The anti-Keystone XL factions have never lacked for high-profile supporters, most of them actors eager to find a cause.
But the strangest of all is a capitalist-turned-crusader who seems to take special delight in prodding, stirring and arousing.
Tom Steyer, 56, has been a fundraiser for President Barack Obama and is now a self-described “pain in the ass” who has moved from a successful investor in oil and pipelines to become a “clean-energy philanthropist” with the oil sands as his prime target.
He has the time after retiring last year from San Francisco-based Farallon Capital Management, a hedge fund he founded and turned into a personal nest egg estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.4 billion.
Steyer said his departure resulted from his discomfort “being with a firm that was invested in every single sector of the global economy, including tar sands and oil.”
His own role included a substantial bet last year that China’s CNOOC would complete its takeover of Calgary-based Nexen.
The Farallon fund held $220 million worth of Nexen shares during the third quarter and when the takeover got Canadian government approval there was a handsome payoff for the hedge fund sector.
Now Steyer is accusing TransCanada of wanting to build Keystone XL to the U.S. Gulf Coast, claiming the oil will be sold to the Chinese.
Farallon also has stakes in Kinder Morgan, which wants to triple the size of its Trans Mountain system from Alberta to the Pacific Coast to allow bitumen exports to Asia.
Divestiture
But Steyer said his portfolio is being divested to bring it into line with his new thinking and has promised to donate 100 percent of his profits from those investments to victims of wildfires in the U.S. Southwest.
To raise his profile, he has engaged in a series of gimmicks, which he claims are intended to be humorous, by paying for commercials that ridicule TransCanada Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling, the oil sands industry and Canada.
One was pulled by WRC-TV, an affiliate of NBC, as being too offensive.
Undaunted, Steyer, through his anti-Keystone XL group NextGen Climate Action, challenged Girling to a live debate on Keystone XL — a challenge that was spurned by TransCanada, suggesting Steyer should operate within the regulatory framework and submit its views to the U.S. State Department, which is conducting its final review of the project.
A further sign of Steyer’s emerging political ambitions occurred in July when he challenged David Vitter, a Republican senator from Louisiana, to donate any campaign contributions he has received from the fossil fuel industry to charity.
—GARY PARK
