Bios
Andrew Nikiforuk
Andrew Nikiforuk has been writing about the oil and gas industry for nearly 20 years and cares deeply about accuracy, government accountability, and cumulative impacts. He has won seven National Magazine Awards for his journalism since 1989 and top honours for investigative writing from the Association of Canadian Journalists.
Andrew has also published several books. The dramatic, Alberta-based Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction in 2002. Pandemonium, which examines the impact of global trade on disease exchanges, received widespread national acclaim. The Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent, which considers the world’s largest energy project, was a national bestseller and won the 2009 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award and was listed as a finalist for the Grantham Prize for Excellence In Reporting on the Environment. Andrew's latest book, Empire of the Beetle, a startling look at pine beetles and the world’s most powerful landscape changer, was nominated for the Governor General’s award for Non-Fiction in 2011.
Reporting Beat: Energy and the West.
What is the most important issue facing British Columbians?: The shale gas boom and the total lack of government policy. Shale gas is to this province what bitumen is to Alberta: it's a political game changer with formidable liabilities.
Website: Andrew Nikiforuk
Stories by Andrew Nikiforuk
Harper in China
ENERGY & EQUITY: Why should Canada now beg to fuel China's colossal waste of energy?
Oil Sands Produces Its Own Heat Island Effect
Dramatic changes to landscape raise temps, UA study finds.
Economist Calls Gateway Pipeline an Inflationary 'Threat'
Former CEO of ICBC concludes project 'is neither needed nor in public interest.'
Eleven Oily Questions for Every MP
ENERGY & EQUITY: Before you make oil sands and pipeline decisions, can you answer these queries?
We'll Frack Alberta's Next Election, Vow Landowners
Drilling accident fuels rebellion demanding halt to hydraulic fracturing.
What the Keystone Rejection Really Reveals
ENERGY & EQUITY: The ruthless, evolving nature of energy politics.
The Expert's Report that Damns the Northern Gateway Pipeline
Veteran energy analyst David Hughes calculates three reasons the project is bad for Canada.
An Open Reply to Joe Oliver's Propaganda for the Petro State
ENERGY & EQUITY: Nikiforuk joins the fray.
Fracking Contamination 'Will Get Worse': Alberta Expert
Tighter regulations to protect groundwater needed, says U of Alberta geochemist.
US Study Casts Pall over BC's Shale Gas Biz
Despite industry safety assurances, EPA finds hydraulic fracturing fluids in drinking water.
Revenge of the Gadgets
ENERGY & EQUITY: The lethal footprint of 'handy' gizmos will stomp us into oblivion.
Fighting Crime in the Oil Sands
ENERGY & EQUITY: Alberta catches water thief red-handed! Punishment is, um, 'creative.'
Fracking and Quaking: They're Linked
And scientists, the military, and frackers themselves have known it for years.
Natural Gas Exports Threaten Energy Security Says Expert
Canada judged too quick to deplete fields; domestic demand to soar.
China, and Two More Ethical Challenges to Oil Sands
ENERGY & EQUITY: Last in a list of ways Canada is turning a blessing into a curse.
Two More Ethical Challenges to Canada's Oil Sands
ENERGY & EQUITY: Listing the limitations to bitumen boosting. Part two.
Tell Us What's Being Done to Our Groundwater, Demand Albertans
Push for transparency after province closed once-public records on aquifer quality.
Oil Sands: Canada's 10 Ethical Challenges
ENERGY & EQUITY: How we turned a blessing into a curse, and ways to atone. Part one.
Nikiforuk: What the Bark Beetle Taught Me
A six-legged memorandum from the author of the new insect epic, 'Empire of the Beetle.'
Five Falsehoods About 'Ethical Oil'
ENERGY & EQUITY: Morality doesn't guide the crude brotherhood, never did.
Nikiforuk: Yes, Refine Oil Sands Crude Right Here
Former premier Lougheed is right. Piping raw bitumen to US is a lousy deal for Alberta's people.
What's Playing Havoc with Economy? Costly Energy
ENERGY & EQUITY: Beyond debt, bubbles and regulatory fiascos lies the crude truth.
Documents Reveal Industry and Gov't Collude on Shale Gas
Alberta New Dems release secret agreements about handling public opinion.
Thoughts on Norway, Oil and the Berserker
Affluence, the tragedy reminds us, is no defence against extremism.
What Saves Energy? Shame
ENERGY & EQUITY: There's power in people caring what their neighbours do.
Shale Gas Gives No Emissions Edge over Coal
ENERGY & EQUITY: Studies sweep away clean image of the blue flame.
