"Canadian Companies Supporting Fight Against U.S. Climate Plan: Report"

"Many large Canadian companies are financing legal action and lobbying against President Barack Obama’s climate change plan, putting the public and their investors at risk, said a new report released on Monday by an investment services organization.

The report said that major companies such as BMO Financial, Cenovus, Resolute Forest Products, Suncor and TransCanada Corp are all members of U.S. trade associations that have aggressively lobbied and taken the U.S. government to court to block its Clean Power Plan.

The support for the legal action, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also runs counter to public statements and positions taken by many of these companies, which are making investments to tackle rising carbon pollution, the report said. But the report suggested that these companies could help the planet move forward in tackling dangerous climate change by paying more attention to what these lobby groups are doing with their money and membership fees.

The companies are now allowing their money to be used to block regulations that are designed to reduce heat-trapping carbon pollution from American coal electricity plants - one of the world's largest sources of greenhouse gases, the report warned."

Mike De Souza reports for the National Observer March 13, 2016.