Industry Spin

[One webpage editor's note: Three items below - Tzeporah Berman's new position in Alberta, 'astroturfing'  by some US unions, and the promoters of a bitumen refinery who include the then-President of  the paperworkers union I was a member of for years.]

The surprising composition of Alberta’s new oilsands GHG advisory group

by JNW staff, jwenergy.com, July 14, 2016

June 23, 2016 - The backers of several proposed petrochemical refineries in the Northwest are pitching their projects as environmentally responsible investments that would reduce global warming pollution. Billed as a cleaner means of creating methanol, the proponents allege that they will enable Chinese manufacturers to produce olefins, a precursor to plastics manufacturing, with much less pollution than current methods.

It’s Canada’s $1-billion carbon dilemma.

Major energy distributors and consumers in Ontario and Quebec expect to spend more than $1-billion over four years on California greenhouse gas emission allowances. Without agreement with the United States, however, those international emission credits cannot be counted as part of Canada’s international commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.

June 17, 2016 VICTORIA — While B.C. ‘s carbon tax has drawn praise from around the world, the pioneering measure does not come close to meeting the claim of revenue neutrality the B.C. Liberals made for it at the outset.

CALGARY, June 16, 2016 /CNW/ - The National Energy Board (NEB) is starting the clock on one of the most innovative hearings in the NEB's history. The NEB's review of the Energy East Pipeline Project will include opportunities for the general public to provide their input and for hearing participants to orally question the applicants. There will also be an assessment of upstream greenhouse gas emissions. This review starts today.

Harbir Chhina helped develop the game-changing steam technology that allowed companies to tap the world’s third-largest reserves in Canada’s oilsands. It was a moonshot that paid off.

Now the oilsands industry, still recovering from last month’s wildfires, needs another one. Without a technological breakthrough like steam injection three decades ago, the flows that have transformed the country’s economy could slow to a trickle. In a world that has plenty of cheap crude, and increasingly demands cleaner energy, the oil sands look dirty, as well as expensive.

Don't believe the spurious claims of nuclear shills constantly doing down renewables, writes Mark Diesendorf. Clean, safe renewable energy technologies have the potential to supply 100% of the world's electricity needs - but the first hurdle is to refute the deliberately misleading myths designed to promote the politically powerful but ultimately doomed nuclear industry.