Alberta's Carbon Guinea Pigs
ENERGY & EQUITY: It's crazy to spend a billion pumping CO2 underground. Ask the Dutch, who said no.
'Sowing the Oil'
Canada, heed the nation-building dream of Venezuelan Arturo Uslar Pietri. Latest in Andrew Nikiforuk's ENERGY & EQUITY series.
National Energy Board: Captured Regulator?
What happens when watchdog becomes lapdog? Nikiforuk's latest ENERGY & EQUITY inquiry.
Gooey Oil Sands Lies PR Flacks Tell: Call BS!
Nikiforuk's latest ENERGY & EQUITY column includes a clip and send to-do list for decision makers.
How Fish Use Energy Teaches True Oil Economics
ENERGY & EQUITY, a Tyee column by Andrew Nikiforuk, this week explains the secret of EROI.
Why Keystone Pipeline Will Weaken the US
It's just a 'tar sands road to China'. Nikiforuk lays out a surprising analayis in this, his latest Energy & Equity column.
Wikileaks Shines Light on Alberta's $16-Billion Electricity Scandal
US cables signal project was for export, contrary to official claims.
More and More, the Boreal Will Burn
Wildfire, beetles, climate change and their combustible connections.
Debunking the 'Shale Gale'
Industry has 'overblown' the benefits of shale gas, according to a new report.
Thar She Blows: Whale Age Teaches Us about Oil
A boom, a bonanza, a decimation, a collapse. Learn from Ahab.
You and Your Slaves
Yes, you're the slave master of many energy-driven gadgets that replace human labour. But our slave society won't last.
Albertan, Tired of Her Tap Water Catching Fire, Sues
Scientist Jessica Ernst hits gas giant EnCana, regulators with fracking lawsuit.
Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
Taxpayer millions set up PM advisor to push petro interests from U of Calgary. A special Tyee investigation.
Biggest Silent Election Issue: Oil's Erosion of Canada
Petro wealth is fouling our country's character, as it did many others'.
Truth Comes out on 'Fracking' Toxins
Who finally tells us the nasty chemicals used for shale gas drilling in Western Canada? The US Congress.
Japan, Oil and the Fragility of Globalization
'Energy and Equity' starts today -- Andrew Nikiforuk's new weekly Tyee column about oil, energy and civilization.
How to Kill a Heritage River
Inside the fight to save Alberta's pristine Clearwater from massive 'industrial withdrawal'.
The Gwyn Morgan File: EnCana's Grip on BC
How Christy Clark's advisor steered his Alberta petro giant to become the most powerful corporation in this province. Second of two.
The Gwyn Morgan File: Rise of a Shale Gas Baron
Christy Clark picked the EnCana empire builder to guide her into power, and that says volumes about who's shaping BC's future. Part one of two.
Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
With so many now heeding the harsh effect oil sands bitumen has on pipelines and refineries, why aren't the province's regulators?
How Alberta's $16-billion Electricity Scandal Plugs into the Oil Sands
And why some call project opponent Joe Anglin a 'dangerous' guy.
Does Keith Wilson Look Like a Revolutionary to You?
In Alberta he does, taking down government by exposing a $16 billion scandal one power point at a time.
Alberta Still Wears Pollution Blinders: Report
Yet another study finds oil sands environmental monitoring isn't remotely up to the job.
Alberta's New Political Volatility
Ed Stelmach got tossed from a once stable ship now rocked by petro dollar storms.
More Fizz to Saskatchewan Carbon Storage Controversy
Group overseeing project says it will refute study saying CO2 is bubbling back to surface.
Tar Sands Oil Some of World's Dirtiest: Report
Findings counter studies that put bitumen's carbon footprint slightly higher than regular crude.
Pfffft Goes Promise of Pumping C02 Underground
Farmers say high profile carbon sequestration experiment is a bubbling, dangerous failure.
Peter Kent's Oily New Portfolio
Canada's new environment minister could have acknowledged the facts. Instead, we get slippery spin.
Series of Reports Blacken Oil Sands Managers
Oilsands Advisory Panel backs previous studies blasting reckless ways of world's largest energy project.
Idea #1: The Green Hawks Are Coming
Who's super serious about renewable energy and repelling climate change? The US military, of all people.
Nikiforuk Pores Over Royal Society's Oil Sands Study
What the scientists got right, and missed, in their high-profile, largely damning report.
Alberta's Soviet Meal Deal
To know why an oil-rich province forces hospital patients to eat thawed slop, meet the man they call The Cookie Monster.
