Major Investigative Series Into US-Canada Tar Sands Politics Launched Today at The Tyee

onMar 14, 2011 @ 18:40 PDT

Anyone concerned or simply intrigued by the controversy over Canada’s climate-wrecking tar sands needs to check out The Tyee homepage every day for the next few weeks. The Tyee’s tar sands investigative reporter Geoff Dembicki today released the first installment of his upcoming series exploring the intense lobbying battles taking place right now in Washington, D.C. over the future of tar sands development vis-a-vis the United States’ oil addiction.

Today’s installment was mainly a teaser about what is to come in the series, which will begin in earnest tomorrow with Dembicki’s report on the one-on-one interview he conducted with former Republican congressman Tom Corcoran, who is now a major lobbyist working to convince U.S. lawmakers to embrace Canadian tar sands as a source of non-Middle-Eastern oil.
The series is sure to include many other revelations from interviews Dembicki conducted in Canada and on his recent visits to Washington, where he got to talk to just about everyone except – curiously – the Canadian Embassy, which has refused to meet with him to date.

As Dembicki writes today:

“Wherever people are trying to craft measures to fight climate change by penalizing high-emissions fuel sources, odds are good that the oil sands lobby – including the governments of Alberta and Canada – have put a pin in the map and are pushing back hard.”

Be sure to look out for new installments from the Tyee series in the coming days and weeks. DeSmogBlog will be reading these stories closely and chiming in on the blog about particularly relevant topics for our readers.

Stay tuned.

By Brendan DeMelle

Brendan is Executive Director of DeSmog. He is also a freelance writer and researcher specializing in media, politics, climate change and energy. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Grist, The Washington Times and other outlets.