TransCanada Buys Town’s Silence On Tar Sands Pipeline Proposal For $28K
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/05/3456698/mattawa-transcanada-agreement/
A small town in Ontario, Canada will be receiving $28,200 from energy company TransCanada Corp. in exchange for not commenting on the companys proposed Energy East tar sands pipeline project, according to an agreement attached to the town councils meeting agenda on June 23.
Under the terms of deal, the town of Mattawa will not publicly comment on TransCanadas operations or business projects for five years. In exchange for that silence, TransCanada will give Mattawa $28,200, which will ultimately go towards buying a rescue truck for the town.
This is a gag order, Andrea Harden-Donahue, a campaigner for energy and climate issues with the Council of Canadians, told Bloomberg News. These sorts of dirty tricks impede public debate on Energy East, a pipeline that comes with significant risks for communities along the route.
The terms of the agreement did not specifically mention the controversial Energy East pipeline, which would carry more than a million barrels of tar sands crude oil across Canada each day. However, the deal is being widely seen as a way for the company to avoid obstacles that may get in the way of the pipelines approval especially considering the obstacles that have long plagued the approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline in the United States.