Ethical Oil?

There have been a number a number of media pieces on the Ethical Oil Institute.  They all ref this detailed post at Deep Climate, so that's probably the best place to start.  DC's unsurprising bottom line is that the EOI is almost certainly an industry astroturf group, sharing an office with McLennan Ross, an Edmonton law firm that works with players in the Alberta tar Sands.  I find the most interesting revelation to be that:

...the registration date of March 9, 2011 shows plans for the Ethicaloil.org were well underway long before Velshi’s initial blog posts in June, and indeed before the Canadian election campaign (which was called in late March).

...because Mr. Velshi originally treated the whole project as something he had started up on a personal whim.

Also worth noting is that the McLennan Ross contact at Ethical Oil is Thomas Ross, who served as Ezra Levant's lawyer during his run ins with the CHRC.  Ezra also serves on the board of Ethical Oil, and in fact is the fellow who coined the phrase.