The Hunger Strike of Mary-Ellen Proctor
An army of women joined in fasting to bring attention to the lack of shelter for battered women and children in Fort McMurray.
Gouged Earth: Big Part of Oil Sands Carbon Footprint
What's more destructive, rainforest wrecking bio-fuel farms or Alberta's open pit mines? Study adds it up.
A Fracking Disaster in the Making: Report
Blasting shale rock with toxic fluid can release riches in natural gas, but threatens critical water supplies.
James Cameron Glides into the Tar Sands
Andrew Nikiforuk is there as Hollywood's biggest director visits Extremistan.
The Fallacy of 'Ethical Oil'
Better to describe Canada's oil sands crude as 'the devil's tears.'
A Smoking Gun on Athabasca River: Deformed Fish
Top water ecologist cites evidence of extreme pollution near oil sands.
Nikiforuk to Enviro Ministers: What Are You Guys Drinking?
Seems to be Kool-Aid from the tar sands lobby, as Renner and Prentice shrug off a key study.
Oil Sands Pollute with Fish-Killing Toxins, New Study Shows
Detection of high heavy metals levels in Athabasca River contradicts government claims.
The Republican Who Dared Tell the Truth About Oil
Matt Simmons understood the wages of addiction and wasn't afraid to sound warnings, even to George W. Bush.
'Constant Denial': Liberal Report on Tar Sands Is Scathing
Grits' dissenting report on two-year parliamentary study calls for sweeping reforms.
How the Tar Sands Threaten Canada's Economic Fate
A short course in Dutch Disease, deindustrialization and the Bitumen Curse.
The Enbridge Dirty Dozen
Michigan disaster follows 12 other big spills or penalties this decade for giant aiming to pipe tar sands oil to Kitimat
Alberta Hides Dirty Truth as US Demands Tar Sands Facts
Potential buyers of tar sands oil want to know its true carbon footprint, but industry won't come clean.
What Those Who Killed the Tar Sands Report Don't Want You to Know
Why did a parliamentary committee suddenly destroy drafts of a final report on tar sands pollution? Here's what they knew.
The Bombings, the Olympics and the Police
Investigators won't succeed by treating rural citizens like Taliban suspects.
- Appeal court upholds ruling on protection of orca habitat
- Foreign takeover score is 14,218 to two calculates Mel Hurtig, who speaks Saturday
- Abbott blames teachers' union, hints at legislation
- Greens exaggerating fracking fears 'to control you': Santorum
- Prime Minister Harper mixes oil with human rights on visit to China
- Civil jury finds former BC premier Vander Zalm guilty of defamation
- Vancouver theatre runs down curtain on section of BC's outdated liquor laws
- BC Premier Clark to replace throne speech with radio appearance
- Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!
- 'The Kids Are All Right'
- 'Leave Your Shoes On'
- Glaciers, BC Hydro's Melting 'Batteries'
- Frankie Rose Makes Life Tougher for Journalists
- Too Much Energy Used to Mine, Move Bitumen Says BC Firm
- Could SOPA Pervade Canadian Copyright Law?
- Would You Buy a Used Car from These Libs?
- Becoming the Ethical Hunter
- Economist Calls Gateway Pipeline an Inflationary 'Threat'
- Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!
- Economist Calls Gateway Pipeline an Inflationary 'Threat'
- Bill Rees' Last Lecture
- Too Much Energy Used to Mine, Move Bitumen Says BC Firm
- Is Canada Ignoring Signs of a Coming Economic Collapse?
- How First Nations Are Gearing Up for Legal Battle Against Gateway
- Eleven Oily Questions for Every MP
- Harper in China
- Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
- BC Child Care Advocates in Geneva to Complain to UN
- Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!
- Make It the Canadian Webcasting Corporation
- Harper in China
- When the Prize Is a Chance to Toil on BC's Farms
- Three Ryan Gosling Pickup Techniques that Don't Work in Real Life
- BC, You Love You
- Would You Buy a Used Car from These Libs?
- Foreign Trade Zones Eyed for Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Prince George
- Skating into 2012, More Resolutions
- Glaciers, BC Hydro's Melting 'Batteries'
- Scientists unveil bold new definition of addiction
- The most hellish ‘internships’: China sends 100,000 teens to work for a pittance at Foxconn making gadgets for Apple, others
- World Press Photo Contest: Editor’s choice pictures of the day
- Banks come first in a Greek rescue plan
- We’re more unequal than you think
- Cambodia launched restaurants for vultures
- Flavored vodka: sign of the imminent apocalypse?
- With Obama’s new foreclosure deal big banks win again
