Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is aggressively advancing a false narrative about heavy oil’s deep discount. She presents the problem in two parts, neither of which stand up to scrutiny.
First, Notley purports that the abnormally wide price spread affects every barrel of heavy oil leading to millions of dollars a day in losses to the Canadian economy. And second, that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is crucial. Neither of these claims are supported by the facts.
BC still opposes the project, but it’s not leading.
When the National Energy Board announced conditional approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline project in 2016, BC NDP leader John Horgan sent party members an important letter.
[Editor: see videos of protests from across Canada at link]
CTVNews.ca's Josh Dehaas, with files from CTV's Kevin Gallagher in Ottawa and Melanie Nagy in Vancouver
Published Tuesday, January 8, 2019 11:09AM EST
Last Updated Wednesday, January 9, 2019 9:46AM EST
[Website editor's note - Another face of climate change denialism: Blame Americans...]
Canada’s debilitating inability to gain fair market value for its largest export commodity – crude oil – has become the top economic story of 2018. It will likely dominate headlines in 2019.
A look at some of the major climate stories of the past year to prepare us for 2019
Dec. 29, 2018
We are now three years on from the signing of the Paris Agreement, the last major international climate agreement, and the one that was supposed to right a ship that is desperately off course.
Dec 26, 2018 - We are being inundated with discount frenzy and it’s not just annoying, it could be life-threatening.
I’m not talking about the onslaught of huckster ads encouraging us to buy, buy, buy on Black Friday, or even today, Boxing Day. No, the truly crazy-making discount frenzy is the barrage of half-truths, misinformation and outright lies blaming Alberta’s woes on the so-called discount on Canadian oil. That’s some serious snake oil (aka propaganda) that is sabotaging our chance to keep the world habitable for our children.
Three members of the Secwepemc First Nation were arrested in Kamloops on Monday as they sought to disrupt closed-door talks they were excluded from about the Trans Mountain pipeline taking place between government officials and other Indigenous groups.
Mayuk Manuel, Snutetkwe Manuel, and Isha Jules were arrested outside of Thompson Rivers University and later released with conditions. All three are part of the Tiny House Warriors, a group that has built tiny homes in the path of the planned pipeline expansion in an attempt to stop its construction.
Alberta was forced to announce oil production cuts this week in order to both liquidate existing backlogged oil and in the hopes of fetching higher prices.
This was welcome news for all those fighting to prevent the worst, most catastrophic impacts of our rapidly changing climate.