Early China coal mine When it comes to global warming, coal is the biggest culprit in the warming of the earth. China is taking giant strides to reduce its need for coal to generate energy by exploiting its vast shale gas reserves: Although serious obstacles remain, China is finally making
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Could Alberta go green?
With 50 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than Ontario, Alberta is Canada’s pollution province. And that makes us think of the tar sands. But it’s more than bitumen. Alberta’s electrical power generation, heavily dependent on coal, produces almost as much greenhouse gas as the tar sands. The province gets
Continue readingreeves report: Environmental Legislation Killed by the Ontario Election
Environment Minister Jim Bradley and Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti speak with reporters at Queen’s Park. June, 2013. (Photo by Andrew Reeves) SO WE KEEP WAITING. Ontario’s environmental community had reason for optimism when Kathleen Wynne assumed leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party in January 2013, knowing the new premier
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Pondering a palatable pipeline…
I guest-hosted TWiE podcast episode 137 a few days ago, an episode devoted to the Alberta oil sands / tar sands. If you ask me (and I realize none of you have 🙂 ) it’s well worth a listen! The week’s guest was US energy analyst Robert Rapier, who had
Continue readingreeves report: Kathleen Wynne’s environmental ups and downs
Feature image: Ontario Rangers youth gather at Queen’s Park in January, 2013 to protest cuts to a Ministry of Natural Resources program many former participants claim changed their lives. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has called an election for June 12, and as the parties gear up their campaign platforms, it’s
Continue readingreeves report: Fracking impact report due early May
Fracking well in USA. A panel report on the potential environmental impacts of shale gas exploration, extraction and development in Canada has been finalized but will not see the light of day until after May 1, 2014. In 2011, then federal Environment Minister Peter Kent asked the Council of Canadian
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Sorry Oil Shills, Try Another Talking Point
The Oil and Gas sectors are the biggest of the air polluting sectors in Canada. They’ve recently surpassed transportation. Amazingly, despite Saskatchewan’s refusal to do away with coal burning, electricity sources of air pollution have dropped thanks to Ontario’s phase-out of coal power.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower Carbon Capture and Storage Going Online Today, On Schedule
@tingeyd -Construction of the @SaskPowerCCS facility is complete. Currently commissioning and preparing for commercial operation Spring 2014— (@SaskPowerCCS) January 27, 2014 “The government boasted at last week’s Boundary Dam symposium that the project will be up and running this fall and completed by next April, on time and on
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Blustery Winds of Stupidity Hit Weyburn Hard #skpoli
At least 2 Weyburn City Councillors were not duped by anti-Wind propaganda that afflicts many municipalities. There’s probably no bylaw against this family running a noisy, polluting diesel generator in their backyard, contributing to poor health of their neighbours. I’d have to reason that the neighbour(s) who complained about this
Continue reading350 or bust: Coal Train Blues
Counterfeit Cash, a Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash tribute band based in Portland, Oregon, has just released a new music video, “Coal Train Blues,” a cover of the Man in Black’s famous hit “Folsom Prison Blues.” The revised lyrics tell about the health and environmental risks that coal exports pose to communities
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Burnaby mayor calls BC “banana republic” over coal port review
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan pulled no punches at a recent council meeting, criticizing the undemocratic process being led by Port Metro Vancouver to drive coal port expansion. Corrigan calls out the port authority and controversial Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, tapped to conduct environmental assessment work for the proposer Fraser Surrey Docks coal
Continue readingthe reeves report: Europe looks to coal to reduce electricity prices
One year after The Economist signalled an ”unwelcomed coal renaissance”, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 6 that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in a big way. Lignite, a low-quality form of coal that contains less units of energy and greater volumes of carbon than
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rain blamed for yet another CN derailment – this time near Vancouver
Yet another derailment for CN, this time involving coal, near Vancouver. BURNABY, B.C. – A CN Rail spokeswoman has confirmed heavy rainfall led to a train derailment in the Vancouver area Saturday. Emily Hamer says the increased amount of rain caused a beaver dam to wash out, spilling large amounts
Continue readingEclectic Lip: December: a podcast premiere
The nice folks at http://www.thisweekinenergy.tv/ (TWiE) invited me to guest on their podcast on their late November episode, Good News, Bad News, Ugly News. While most of their guests are leading experts in their fields, and I’m just a talkative and reasonably-knowledgeable former fuel cell engineer, I heeded Gore Vidal’s
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canadians get lots of coal, oil and gas in holiday trash dump
The Friday night trash dump is a well-known trick of governments looking to dispense with bad news as quietly as possible. Controversial announcements are made in the last hour of the last day of the week to avoid public scrutiny. This year, the holiday season has served the same role, only on a much
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: First Nations Get $0.3M for Solar Research #skpoli
The Conservative government generously gave First Nations in Saskatchewan enough grant money to build one impressively sized solar array that could power a half dozen homes. Ontario is going with $5,000M. SaskPower gave 10 times this much to the UofR to research how to put CO2 underground so more oil
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: 300 Years Is Bogus
Thanks to another letter writer, Michael McKinlay, I caught this opportunity to again offer a better future perspective than SaskPower’s current President has done thus far. http://saskboy.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/an-irrational-mixup-at-saskpower/ I’m writing in response to SaskPower President and CEO Robert Watson’s comments in the November 25th article, “SaskPower set to overhaul power grid“.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Made in Canada Scam Plan #cdnpoli
Conservatives are stalling, as they have been for nearly 8 years on both Senate reform and climate change action. .@mikedesouza Only 7 years ago the Made In Canada plan for CO2 was promised to Canadians. Conservatives only kick the can. #climatechange— Saskboy K. (@saskboy) November 28, 2013 Now: Aglukkaq: Canada
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: International Coal Summit’s pipe dream of carbon capture & storage
A new study released today at the UN climate conference underway in Warsaw, Poland finds that new coal plants cannot be built if we are to keep global warming below the 2° Celsius threshold. That is, unless the coal industry can deploy commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS). The report,
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