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The Alberta government has hired crisis management [7] guru Peter Sandman [8] to help it defuse concerns over the environmental impact of the oilsands mining industry. In April, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach sought to defend the discovery of 500 dead ducks found in a tailings pond. At a cost of C$35,000, Sandman spent two days advising Alberta Environment officials on how to "handle regular public meetings and controversies" over oil extraction. "It's not a secret that when you mine bitumen, it's pretty ugly. ... It's not shocking that tailings ponds occasionally kill ducks," Sandman said. Lindsay Telfer from the Sierra Club of Canada [9] told the Calgary Herald that she wondered how Sandman's advice affects the government's "very specific attempts to greenwash [10] the oilsands."
Links:
[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/7/bob-burton
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/crisis-management
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/corporations
[4] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/environment
[5] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations
[6] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2008%2F05%2F7372%2Fduck-and-cover&linkname=Duck%20and%20Cover
[7] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/crisis_management
[8] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peter_Sandman
[9] http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphere-energy/energy-onslaught/tar-sands-fly-over.html
[10] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/greenwashing
[11] http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=3b749a09-bcd6-41e5-bc2c-404a7d10d7d9