html

Gegen die ÖLigarchen aller Länder, ihr abhängigen Menschen, vereinigt euch! #ÖLigarchen #OILigarchy #DontPanicOrganize

'While #TailingsPond leaked, Imperial Oil lobbied #Alberta government on ‘cost-effective’ regulation

"This is an environmental catastrophe that the #AER and #ImperialOil tried to cover up and now the premier and minister are trying to minimize." '
-#ChiefAdam, #ACFN

#AthabascaChipewyanFirstNation #OILigarchy #abpoli #cdnpoli

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/tailings-pond-leak-while-imperial-oil-lobbied-alberta-energy-regulator/

#SusanOnTheSoapbox: "Albertans are asking a lot of questions about #RStar, the $100 million pilot program designed to give owners of inactive wells a royalty credit on new wells if they clean up their old wells which they’re legally obligated to clean up in the first place."

#OILigarchy #OrphanOilwells #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

https://susanonthesoapbox.com/2023/02/26/the-day-premier-smith-lost-all-credibility/

“The plan is #CorporateWelfare, with Albertans bearing the cost of the private sector’s unfulfilled obligations and cleaning up the mess left behind after profits are extracted.”

#OILigarchy #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #Alberta #DanielleSmith #DanielleSmithIsUnfitToLead

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-danielle-smiths-corporate-welfare-for-the-oil-industry/

@WBOrcutt Without a doubt. Here in Alberta there's talk of giving them 20 BILLION dollars to clean up the oil wells they're already on the hook to clean up. Blows the mind. We talk about it in our next podcast, hope you'll consider giving it a listen, Bill!

#OILigarchy #abpoli #ClimateChange #OrphanWells
https://canada.masto.host/@Bentley/109837052917992077

"Conservatism" is now and has always been a fraud

****

"An analysis from #Scotiabank said companies best placed to take advantage of the program were four healthy companies that recorded a combined net income of nearly $5 billion last quarter."

#OILigarchy #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #DanielleSmithIsUnfitToLead #DanielleSmith #ucp #NDP #Conservatism

https://globalnews.ca/news/9478880/ndp-alberta-smith-campaign-funding/

Obviously it should go without saying that any #BigOil company that sold their #OrphanWells to companies all knew couldn't pay for the cleanup should not only not get one cent of this 20 billion but no federal #CCS $ either. Same with oil companies that took #CERB then turned around and offered #ShareBuyBacks to investors. Fool me once...

#abpoli #ableg #DanielleSmith #NDP #cdnpoli #OILigarchy https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/bankrupt-oil-companies-are-saddling-alberta-landowners-with-orphan-wells/

If ultra-wealthy industry front groups begging money from governments like #PathwaysNetZero want a shred of credibility they need to answer whether they agree with #Scotiabank (no innocents themselves on all this) or not. Every Albertan deserves an answer.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #OILigarchy

https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/02/09/scotiabank-says-royalty-credits-for-well-cleanup-would-damage-industrys-reputation.html

Here's the prime #OrphanOilwell problem as I understand it: #BigOil (which has all the $ in the world) "sells off" spent oilwells to small companies going bankrupt & who could *never* afford cleanup in the first place. This from an industry claiming to produce #EthicalOil.

It's the same bunch of crooks that'd like us to trust them on #CCS and think Canada should give them billions. Just ask the enormous liars at
#PathwaysNetZero.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #OILigarchy

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-orphan-wells-cleanup-bill-12-1.5528257

#TorontoStar: "Alberta’s #oilpatch is making record billions. So why should we pay for their carbon capture plant?

So far, 2023 is shaping up as another year of booming profits for the #Alberta oilpatch and another year of industry sloth in making a start on its promised reductions of greenhouse gas emissions (#GHG)."

#OILigarchy #abpoli #ableg

https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2023/02/04/albertas-oilpatch-is-making-record-billions-so-why-should-we-pay-for-their-carbon-capture-plant.html

#CTV: 'What exactly did we get?' #Alberta senator questions hundreds of millions to clean up #OrphanWells

"I asked (the #PBO) whether any of that $556 million had gone to cleaning up actual orphaned wells. And I was informed by the parliamentary budget analyst that not one single orphan well in Alberta -- not one -- had been cleaned up with this grant money," @Paulatics said Monday.

#OILigarchy #abpoli #cdnpoli #ableg

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/what-exactly-did-we-get-alberta-senator-questions-hundreds-of-millions-to-clean-up-orphan-wells-1.5792062

#CBCNews: "Alberta launches talks on proposed tax breaks for oil companies that clean up old wells

The idea has been widely panned by economists, environmentalists, rural municipalities and analysts within Alberta Energy. Critics call the program risky, opaque and a violation of the polluter-pay principle."

#OILigarchy #abpoli #ableg

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/oil-gas-wells-pilot-project-alberta-energy-minister-peter-guthrie-1.6741313

"Alberta to pilot oil and gas royalty breaks for legally required well cleanup"

#OILigarchy #abpoli #ableg

https://calgaryherald.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/alberta-to-pilot-oil-and-gas-royalty-breaks-for-legally-required-well-cleanup/wcm/2a6f762e-65a1-4f83-9167-3e6c6ffd504d?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1675878773

#PressProgress: "#DanielleSmith is Pushing The Same $20 Billion Corporate Giveaway She Pushed as a Corporate Lobbyist

Both Smith and Energy Minister #PeterGuthrie have endorsed the #RStar pilot program, which would transfer $20 billion for #OilAndGas companies to “incentivize” them to clean up their well sites – something they are already obligated to do under the law."

#OILigarchy #abpoli #ableg #OrphanOilwells #Alberta

https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-is-pushing-the-same-20-billion-corporate-giveaway-she-pushed-as-a-corporate-lobbyist/