Despite environment minister's claims, it won't displace coal in Asia.
World leaders gathered in Lima, Peru, this month for global climate change talks. British Columbia's Environment Minister Mary Polak was among them. She shared the province's successful experience in implementing commendable climate policies, like B.C.'s carbon tax -- a policy that the president of the World Bank hailed as a "powerful example" of carbon pricing.
New York has become the first state in the nation with major natural gas deposits to ban the oil and gas extraction process of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, citing potential risks to public health. Fracking involves blasting sand, water and toxic chemicals deep into shale rock to release oil and gas, a process which can poison water supplies and pollute the air. Following a two-year study, New York Acting Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said fracking was too risky. We speak to biologist, activist and author Sandra Steingraber, co-founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking.
Ann Craft is a self-described strong willed and caring Irish woman who has been selling real estate in Central Alberta for 19 years.
But now she is getting rather upset.
"I'm more than pissed off. I'm appalled."
Appalled, she says, by the two-year fracking horror story she has lived through. And the consistent failure, she charges, of Alberta's regulatory bodies including Alberta Environment, Alberta Health Services and the Alberta Energy Regulator to do their respective jobs.
Only 28% of British Columbians trust the provincial government when it comes to properly handling decisions about the fledgling liquefied natural gas sector, according to an Insights West poll released Thursday.
From Oct. 3 to 8, 802 B.C. residents were polled regarding matters related to LNG, and 60% said it was the most important priority when it comes to energy policy and that Canada’s energy needs should be met before exporting to other markets, according to Mario Canseco, Insights West spokesman.
On September 8, a Texas state regulatory agency sent a letter to United States Secretary of State John Kerry, suggesting that U.S. anti-fracking activists are receiving funding from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is reasonable to assume,” Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter wrote, “that their intention is to increase their market share of natural gas production and distribution as Russia is the second largest producer of natural gas in the world.”
Speaking at a packed university forum last week, long-time energy journalist Andrew Nikiforuk warned British Columbians to be wary of the “extreme energy” of LNG – a fossil fuel that is environmentally reckless, of dubious benefit to B.C., and financially risky to pursue, he argued.
Yet the Clark government is wrongheadedly pushing it, said the author, with serious consequences to B.C.'s wilderness, water and climate.
“You need a public inquiry. You need to slow down and rethink this whole thing,” urged Nikiforuk at Quest University on Thursday.
Malaysian state-owned energy company Petronas is threatening to pull out of a liquefied natural gas project on the north coast of British Columbia, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
The newspaper said Petronas chief executive Shamsul Abbas was ready to call off the $10-billion project amid a delayed regulatory approval process, plans by the provincial government to impose an LNG tax and a "lack of appropriate incentives."
FREDERICTON -- Opponents of hydraulic fracturing say the Liberal victory in New Brunswick will provide a needed pause in the development of the shale gas industry.
Lois Corbett of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick says Brian Gallant's win in Monday's provincial election will give politicians and experts time to study fracking.
She says she is pleased the Liberals vowed throughout the campaign to impose a moratorium on fracking.
Nova Scotia will introduce legislation to prohibit high-volume hydraulic fracturing for onshore shale gas this fall, Energy Minister Andrew Younger said Wednesday.
The decision follows an independent panel review that recommended the government proceed slowly. Younger said the ban is not permanent, but would not say how long it will last.
“There’s nothing that’s going to happen in five years or 10 years that we can point to,” he told CBC News. “We’re prepared to open this up if a community approaches us and is prepared to look at this.”
Boost production in B.C.'s resource industries and we'll all be better off -- especially those of us in the Lower Mainland.
That's the soothing message emanating from the province's newest corporate-sponsored think tank, Resource Works. It's good news for all of us, and especially for the Christy Clark government, which has hitched its horse to the resource-development cart.
But is it true? Will we be better off with increased resource industry production rather than, say, increased tourism or technology development?
