Massive Petronas export development threatens crucial salmon habitat
SEPTEMBER 27, 2016
Just a day after royals William and Kate visited and trumpeted new protections for the Great Bear Rainforest in B.C., the federal government has announced it’s giving the greenlight to a controversial fossil fuel mega-project that threatens both an ecologically sensitive stretch of the Pacific coast and any chance Canada has of meeting its international climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Imminent decisions on giant energy projects are sure to anger some parts of the electorate that swept him to power.
September 25, 2016
Photographs by Ben Nelms/Bloomberg [See original article for photos]
Along Canada’s evergreen-draped west coast, the fate of a multi-billion-dollar energy project and a nation’s reconciliation with its dark, colonial past hang in the balance.
Sept 16, 2016 - Another U.S. scientific study has confirmed that methane emissions from oil and gas activity are increasing more rapidly than previously estimated, and that these increases were happening at the same time that the North American shale gas boom and related fracking frenzy took off.
Germany have agreed to permanently ban fracking in the country following years of debate over the issue.
The coalition government have said that they will outlaw the practise of fracking for shale gas, but will allow test drilling to take place in certain circumstances.
Three Canadian banks are among the more than two dozen financial
institutions identified as backers of the controversial Dakota Access
Pipeline and its associated companies. The pipeline has been the focus of
intense opposition from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota, who
fear that a spill would poison their water supply, as well as from other
Native Americans, Indigenous peoples in Canada, and environmentalists.
The planned pipeline would bring oil from North Dakota to Illinois, but has
The U.S. is expected to reach a major carbon emissions milestone this year: For the first time, carbon dioxide emissions from burning natural gas in the U.S. are set to surpass those from burning coal — the globe’s chief climate polluter.
Emissions from burning natural gas are expected to be 10 percent greater than those from coal in 2016, as electric companies rely more on power plants that run on natural gas than those that run on coal, according to U.S. Department of Energy data.
The B.C. government must address “profound” gaps in knowledge about groundwater quality in the province's northeast, a regional district-commissioned study has found.
Hydrogeologist Gilles Wendling delivered the results of a two-year survey of water quality in Northeast B.C. at a Peace River Regional District meeting Aug. 25. It is the first comprehensive study of groundwater to be carried out in the Peace, the hub of B.C.’s oil and gas industry, and it raises new questions about whether water quality is adequately monitored and protected in the region.
Not everyone is thrilled with the recent vote by members of the Lax Kw'alaams First Nation to resume discussions on an $11-billion liquefied natural gas project near Prince Rupert.
Lax Kw'alaams member Dean Febbo told Vice that the vote of 812 band members was a "joke".
A plan to make electricity widely available to natural gas facilities in northeast British Columbia depends on whether or not proposed West Coast LNG projects go ahead.
The climate change plan B.C. Premier Christy Clark released Aug. 19 referred generically to “infrastructure” that would have to be built to “close the gap between electricity and natural gas costs” in B.C. Since then, B.C. government staff has explained the cryptic reference.
[Editor: Even the C.D. Howe Institute is saying it!]
CALGARY — A new study is raising questions about the degree to which exports of Canadian liquefied natural gas would help reduce carbon emissions abroad — a core justification for developing such an industry.
The C.D. Howe Institute released a report Wednesday that concluded that Canada’s LNG exports could reduce carbon emissions in parts of Asia, but would likely increase emissions in the majority of other potential markets.
