Energy

In addition to the articles on the Vancouver Ecosocialist web page (www.ecosocialistsvancouver.org) below are a some other sites with important articles and information on the COP21 conference in Paris and related issues:

Peoples Climate Convergence (Vancouver) : http://peoplesclimateconvergence.org/articles-by-subject

Paris Climate Justice: http://www.parisclimatejustice.org/

If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet ministers needed any reminder of how difficult their jobs are going to be when it comes to rebuilding trust with First Nations, they got it last week.

Working the crowd, when the Liberal caucus gathered for its annual Christmas party, was Chief Roland Willson, a big man with a powerful voice and an intractable problem he wasn’t going to let anyone ignore.

What does a pipe spewing 50,000 kilograms of methane per hour look like? You’d never know, as the highly flammable gas is invisible to the naked eye.But in the northern San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, where a ruptured pipe has been pluming natural gas for nearly two months, residents finally have their chance to see.

December 9, 2015

MEDIA ADVISORY

Press Conference: First Nations Leaders to Call on Federal Government to Stop Site C Dam Project in Treaty 8 Territory in British Columbia

At an estimated $9 billion and counting, the proposed Site C dam in northern British Columbia is an economic, environmental and social catastrophe in the making.

This short but important study by Oxfam documents the connection between climate change and inequality both between and within countries.

Read the full report.....

It was quite a sight: The CEOs of Alberta’s oilsands projects stood with NDP Premier Rachel Notley to announce Alberta’s climate plan before the climate talks in Paris. The CEOs had the widest smiles.

A hard cap on oilsands emissions that became part of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s climate change plan was the product of secret negotiations between four top oilsands companies and four environmental organizations, the Financial Post has learned.

The companies agreed to the cap in exchange for the environmental groups backing down on opposition to oil export pipelines, but the deal left other players on the sidelines, and that has created a deep division in Canada’s oil and gas sector.

With work already under way on the banks where the dam is to be built, it might seem as if Site C is a done deal.

Premier Christy Clark certainly hopes so. She views the start of the $9-billion project as one of her two greatest accomplishments (the other being an agreement in principle with Petronas for proposed development of an $11-billion LNG plant).

But despite all the activity by contractors building access roads and clearing land for work camps, tunnels and dam foundations, BC Hydro’s Site C project could yet be brought to a halt.