September 15, 2009 -- Dan Woynillowicz, spokesperson for the Pembina Institute, made the following statements in response to Shell's media release regarding the occupation of its oil sands mine by Greenpeace activists:
"Shell's release makes a misleading statement regarding the Pembina Institute's ranking of its environmental performance. The Pembina Institute/WWF's 2008 report card on the environmental performance of oil sands mines found that Shell's new oil sands mines are getting worse, not better.
"The report card showed that even the highest scoring oil sands mine scored just 56 percent. Shell's newest mine ranked eighth out of ten, scoring only 26 percent.
"Shell has demonstrated a disregard for commitments it made to stakeholders, as evidenced by its recent decision to abandon a written commitment to the Oil Sands Environmental Coalition (OSEC) to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 900,000 tonnes per year at its new oil sands facilities. Through actions like this Shell is reinforcing the growing mistrust that local stakeholders and Canadians have for the oil sands industry."
Original press release can be found at: http://www.oilsandswatch.org/media-release/1885
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The Pembina Institute is a non-partisan sustainable energy think tank.
For more information, contact:
Dan Woynillowicz
The Pembina Institute
Cell: 403-888-6272
danw[at]pembina.org
