EPIC's epic National Energy Program

After CBC reported that the RCMP had seized Bruce Carson's bank records as part of their investigation into his alleged illegal lobbying on behalf of the Energy Policy Institute of Canada, the policy think tank comprised of most of Canada's energy resource extraction corporations promptly went offline.  It's still offline.

This is not the first time poor old EPIC's website has melted away when struck by sunlight, only to reanimate a few days or weeks later with a member or two missing.

EPIC's whole purpose is to formulate a national energy program and get it implemented. 

Last night while I was reading their January 2011 report to government, A Strategy For Canada's Global Energy Leadership, [currently missing pages 11-26 and 29 and yes, I have no life], commenter Hugh left a link to their Aug 2012 presser announcing its release. 
Energy Policy Institute of Canada: Key Directions for a Canadian Energy Strategy Released    Excerpted, bold mine :

"EPIC's concentration on regulatory improvements were clearly laid out in draft documents presented to provincial and federal ministers in the summer of 2011 and, earlier this year, Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver announced legislative changes that would put EPIC's recommendations into federal law. Regulatory changes within Bill C-38 reflect recommendations of EPIC surrounding regulatory streamlining." 

That would be Bill C-38, aka the Environmental Destruction Act, the 400 page omnibus budget bill fast-tracked by the Cons through the House and finance committee, amending or repealing 70 federal laws in a single bill, including gutting environmental legislation and, as EPIC boasts, streamlining the regulatory review process. 

As APTN reports, then EPIC president and now Senator Doug Black put it the previous year :

"I would like to acknowledge our three vice chairs that presented our work to the energy ministers: Bruce Carson, Gerry Protti and Daniel Gagnier."

Yeah, Team Tarsands :

• Bruce Carson, Harper's "The Fixer" inside the PMO, a lawyer disbarred for fraud in the 80's currently facing charges of influence peddling on behalf of his 22-year-old ex-sex worker fiancee to sell water purifiers to First Nations with polluted water, and also lobbying for millions in government grants within 5 years of leaving government. 
• Gerry Protti, founder of the oil industry lobby group the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and now head of the 100% industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator, which streamlines the regulatory approval process for oil companies - the very recommendation touted in EPIC's presser and Global Energy Leadership report.
• Daniel Gagnier, active registered lobbyist for EPIC, go-between between Bruce Carson and Quebec Premier Charest in 2010, and now President of EPIC and Justin Trudeau's national co-campaign manager

Note : I have to catch a few hours sleep and go to work. In 12 hours or so I'll replace this note with some unpacking of EPIC's success at writing our national energy program with regard to importing workers to the tarsands, building a pipeline through BC,  etc  
Update : Scratch that. Got tl/dr, so new post instead - EPIC's epic NEP - Part 2

EPIC is not shy about naming the hurdles confronting their goal of making Canada a global energy superpower. In the meantime till I get back, here's a bit of their past research pointing out a few of them : 

1) A comparison of country's share of the total energy R&D investment budgets (in US $ millions) using combined data from 2007 and 2008:

2) Forecast for the US to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017, and a net oil exporter by 2025

3)Estimated loss of $4 billion in federal tax revenue from discounted oil and gas prices

4)Direct employment in the energy industry in Canada in 2008 was approx. 2% of the labour force.

5)The energy supply sector accounted for approx. 7% of Canada's GDP in 2009.

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