CANADIAN ENERGY COS. PUSH KEYSTONE
A coalition of Canadian oil sands companies has hired the lobbying firm of former Texas Republican Congressman Jack Fields to lobbying on behalf of TransCanada’s controversial Keystone Pipeline designed to transport shale oil from Canada to refineries in the Lone Star State.
The In Situ Oil Alliance is composed of Calgary-based companies Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd., Laricina Energy Ltd., MEG Energy Corp. and Petrobank Energy and Resources is backing the push made by Fields’ Twenty-First Century Group.
Fields, who represented Houston in Congress, reps the coalition on issues related to Canadian oil sands including Keystone, North America-Made Energy Security Act and repeal of Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act, which bans federal purchase of shale oil.
He’s assisted by Jocelyn Hong, former aide to Sen. John Glenn and member of President Clinton’s transition team, and Jay Grimes, a former House Armed Services Committee staffer.
A Congressional showdown on Keystone is slated this week. House Speaker John Boehner plans a vote House on the Middle Class Tax Relief & Job Creation Act, a package that includes extension of the payroll tax cut, extending unemployment insurance and approval of the Keystone pipeline as a job-creation measure.
President Obama, on December 7, promised to veto any payroll tax measure that is linked with Keystone. He plans to rule on Keystone after next year’s election.
TransCanada uses Van Ness Feldman, Bryan Cave, and McKenna Long and Aldridge as its Washington representatives.
ARKANSAS REVIEWS ANTI-SMOKING PR
Arkansas has kicked off a review of its $1.3M antitobacco PR efforts with an RFP process through late January 2012.
The campaign, dubbed “Stamp Out Smoking,” works to educate adults and youth about tobacco prevention and cessation programs through various forms of media, including PR, grassroots, sponsorships and paid PSAs. It has run in the state in some form since 1993 but was transformed in 2001 with the Master Settlement Agreement between the states and Big Tobacco.
Cranford Johnson Robertson Woods of Little Rock is the incumbent. Proposals are due Jan. 20.
View the RFP: http://odwpr.us/tSupJ6.
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