In the United States, coal, that supervillain of fossil-fuels, is in a death spiral. But on a global scale, there’s no spiral, just an arrow pointing to Asia. Turns out coal isn’t dying; it’s moving.
The LNG Canada export plant, under construction on the northern coast of British Columbia, opens in 2025. At full capacity, the plant will produce about four-million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year, a large increase in provincial emissions.
Behind the sheen of its CleanBC program, the province holds back hydro power to instead import cheap electricity from 12 states including Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska and Montana which generate 55 to 90 per cent of their power from coal
Dec 3, 2019
British Columbians naturally assume they’re using clean power when they fire up holiday lights, juice up a cell phone or plug in a shiny new electric car.
Since Paris Agreement, Global Financial Firms Have Sunk $745 Billion into New Coal Plant Development
BlackRock, Vanguard, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase are among the top global financers of new coal development, according to new research presented during the United Nations climate summit in Madrid.
China’s failure to kick a long-standing addiction to coal has thrown a knockout punch to the Paris Agreement of 2015, including its 195 signatories. Suddenly, out of the blue, the world has turned upside down!
Justin Trudeau and Jason Kenny are peddling a fantasy when it comes to fossil fuel development in Canada. Both play to Alberta’s desire for the boom years to return, rather than dealing with the likely future.
n a recent speech at an oil industry conference, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney trafficked, as he often does, in climate inaccuracy. In itself, that’s not remarkable. The sun also rose and set that day.
To see our fate clearly, we must face these hard facts about energy, growth and governance. Part one of two.
No one wants to be the downer at the party, and some would say that I am an unreformed pessimist. But consider this — pessimism and optimism are mere states of mind that may or may not be anchored in reality. I would prefer to be labeled a realist, someone who sees things as they are, who has a healthy respect for good data and solid analysis (or at least credible theory).
By some estimates, “the price of oil could permanently plummet to $25 a barrel by the mid-2020s. Only the cheapest oil in places like Saudi Arabia could be economically produced. Canada's oil sands, where most projects need an oil price of $60 to $80 a barrel just to break even, would cease to make financial sense.”
![The Khadia open pit mine is 27 km long. Workers loading coal into trucks work in hazardous conditions wear no protective equipment and accidents are frequent. Photo by: international accountability project. Flickr [CC BY 2.0]](https://ecosocialistsvancouver.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/article-image/12227000925_f2549129a2_c.jpg?itok=ZQWYdfQK)
