Blogger made headlines by tracking U. S. contributions to Canadian environmental groups
Vancouver researcher Vivian Krause’s theory is that huge American funding agencies such as Pew Charitable Trusts and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund have ulterior motives in sending $ 300 million to Canadian environmental groups since 2000. “In various environmental campaigns in Canada, American economic and trade interests are being protected,” Krause writes in the introduction to her blog, called Rethink Campaigns. “For example, the campaign against oil- tanker traffi c on the north coast of British Columbia would landlock Canadian oil and continue the virtual monopoly that the U. S. has on our oil exports — all in the name of protecting the environment. No oil tanker traffi c means no oil exports to Asia.” Environmental groups ridicule this notion, pointing out that the same trusts have funded environmental organizations campaigning against the stalled Keystone XL pipeline to refi neries in Texas. That project advances U. S. energy security, helps the oilsands industry by expanding its markets, and would have created less political momentum in favour of Northern Gateway, if it had been approved last year. Krause, who pores through U. S. annual reports and tax returns, has acknowledged she has never found a link between the anti- oilsands campaigns and U. S. companies or individuals who would fi nancially benefi t from the project not proceeding. “I have seen no glaring evidence of commercial interests in the U. S. that are funding the campaigns against the Northern Gateway,” she said last year.