According to new estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2015 the country retained its newfound position as the world’s top producer of oil and gas. It's a position the U.S. has held for less than five years, having surged ahead of both Russia and Saudi Arabia thanks to fracking technology.
“U.S. petroleum and natural gas production first surpassed Russia in 2012, and the United States has been the world's top producer of natural gas since 2011 and the world's top producer of petroleum hydrocarbons since 2013,” the EIA reports.
The federal government has rejected a call from the Royal Society of Canada and some 250 scientists and academics to put a halt to British Columbia’s Site C hydroelectric project despite concerns that the federal-provincial approval in 2014 ignored serious environmental impacts and trampled on First Nations’ rights.
For all the political noise coming from municipalities and provinces in opposition to various pipeline projects, in reality they may lack any legal leverage to stop the projects or insist on conditions.
Tuesday, May 17 - In the spring of 2015, B.C. Premier Christy Clark challenged jurisdictions around the world to meet or beat her province’s world-leading climate action plan. Now her government is wrestling with rising CO2 levels while Alberta and Ontario have moved aggressively to reduce their provincial greenhouse gas emissions.
Renewable energy companies see tremendous opportunity in Ontario’s climate-change plan, though skeptics question whether the proposed incentives and regulations will achieve the government’s goals and will impose costs that are unacceptable to voters.
The Ontario government will spend more than $7-billion over four years on a sweeping climate change plan that will affect every aspect of life – from what people drive to how they heat their homes and workplaces – in a bid to slash the province’s carbon footprint.
13 May 2016 - At the end of the day the $10-billion wildfire that consumed 2400 homes and buildings in Fort McMurray may be the least of the region's problems.
Although the chaotic evacuation of 80,000 people through walls of flame will likely haunt its brave participants for years, a slow global economic burn has already taken a nasty toll on the region's workers.
Local First Nations leaders were quick to call the federal Liberals hypocrites for formally adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) while construction proceeds on the Site C dam.
But a pair of constitutional law professors from the University of British Columbia (UBC) say they shouldn't be so quick to judge.
