The CBC reports that, “Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt is heard on tape saying she believes the environment minister pushed to divert funds earmarked for wind energy to oil patch projects during pre-budget negotiations, says a report on Thursday.”
“The Halifax Chronicle Herald published a previously unreleased excerpt of (an inadvertently recorded) five-hour (January 30) conversation between Raitt and her former aide, Jasmine MacDonnell.”
“On the tape, Raitt says she believes Environment Minister Jim Prentice redirected wind power funds to the Clean Energy Fund…”
The Edmonton Journal has reported that, “the five-year Clean Energy Fund …features $650 million for large-scale demonstration projects (including carbon capture and sequestration), in addition to $200 million for smaller projects (renewable and alternative energy technologies and systems) and $150 million for research (to encourage the technological breakthroughs needed for renewable clean energy, for hydrogen and fuel cells, to learn more about the geological storage potential in some areas, and for technologies dealing with oilsands environmental issues).”
Prentice told the Chronicle Herald this week that, “I’ve listened to the transcript in question. It doesn’t say Jim Prentice at any point. It doesn’t use the words oil industry or oilsands at any point. It doesn’t use the word pandering at any point. And so, really, this isn’t much of a story.”
In the recording Raitt says, “My suspicion is, what I told you, that Jim took the money for his Clean Energy Plan.”
The CBC report is at www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/06/11/raitt-prentice-wind-leak011.html.
The Chronicle Herald article is at thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1126700.html.
The Edmonton Journal report is at
www.edmontonjournal.com/Business/billion+pledged+carbon+research/1611770/story.html.
