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The
New Year has arrived, a new government has
been elected and Pembina is blazing ahead
with this year’s projects. But let’s
pause for just a moment to reflect on some
of the outstanding work Pembina and you,
our supporters, achieved in 2005.
 Oil Sands Fever a “bestseller” with
40,000 readers
Although companies have been mining the oil
sands since the late 1960s, little was
known about how these operations impacted
on our air, land and water. All that changed
with the release of Oil Sands Fever, Pembina’s
new book about the environmental implications
of oil sands development. The book was launched
along with our new multi-media website at
www.oilsandswatch.org. Thousands of visitors have been to the website, and the book and video
have been downloaded in
unprecedented numbers.
Kyoto and climate change
more urgent than ever
 Last year Pembina worked hard to hold the
federal government to its commitments on
Kyoto and climate change, especially mandatory
greenhouse gas targets for large industry
(see media
archives). In 2006 Pembina’s
Climate Change Program will be expanding
its efforts and seeking the implementation of
stronger federal policies to cut Canada’s
greenhouse gas emissions. February 16 will
be the first anniversary of the entry into
force of the Kyoto Protocol as a legal obligation
for the government of Canada. UN negotiations
of deeper emission reductions, chaired by
Canada, begin in the spring of 2006.
Safeguarding
Alberta’s boreal forests
 In 2005 we also helped to draw public attention
to the consequences of the Alberta government’s
Mineable
Oil Sands Strategy (MOSS) on 2800
km2 area of boreal forest. Under MOSS the
strip-mining of bitumen would be given priority
over environmental protection. Pembina called
upon the Alberta Government to retract MOSS, completely re-think it and only propose
a policy that guarantees that the ecological
integrity of the region is preserved. Pembina’s
call was joined by a chorus of concerned
citizens and shortly before Christmas the
Alberta Government cancelled hearings scheduled
for January. It is now seeking advice from stakeholders before determining how consultation on policy development moves forward.
Challenging subsidies to the oil and gas
industry
Early last year the Climate Action Network
(CANet) — of which Pembina is an active member
— challenged governments on the gross
subsidies allocated
to Canada’s oil and gas industry.
Pembina’s report, written for CANet
revealed that the federal government gave
Canada’s oil and gas industry more
than $1.4 billion in 2002 in tax concessions
and other subsidies.
 Calling
for a review of an Ontario plan that focuses
on nuclear power and ignores conservation
and renewable energy
Pembina raised the red flag when the Ontario
Power Authority released its recommendations
calling for an investment of up to $83 billion
in new electricity generation, including
up to $40 billion on the refurbishment and
construction of nuclear power plants. Noting
that the proposals underestimate the enormous
potential for energy efficiency and low-impact
renewable energy development in Ontario, and
the scale of the environmental and economic
costs and risks associated with the Power
Authority's proposals, Pembina demanded a
rigorous
and open review of the recommendations
and the assumptions behind them.
Spreading the word far and wide
The above descriptions are a few examples
of the kinds of messages we delivered further
and wider than ever last year. In 2005 we
doubled the number of stories in the media
including a cover story in Maclean’s magazine, headlines on Forbes.com, and stories
in other major international dailies like
the New York Times. In addition more than 300,000
downloadeds of our documents were made from the
internet.
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To date, your participation in Pembina’s
Wind Power program has resulted in a reduction
of almost 14,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas
emission. That's equivalent to taking
more than 3,600 cars off the road for a year.
Alberta’s Genuine Progress Indicator
(GPI), made up of 51 indicators that measure
Alberta’s well-being, is now easier
to access and the results easier to download
at www.fiscallygreen.ca. The website, first
launched last year, has been updated and
redesigned. The GPI measures the well-being
and sustainability of a region. By accounting
for economic, social and environmental factors,
the GPI provides an alternative to current
measures of economic progress such as the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) that are inappropriate
as measures of sustainability. 
After receiving
a $400 cheque courtesy of the Alberta government,
Roger L. Gagné drafted a letter to
the editor of the Calgary Herald and forwarded
his cheque to the Pembina Institute to support
our climate change work.
The series was written by Mary Griffiths
is a senior policy analyst with the Pembina Institute
and the
author of “