Dec 26, 2018 - We are being inundated with discount frenzy and it’s not just annoying, it could be life-threatening.
I’m not talking about the onslaught of huckster ads encouraging us to buy, buy, buy on Black Friday, or even today, Boxing Day. No, the truly crazy-making discount frenzy is the barrage of half-truths, misinformation and outright lies blaming Alberta’s woes on the so-called discount on Canadian oil. That’s some serious snake oil (aka propaganda) that is sabotaging our chance to keep the world habitable for our children.
Three members of the Secwepemc First Nation were arrested in Kamloops on Monday as they sought to disrupt closed-door talks they were excluded from about the Trans Mountain pipeline taking place between government officials and other Indigenous groups.
Mayuk Manuel, Snutetkwe Manuel, and Isha Jules were arrested outside of Thompson Rivers University and later released with conditions. All three are part of the Tiny House Warriors, a group that has built tiny homes in the path of the planned pipeline expansion in an attempt to stop its construction.
Federal and provincial governments in Canada want to be seen as climate leaders. Yet they continue to introduce policies and spend billions of taxpayer dollars to expand oil and gas production.
Alberta was forced to announce oil production cuts this week in order to both liquidate existing backlogged oil and in the hopes of fetching higher prices.
This was welcome news for all those fighting to prevent the worst, most catastrophic impacts of our rapidly changing climate.
The Trans Mountain oil pipeline is costing a Canadian Crown corporation some staggering interest expenses that cast doubt on strong revenues from the infrastructure touted in the federal government's recent economic update.
The interest expenses were $20 million over a single month in September, right after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government purchased the pipeline and related assets from Texas energy company Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has announced her government is imposing cuts to oil production in the province.
The premier announced the news in a live address to the province on Sunday evening. It was a widely expected move to address what the government and its official Opposition say is costing the province hundreds of millions of dollars in losses due to global market prices.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is aggressively advancing a false narrative about heavy oil’s deep discount. She presents the problem in two parts, neither of which stand up to scrutiny.
First, Notley purports that the abnormally wide price spread affects every barrel of heavy oil leading to millions of dollars a day in losses to the Canadian economy. And second, that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is crucial. Neither of these claims are supported by the facts.
