Christy Clark`s Newest LNG Investor, The Deforester

Indonesia billionaire proposes small-scale LNG export plant in B.C.

Latest Oil and Gas News: 

March 11, 2013

 

- Controversial Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto has purchased an industrial site in Squamish, B.C., 30 miles north of Vancouver, for the purposes of exporting LNG. The self-educated entrepreneur has been criticized for environmental practices elsewhere in his $12 billion industrial empire, raising questions about his B.C. venture. Environmental watchers say Tanoto's logging company has a checkered record in cutting down Indonesia's rainforests and destroying wildlife habitat.


"His company is the leading driver of deforestation in Indonesian peat lands," said Shane Moffatt, a Toronto-based campaigner for Greenpeace. "I would really question what his track record means for his Canadian plans," he said. Tanoto said in an undated posting on his website that he has learned from past environmental mistakes and is changing his practices. Tanoto branched out into palm oil, pulp and now energy, where he is a partner in an LNG receiving terminal in China that opened in 2012.

Tanoto's energy company, Pacific Oil & Gas, said it would use a deep-water port at an old pulp mill site to operate what it calls a "small-scale" LNG facility. "Pacific Oil & Gas is in the early stages of planning," said Pacific Energy Corp. president Ratnesh Bedi from Singapore. Export volumes would be about 100 billion cubic feet of gas as LNG per year, one-tenth the size of a larger plant being planned in Kitimat. The 210-acre site was purchased last month for $25.5 million from Western Forest Products.

 http://www.arcticgas.gov/2013/indonesia-billionaire-proposes-small-scale-lng-export-plant-bc
______________

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwB2tN9xly8

Watch Christy Clark in this video say.....Watch Christy Clark say nothing, no mention of the man or his company`s name..Just blather about a head office opening in B.C.

______________

Dear Madam & Sir

I have noted with concern that you are accepting donation from Sukanto Tanoto and established theTanoto Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies at HKUST.

Sukanto Tanoto is the CEO of APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Limited). APRIL is a company which is known to be responsible for clearing massive areas of rainforest in the Indonesian province of Riau to create acacia plantations.APRIL is also draining large areas of peat bog. APRIL’s production methods are an ecological, social, and climatic catastrophe.

Are you comfortable having a centre named after a man who is famosu for tax fraud and destroying rainforests in Indonesia.

The rainforest on Sumatra is a highly diverse ecosystem – if the forest dies, the native animals and plants will have no chance to survive. This development especially threatens the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger – the greatest threat to this animal is listed as “the loss of habitat through palm oil and acacia plantations.” In 2010, APRIL was banned from the FSC certification system as a consequence of its production methods.

Furthermore, the rainforest is home to agricultural communities that process products traditionally and sustainably. The plantations are threatening to drive these farmers from their land and destroy their livelihoods.

The peat bogs in particular are important natural carbon sinks. In destroying the bogs, massive quantities of stored greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. Due to the destruction of its rainforests, Indonesia is the third-largest CO2 emitter in the world. The acacia plantations created to manufacture PaperOne paper exacerbate the negative impact on our climate.

As a respected university, you should share responsibility for ensuring that the donation you accept does not come from operation that destroy the environment, causing global warming, and destruct the habitat of human and animals.

I emphatically request that you consider the donation, consequently setting a positive example of how universities can embody corporate responsibility, respect for human rights, and environmental protection.

Respectfully,

____________

Sukanto Tanoto’s Corporate Sins

This is taken from Chris Wright’s article:

http://www.chriswrightmedia.com/ifr-sukanto-tanoto-float-shows-asia-appetite-despite-history/

Lots of people know Sukanto well. 

Bank Mandiri, which published a list of its top bad debtors in 2006, with Sukanto’s Raja Garuda Mas pulp and paper company at the top by an absolute mile, owing Rp5.35 trillion in principal and interest at that time.

