... climate change plans should be based on facts and science, not anti-oil rhetoric such as that from the "Green Budget Coalition"...
Calgary, Alberta, Canada (PRWEB) March 15, 2016
Friends of Science Society says that despite the warm welcome Prime Minister Trudeau enjoyed at the White House, as reported in the New York Times March 10, 2016, climate change plans should be based on facts and science, not anti-oil rhetoric such as that from the "Green Budget Coalition" in Canada. Friends of Science Society has issued a new report entitled “Keep Canada in the Black” that counters the fossil fuel subsidy claims of anti-oil “Green Budget Coalition” group, many members of which are registered Canadian charities.
According to a policy statement on the Canada Revenue Agency website, it appears that registered charities are not permitted to make partisan or false and misleading representations to the public, nor are they allowed to direct the public to take action to change government policy.
A number of Canadian charities are already under investigation for similar activity and such audits will continue according to a CBC News report of March 14, 2016.
Friends of Science Society is asking the authorities to investigate the propriety of the activities of the registered charity members of the Green Budget Coalition..
Norm Kalmanovitch, P. Geoph., and resident science advisor to Friends of Science Society notes that "As early as 2002, the David Suzuki Foundation was pushing for immediate ratification of the Kyoto Accord without proper scientific review. Now, 14 years later, David Suzuki Foundation is actively pushing Canadians to change government policy, as posted on their website "It's time for Canada to shift to a green economy." LINK: action2.davidsuzuki.org/budget-2016
“The premise seems to be that if we just ‘stop subsidizing fossil fuels – then we would have bags of money for other things,” says Michelle Stirling, Communications Manager for Friends of Science. “However, in our report we show that the Green Budget Coalition relies on a faulty analysis of the claims of fossil fuel subsidies.”
Stirling says that Canada’s oil and gas industries operate under the similar tax write-offs and deferments, applicable to other corporations, adding that oil and gas companies are tax payers all year long, as are their employees, and the oil and gas industries create a cascade of spin-off value-added products and jobs.
Friends of Science particularly object to claims that export and development loans from Canada’s Export Development Corporation (EDC) are being listed as ‘subsidies.’
“These are clearly loans,” says Stirling. “According to the EDC’s website, the EDC is a self-financing operation and they loan money which is repaid. A loan is not a subsidy.”
Friends of Science Society says that registered charities with an anti-oil stance are damaging the goodwill and social license of corporations doing business in Canada, while these charities themselves are directly subsidized by taxpayers.
"The world runs on 3 cubic miles of oil equivalent energy every year. One cubic mile is oil," says Stirling. "Only 0.01 cubic mile of that is from wind and solar. There is no real low-carbon economy. These groups are misleading people."
About
Friends of Science Society has spent a decade reviewing a broad spectrum of literature on climate change and have concluded the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2). Friends of Science is made up of a growing group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens.
Friends of Science Society
P.O. Box 23167, Mission P.O.
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2S 3B1
Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597 Free
Web: friendsofscience.org
E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience(dot)org
