One glaring problem with the provincial government’s strategy to turn B.C. into a LNG-exporting juggernaut is that it scuttles any chance B.C. has to be a climate-change leader. But equally problematic is how our government’s economically dubious fixation with liquefied natural gas exports jeopardizes our irreplaceable water resources. In Alberta as well as numerous U.S. states where natural gas companies operate, there is a growing public backlash against industry operations.
In a growing shift that is likely to upset many environmentalists about the future of the tar sands, political groups are increasingly signalling their support for the sector if it means Alberta's oil can be refined into gasoline in Canada, rather than for raw bitumen export.
An internationally renowned environmental economist is criticizing the federal government for failing to consider climate change while reviewing pipeline applications, such as Kinder Morgan’s bid to twin the Trans Mountain line. SFU professor and climate change expert Mark Jaccard blasted the government’s absence of consideration for climate change, despite Canada’s promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help stop the planet’s temperature from rising by two degrees Celsius.
We have known not to expect much from the Green Party's Andrew Weaver in terms of an appropriate political response to the climate crisis based on his very flawed political and economic analysis. As a climate scientist and member of the IPCC, one would expect to see from him principled opposition to all fossil fuel development in light of the catastrophic implications of climate change.
B.C.’s only Green MLA doesn’t think that a new oil refinery on the West Coast is a bad idea. To the contrary, Andrew Weaver is convinced that the brainchild of newspaper publisher David Black makes sense. “Do I think David Black’s proposal has merit? I do. I think it’s being proposed for the right reasons,” Weaver told the Straight in a phone interview.
VANCOUVER - Civil liberties advocates in British Columbia have filed complaints against CSIS and the RCMP over allegations the agencies snooped on opponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association's complaints allege the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, needlessly monitored First Nations and environmental groups and then passed along information to the National Energy Board and energy companies.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — British Columbia Premier Christy Clark plugged her vision for an economy fuelled by liquefied natural gas during a speech Thursday to California's senate. Clark told senators that exporting LNG, which she described as the cleanest fossil fuel, to Asia would create jobs, investment opportunities and eliminate the debt in her province. She said the LNG industry will be the biggest step B.C. has taken to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and growing its economy responsibly.
Last week, students at two of the Lower Mainland’s largest universities took steps to see those institutions divest themselves of financial interests in the fossil-fuel industry. Now, their counterparts at the University of Victoria have followed suit.
Nearly two thirds of British Columbians are opposed to the $6.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline and the tankers it will bring to the northern coast, according to a poll commissioned by environmental groups.
The company seeking to build the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has had a massive explosion on its decades-old natural gas pipeline in southern Manitoba. The rupture of the TransCanada PipeLines (TCPL) gas line occurred in the middle of the night on Saturday, January 25 near the village of Otterburne. A massive fireball erupted into the night sky and burned for many hours.
