British Columbia

[Introductory note: Very reassuring, the "world class" spill response we have been assured of by the corporate and government proponents of exporting Alberta bitumen by tanker! Among other points, consider the excuse offered by the Coast Guard for the delay  -  that the guity ship did not admit it was the source of the oil. ] 

VANCOUVER - Misunderstandings, uncertainty and technical difficulties slowed the emergency response to a toxic fuel spill in Vancouver's English Bay by nearly two hours, a review has found.

The project is a joint venture that includes the city, landowner Teck and renewable energy non-profit.

VANCOUVER — The builders of British Columbia’s first grid-scale solar power plant in Kimberley named the project SunMine owing in part to its location on a former mine site. But the operation is also finding more sun to mine, exceeding initial expectations for electricity production.

One more effect of the drought.

The tribal council representing eight First Nation communities in British Columbia’s Okanagan has suspended the area’s recreational and commercial sockeye salmon fishery – and says a full closing of food fishing is likely coming – as the salmon run comes in far lower than expected.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance was set to open the fishery on Osoyoos Lake this weekend with a historic salmon run forecast for the Columbia River system. But only about 18,000 to 45,000 of the projected 375,000 fish are expected to survive the journey.

Premier Christy Clark may be touting massive job opportunities with the B.C.-based LNG industry, but the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released a "reality check" report that disputes the numbers.
 
Clark has stated that the LNG industry as a whole would create 100,000 jobs, with 4,500 jobs in the Petronas-backed Pacific NorthWest LNG project alone.
 

'We're blocking pipelines; we're not blocking everyone', Unist’ot’en Camp spokesperson Freda Huson tells RCMP at the Bulkley Valley road "checkpoint."

The battle for Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline is bleeding into lobbying over another major infrastructure project in British Columbia – a proposal for a new shipping terminal near Vancouver’s Fraser River Estuary.

Advocacy groups campaigning against the proposed marine terminal, called Roberts Bank Terminal 2, have said they are concerned it could serve as a contingency port for the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, even as the port authority and Kinder Morgan say using the expanded port for shipping oil is not in the cards.

The B.C. Liberal government’s claim that liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will create 100,000 jobs is a vastly exaggerated forecast, says a report by a think tank that has touched off a controversy about how much of an employment boon the sector will actually create.

“We find that this claim is not credible and that potential employment impacts have been grossly overstated,” said the study by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

BURNABY, BC, July 23, 2015 /CNW/ - The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union is joining First Nations and environmental advocates in opposing the B.C. government's approval of the Site C dam project, the union announced today.

"Site C is the wrong choice for British Columbia. The project is not needed: there are better alternatives," says BCGEU president Stephanie Smith. "Site C will cause massive habitat loss. It violates First Nations' indigenous rights. It removes high-value agricultural lands from production."

VANCOUVER — Two potential geothermal energy projects near Pemberton could generate electricity for about seven cents a kilowatt hour — only slightly higher than the 5.8 cents to 6.1 cents a kilowatt hour cost estimate of the Site C dam project.

That's the conclusion of a recent Kerr Wood Leidal Associates study on the economic viability of geothermal resources in B.C., which considered nine of the most favourable geothermal sites in the province.