RBF supported efforts to stop the development of the Alberta tar sands and shut down coal-fired power plants.
The government claims the cuts are intended to shift more resources towards monitoring development of the Alberta tar sands, the core of Harper's economic strategy.
Hansen has said many times that he was misquoted — he was referring to the full development of the Alberta oil sands, not the pipeline per se.
May takes her seat in parliament under the first conservative majority government in years, and will struggle to exert influence on such combustible issues as climate change and development of the Alberta tar sands.
Around the time of his departure, WikiLeaks released a slew of diplomatic cables, including one describing a 2009 meeting during which Goldwyn and Canadian officials discussed development of the Alberta oil sands a project benefiting some of the same firms behind the US-Libya Business Association.
While the Harper government has staked its economic vision on the full development of the Alberta tar sands, a crash in oil prices created a budgetary crisis in early 2015 and contributed to a contraction of the Canadian economy, which many economists say is in a recession.
The pipeline would allow for further development of the Alberta tar sands oil, a move that activists worry could be disastrous environmental consequences.
Environmental advocates (including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which publishes OnEarth) have sought to block the Keystone XL pipeline and further development of the Alberta tar sands fields due to their climate impact and potential for pollution and dangerous oil spills.
Furthermore the Keystone XL pipeline is recognized by the tar-sands industry as a key spigot for the future development of the Alberta tar sands, which would emit 840 billion tons CO2e if fully exploited.
He is best known for his work opposing the development of the Alberta tar sands and reliance on fossil fuels in general, but has also engaged in civil liberties and student activism.
We used the US valuation scheme because at the time of the analysis a Canadian scheme is still under-development (Dr. Jeffrey A. Johnson, University of Alberta, personal communication, April 3, 2010).
