Con leakage

Impolitical mops up the latest embarrassing Con leakage -Con MP Kelly Block's staffer Russell Ullyatt who was fired for leaking drafts of confidential Finance Committee reports to at least four Con-connected industry lobbyists.
"I heart you," one of them wrote back to Ullyatt on receipt of his "Thought you'd like to see this in its infancy" covering note.

So whenever CBC's Power and Politics is done wrapping up its important coverage of the opinions of the Bonhomme mascot, here are a few other connections the CBC might consider following. After all, Ullyatt may well have only taken up leaking confidential docs to industry lobbyists for the very first time this week but given he's been swimming in the Con pool for some years now, it wouldn't hurt to ask, would it?

Prior to being hired by Brock, leaker Russell Ullyatt was employed as Senior Special Assistant to Secretary of State Helena Guergis (Foreign Affairs and International Trade).
In 2008 Ullyatt was campaign manager for Con MP Rob Clarke, the former RCMP sergeant who made the news when a "uniformed RCMP officer was spotted delivering campaign signs out of an RCMP truck".

The leaked docs recipients

Lynne Hamilton, former Mike Harris alumnus now a VP at GCI Group, and author of the "I heart you" note.
The GCI Group Leadership Team page lists Ken Boessenkool, former Senior Policy Advisor to Stephen Harper, as Senior Counsel. Hamilton's bio :

7 years at Hill & Knowlton plus previous government posts :
Chief of Staff to the Ontario Associate Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development
Environment Ministry media coordinator in 2000 for the Walkerton water tragedy
Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism -"handled the corporate
restructuring of over 40 companies for the Government"
Ontario Premier’s office co-ordinating the daily issue binder for question period.

Tim Egan, CEO at the Canadian Gas Association.

Founding director of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project aka Not Really Science People - the Tim Ball and Tom Harris climate change skeptics group. Former President of the High Park Group, a Toronto-based lobby organization of which Tom Harris is the former head of its Ottawa office.

Clarke Cross, senior consultant with Tactix Group and former Legislative Assistant to Con/Alliance MPs James Lunney and Leon Benoit

Andy Gibbons of Hill and Knowlton , also formerly a legislative assistant to Con MP Leon Benoit.

Con cabinet ministers and the former political insiders who are now paid to lobby them - you can see how Russell Ullyatt might easily have got the two email lists confused. If only there was some sort of rule to keep the two separate.
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Tom Harris - Busted!

A post from Tom Harris, Natural Resources Stewardship Project, at Free Dominion :*

Posted: 01/ 10/ 07 2:20 pm
Post subject: If the science is wrong, then nothing else matters

"I completely agree with fourhorses that the ultimate aim is to create a situation where the CPC can say assertively, "The science no longer supports the assumptions of the Kyoto Accord."

However, politically this cannot be done overnight without the Conservatives taking what they consider to be an unacceptable hit (do people think they would really lose votes with this statement (from Canadians who would otherwise vote for them, that is?).

So, the solution put on this site a little while ago by Tina is one I would support as well - namely, they don't take sides at all and admit they don't know and so are holding unbiased, public hearings in which scientists from both sides are invited to testify. The resulting chaos, with claims all over the map, will do enough to thoroughly confuse everyone (which is appropriate, actually, since the science is so immature and, frankly, confusing) and take the wind out of the sails of the "we are causing a climate disaster and must stop it" camp entirely, and the CPC can quietly turn to important issues without really having had to say much at all.

What's wrong with this approach?

Sincerely,
Tom Harris, Executive Director, Natural Resources Stewardship Project
Web: www.nrsp.com


Dear Sir :

What's wrong with this approach you ask?
I do believe I can answer that question for you.

1) Contrary to what you seem to believe, it is not the aim of science to create "chaos" and "thoroughly confuse everyone".
We leave that to the paid shills and hacks of the oil industry.

2) Science is not a handmaiden to the agenda of any political party.
This includes inventing dubious vote-getting strategies for the Cons.

3) To the extent to which such a bullshit scheme might be temporarily successful, you would serve to undermine public confidence in the very discipline you claim to represent.

Finally, and this is the most important one for you and your organization so pay attention :

4) With this single post on a public forum, you have completely forfeited any claim you or your organization might have had to represent either science or scientists.

Sincerely,
Alison, Creekside

*with thanks to the anonymous researcher who sent me this link.

Update and Note to Self : Always check to see if that speedy little Zorpheous fellow didn't get there first.

They call it science. We call it bullshit.

"CO2 They call it pollution. We call it life."

Remember that TV ad from the Competitive Enterprise Institute , the one arguing that global warming is not really a problem? They also did the one about how the polar icecaps are actually increasing in size.
A policy research think tank [Ed. note : Read 'oil industry front'], CEI received $2 million from ExxonMobil over the last 8 years.

No more. Exxon has pulled the plug.

From Reuters and CNN :
"Exxon, the world's largest oil company and a longtime skeptic that humans are responsible for global warming, is joining other industries at a series of meetings in Washington and elsewhere to discuss how laws on U.S. carbon control should be written, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Exxon's thinking on global warming has recently become more in-line with those in the scientific community who believe global warming is a human-made reality.
Exxon has also said it has stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank that questioned the premise that humans are largely responsible for causing global warming by burning fossil fuels with ad campaigns like "Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution; we call it life."

From the ExxonMobil website :

"ExxonMobil takes climate change extremely seriously. We recognise that the risk of climate change and its potential impacts on society and ecosystems may prove to be significant and that actions are needed to address this issue.
We are taking actions to reduce emissions now and are also investing in research and technology in the area of advanced vehicles and fuels, energy technology and climate science that can help find long-term solutions to global warming.
ExxonMobil is taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now."

Still, not everyone seems to have got the memo.
The Natural Resources Stewardship Project, a Canadian environmental policy research think tank which evidently feels the need to put quotation marks around words like "green energy" and "environmentalists", lays out a strategy which quite likely involves a child blowing on a dandelion :

"NRSP’s first campaign is focused on dispelling the notion that Canada needs CO2 reduction plans. CO2 is very unlikely to be a substantial driver of climate change and is not a pollutant."

NRSP, a Canadian environmental think tank more regressive than Exxon.

For more on the parentage of Not Really Science People [Ed. note: Tim Ball!] : BigCityLib

UPDATE : From Rabett Run :
"Richard Littlemore [DeSmogBlog] has the Calgary Herald's statement of defense against Tim Ball suing them because they called him Tim Ball."
Heh. Go Dan Johnson.

Related post : Tim Ballyhoo