Industry Spin

Photo courtesy of Josh Berson/SHARE 

Photo: Larry Wong/Edmonton Journal/Postmedia News

CALGARY – Imperial Oil Ltd. has revealed plans for a new $2-billion oilsands plant at a time its competitors have cancelled or deferred new projects to survive the oil price collapse.

Imperial, one of the largest oil and gas companies in Canada, announced Friday it had filed an application with the Alberta Energy Regulator to build a 50,000 barrel per day oilsands facility, which would extract oil using a new technique the company says would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent compared with existing projects.

Ontario has chosen the companies that will build the next round of renewable energy projects in the province, in a competitive-bidding process that will see wind and solar power generated at much lower prices than in the past.

Eleven companies will be offered 16 contracts to build five new wind projects, seven solar projects and four hydroelectric projects, for a total of 455 megawatts of new power capacity, Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) said Thursday.

The B.C. government decided in September 2013 to remove the George Massey tunnel and replace it with a $3.5-billion toll bridge

METRO VANCOUVER -- Richmond politicians want to know how a tunnel under the Fraser River that was deemed “good for 50 years” is to be filled in and replaced with a 10-lane bridge.

Coun. Harold Steves said council has sent a letter to the provincial government seeking all documentation around its September 2013 decision to remove the George Massey tunnel and replace it with a $3.5-billion toll bridge.

[Webpage editor's note: This 10 minute movie identifies the flaws of cap and trade in a clear, popular fashion.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6FSy6EKrM&feature=player_embedded 

[Webpage editor note: In addition to the point below that cap and trade has not realy reduced emissions, this policy also functions to distract from other measures that are needed to unambiguously reduce carbon extraction and use. See this popular analysis of cap and trade: http://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-cap-and-trade/  ]

Taylor Energy’s Mississippi Canyon 20 platform, before its destruction in 2004. Photo credit: Taylor Energy

Far away from TV cameras and under the radar of the nightly news, oil has been continuously leaking from a damaged production platform located just 12 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico—causing an oily sheens on the surface that stretch for miles and are visible from space.

As B.C. gears up to host the First Ministers’ climate meeting, new federal data confirms the province’s emissions soaring and its once vaunted clean economy leadership in disarray.

Alberta has been capturing carbon for three decades. Yet, ask anyone who spends their days contemplating carbon capture and storage (CCS) about its future in the province and you’re likely to get similar responses from each: a small sigh, followed by descriptors like “disappointing” and “not good.” It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The sighing is no doubt related to the high ambitions for CCS under the Alberta government’s climate change plan of 2008.