Energy News
Alberta oilsands battles blackened reputation
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- Category: News
A western Canadian think-tank has issued a new report that suggests proponents of the Alberta oilsands may never win the public relations battle over the resource.
“Simply put, dead ducks are news and ducks that are successfully scared off tailings ponds are not,” concludes Blackened Reputation: A Year of Coverage of Alberta’s Oil Sands, in reference to the ongoing media coverage of 1,600 ducks that died on a Syncrude tailings pond.
The report, released by the Canada West Foundation, analyzes national and international coverage of the Alberta oilsands from May 2009 to April 2010.
Over that time period, more than 4,000 stories related to the oilsands were found in both online and traditional media outlets. Of that sample, 55% of stories were considered negative, with 31% positive and 14% neutral.
The report suggests that environmental groups have been more successful in spreading their message than industry proponents, even though this has done little to affect actual oilsands development.
Coverage of the environmental effects of the oilsands was predominantly negative at 71%, while economic stories were largely positive at 61%. However, environmental stories about the oilsands outnumbered economic coverage by a ratio of nearly two to one.
“At the moment, the general media impression indicates that oilsands are environmentally damaging yet essential to the Canadian economy,” says Roger Gibbins, CEO of the Canada West Foundation. “Oilsands are tagged with an image of open pit mining, forests reduced to moonscapes, toxic lakes and labelled as dirty oil. The fact is that the oil industry now uses methods that don’t involve pits or waste ponds and are working to reduce the carbon footprint. This needs to be successfully communicated to the public if the industry’s reputation is to recover.”
A case in point is the current controversy over Rethink Alberta, Corporate Ethics International’s recently launched campaign to discourage tourism to the province until oilsands development is halted.
The campaign, which includes billboards, online advertising and a website, compares the oilsands to the crude oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A strong backlash against the campaign has raised questions about its accuracy. Last week, a video on the company’s website was pulled because it erroneously claimed oilsands development is destroying an area twice the size of England. A corrected version of the video has since been posted, but concerns about the campaign’s accuracy remain.
“Contrary to what some would have you believe, for example, water used in oilsands operations is not discharged into rivers, or allowed to seep into groundwater,” Premier Ed Stelmach explained in a recent speech. “That's illegal in Alberta. And we keep a very close eye to make sure it's not happening.”
A website dedicated to critiquing the campaign’s claims can be found at rethinkrethinkalberta.blogspot.com.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has also taken aim at the group. “We suggest to Corporate Ethics International the only ethical response is a full correction to their ads, website and statements to media,” says Janet Annesley, vice-president of communications for CAPP.
“Our research indicates that Canadians want a more balanced discussion than activist groups have so far provided,” says Annesley. “Saying, ‘Stop the fill-in-the-blank,’ over and over with no realistic energy or economic solutions offered is a message that appeals to peoples’ environmental concerns, but does not recognize our needs also for energy and economic growth.”