 Sukanto’s conglomerate of interests – which also includes the pulp, paper and fibre group April, the palm oil group Asian Agri and the resources group Pacific Oil and Gas – was badly hit in the Asian financial crisis, which came just as April was in the middle of a US$2 billion fundraising exercise for expansion. For years subsequently, Sukanto companies struggled to repay their debts, a position that observers have struggled to square with his great personal wealth. In particular, the member companies of the April Group – Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP), Riau Prima Energy and Riau Andalan Kertas – wrestled with the almost US$1.5 billion they owed in 1999, with many creditors claiming attempts at commercially workable restructurings had been blocked or delayed. Foreign banks thought to have had to sell out of their claims at steep losses include Citi, ING and Standard Chartered.

________

Tanoto’s kind donation came from selling paper that came from old natural rainforests. Every year Singapore complains about receiving smoke from burning forests in Indonesia. Part of this smoke came from Tanoto’s plantation and forest clearing.
As you all know Sukanto Tanoto is the founder and chairman of APRIL, the largest paper mill compant in Indonesia that is responsible for clearing a large area of rain forests to produce paper. There is already a campaign by Rainforest Rescue to boycott paper produced by APRIL.

Now, we should have a campaign to make the Professors aware of the greenwashing done by Sukanto Tanoto via kind donation to universities. Taking from the Rainforest Rescue campaign, send the send the following email to:


To:
Dr. Karl Tryggvason, The Tanoto Professor of Diabetes Research, karl@tryggvason.com
Casey, Patrick J, Senior Vice Dean, patrick.casey@duke-nus.edu.sg
Krishnan, Ranga R, Dean ranga.krishnan@duke-nus.edu.sg

Dear Sirs,

I have noted with concern that you are accepting donation from Sukanto Tanoto with the Tanoto Professor of Diabetes Research at Duke-NUS.

As you know, Sukanto Tanoto is the chairman of APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Limited). APRIL is a compnay which is known to be responsible for clearing massive areas of rainforest in the Indonesian province of Riau to create acacia plantations.APRIL is also draining large areas of peat bog. APRIL’s production methods are an ecological, social, and climatic catastrophe.

Every year Singapore received smoke from forest fires in Indonesia with  the worst level of air pollution and triggering a health warning. These fires came from the clearing and destruction of rain forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Part of these are caused by the plantation operations by Sukanto Tanoto’s companies.

The rainforest on Sumatra is a highly diverse ecosystem – if the forest dies, the native animals and plants will have no chance to survive. This development especially threatens the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger – the greatest threat to this animal is listed as “the loss of habitat through palm oil and acacia plantations.” In 2010, APRIL was banned from the FSC certification system as a consequence of its production methods.

Furthermore, the rainforest is home to agricultural communities that process products traditionally and sustainably. The plantations are threatening to drive these farmers from their land and destroy their livelihoods.

The peat bogs in particular are important natural carbon sinks. In destroying the bogs, massive quantities of stored greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. Due to the destruction of its rainforests, Indonesia is the third-largest CO2 emitter in the world. The acacia plantations created to manufacture PaperOne paper exacerbate the negative impact on our climate.


As a respected university, you should share responsibility for ensuring that the donation you accept does not come from operation that destroy the environment, causing global warming, and destruct the habitat of human and animals.
I emphatically request that you consider the donation, consequently setting a positive example of how universities can embody corporate responsibility, respect for human rights, and environmental protection.

Respectfully,

 http://sukantotanoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/

______ 

Christy Clark doesn`t even mention his name or the company name in the video up top, that`s what sent me digging for information....As for Sukanto Tanoto opening a head office in British Columbia...uh, not quite, he already has a presence here in British Columbia..

This business man bought the shuttered Woodfibre pulp mill from Western Forest Products, and he paid the massive sum for the 210 acre site ....

The 210-acre site was purchased in April/2013 for $25.5 million from Western Forest Products.

As BC`s forest industry, pulp industry vanishes, we give it away for....$25 million dollars, the price of perhaps 10 homes in the Point Grey area, maybe...This upstanding business man got a deepwater port and pulp mill, and per acre he paid...$100 k per acre..

Why do I get the feeling that this latest Christy Clark video is more of the LNG hype strategy..

Maybe next time Christy Clark blathers on video she will fill in a few minor details, and perhaps even mention the man and his company`s name...Or at least tell us what she had for lunch!

I wonder where Berni Madoff is..?

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open