Energy

How can we reconcile social struggle and environmental struggle? This question poses problems for trade unionists. To avoid a climate catastrophe, it would be necessary to reduce economic activity, to suppress useless or harmful production, to give up a substantial part of the means of transport … But what would happen to employment then? How can we avoid a surge of unemployment, a new rise of poverty and precariousness? In today’s relationship of forces, in the face of financialized and globalized capitalism, these challenges seem impossible to meet.

Category:

Energy

Labour - Unions

Site C dam to electrify LNG industry is far from clean

04/03/19

Author:

Ben Parfitt

Link:

The Vancouver Sun

March 4, 2019

In April 2010, when then-premier Gordon Campbell announced that B.C. was resurrecting plans to build the Site C dam, atmospheric scientist Andrew Weaver was along to lend support.

Well before he became an MLA, and later the leader of the B.C. Green party, Weaver used words to describe the controversial project that became a template for Liberal and NDP premiers to come:

Hydro power is “clean.” It is “zero-emitting” power. It “does not produce greenhouse gas emissions.” Therefore, it is good.

Read the full article.

Category:

B.C. under ‘enormous pressure’ to cancel Site C dam: First Nations chief

01/03/19

Author:

Sarah Cox

Link:

The Narwhal

Feb 27, 2019

Province and First Nations seeking ‘alternatives to litigation’ in confidential discussions

West Moberly First Nations are not backing down from their long battle to stop the Site C dam following Tuesday’s announcement that they will engage in confidential discussions with BC Hydro and the provincial government, says Chief Roland Willson.

Read the full article.

Category:

Government, First Nations enter talks to avoid court action over Site C dam

28/02/19

Author:

The Canadian Press

Link:

Nelson Star

The latest figure on the cost of the dam is $10.7 billion and when complete on the Peace River in northeast B.C. it would power the equivalent of 450,000 homes a year. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)

The trial was expected to start in 2022

Feb. 26, 2019

The British Columbia government, BC Hydro and two First Nations have entered talks to avoid court action over the massive Site C hydroelectric dam.

The parties were in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday to set a 120-day trial that was expected to start in 2022.

Read the full article.

Category:

British Columbia

Energy

Indigenous Peoples

Global Labor Debates the “Green New Deal” and the Reclaiming Utilities

26/02/19

Link:

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy

February 21, 2019

1. TUED Global Forum: “The Green New Deal: Can the Utilities be Reclaimed and Reformed?”(Video link below.)

Category:

Energy

Labour - Unions

After Nanaimo win, BC NDP can’t take progressive voters for granted

01/02/19

Author:

Lisa SammartinoI

Link:

Dogwood Initiative

January 31, 2019

With Sheila Malcolmson’s big win in Nanaimo’s by-election yesterday, the BC NDP are no doubt walking a little taller today. After all, the governing party rarely wins by-elections. The BC Liberals poured significant resources into the riding. Malcolmson was behind in the polls. The Greens ran a strong candidate. For a safe NDP riding, many in the party weren’t really sure if they could pull it off this time.

Mid-mandate, this victory extends the tenure of the NDP minority government. Some in the party are probably feeling pretty confident.

Read the full article.

Category:

NDP grapples with pipelines, consent, and reconciliation

15/01/19

Author:

Vaughn Palmer

Link:

The Vancouver Sun

B.C. Premier John Horgan, front, and Hereditary Chief David Mungo Knox, back left, of the Kwakiutl First Nation, help raise a replica of a Haida totem pole on the traditional territory of the Semiahmoo First Nation, at the Douglas-Peace Arch border crossing, in Surrey, B.C., on Friday September 21, 2018. DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

January 14, 2019

Read the full article.

Category:

United Nations instructs Canada to suspend Site C dam construction over Indigenous rights violations

10/01/19

Author:

Sarah Cox

Link:

The Narwhal

Jan 9, 2019 7 min read

In a rare rebuke, the United Nations has instructed Canada to suspend construction of the Site C dam on B.C.’s Peace River until the project obtains the “free, prior and informed consent” of Indigenous peoples.

Read the full article.

Category:

The Great American conspiracy to sabotage Canadian oilpatch

02/01/19

Author:

Opinion

Link:

Calgary Herald

[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.

Category:

Energy

The trial was expected to start in 2022

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