The 3-member NEB Joint Review Panel for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline (Damien Gillis) Do you enjoy being a raw hypocrite? Well, if you’re a taxpayer in Canada that’s what you are because you support raw hypocrisy every day in the various hearings on environmental matters that take place.
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The Common Sense Canadian: Premier Clark spews more hot air with LNG non-announcent
Premier Christy Clark announcing…the same thing she’s announced many times before (BC Government) For all the fanfare of yesterday’s press conference, you’d think Premier Christy Clark would have some big, new development to announce for her much-vaunted but yet-to-be-built LNG industry. Sorry folks, nothing to see here. All Clark had
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Gitxsan members to block LNG meeting
Gitxsan members blockade Highway 16 last December (Photo submitted) Read this May 20 story by Alicia Bridges in Smithers Interior News on plans by grassroots Gitxsan members and hereditary chiefs to block a pro-LNG info session being held by the Gitxsan Development Corporation, the province and industry tomorrow. Gitxsan LNG pipeline
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: IMF study: Fossil fuel industry gets $5.3 TRILLION in public subsidies a year
A tar sands operation in Fort McMurray, Alberta (photo: Chris Krüg) Read this shocking May 19 story from the EU Observer on a new study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which pegs subsidies to the fossil fuel sector at a whopping $5.3 Trillion USD per year. Around 1.6 million premature
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Suzuki: Canada seeing real change with energy, politics and First Nations
Tahltan First Nations and supporters peacefully occupying a Fortune Minerals drill (Beyond Boarding) Recent events in Canada have shown not only that change is possible, but that people won’t stand for having corporate interests put before their own. When plummeting oil prices late last year threw Alberta into financial crisis,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Lax Kw’alaams rejects Billion-dollar LNG deal; Lake Babine signs paltry one
Lelu Island and Flora Bank (fore) – site of contentious proposed LNG plant (Skeena Watershed Conservation) The BC Liberal government and LNG industry suffered a blow this week with a final losing vote amongst Lax Kw’alaams Band members over a billion-dollar package offered to support Petronas’ Pacific NorthWest LNG plant near Prince
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Woodfibre LNG is bad business for BC
Except briefly, let’s avoid environmental questions about Woodfibre LNG for today and concentrate on fiscal matters. Even if Woodfibre LNG was an environmental bonus to Howe Sound and the surrounding communities; even if it was clean as a whistle, its plant and accoutrements safe as a church, and the tanker
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: China’s emissions drop, global cleanteach boom are cause for optimism on climate change
Chinese solar company Suntech at the Bird’s Nest stadium Despite Canada’s total lack of leadership in the green economy, a number of key global developments are grounds for optimism heading into the Paris UN conference on climate change. Global emissions plateau in 2014 In a pleasant surprise for the planet at large, according
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Woodfibre LNG: Shady PR, lobby violations, fraudulent, eco-criminal owner…Is this the kind of business BC wants to welcome?
Sukanto Tanoto (right), the man behind the proposed Woodfibre LNG project The war against an LNG plant in Squamish is heating up, and as the late singer Al Jolson said, “You ain’t seen nothin yet.” Know that on this issue, I am not in any way independent. Along with thousands
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Harper, BC Tory MPs have oil on their hands from English Bay spill
A cleanup crew works on Third Beach following the recent English Bay oil spill I say three cheers for Premier Christy Clark and Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vancouver. The verbal assault by the Premier on the federal government was more than justified by recent events and just happens to be a
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Botched English Bay oil spill confirms BC ‘woefully unprepared’ for more pipelines, tankers: Open letter
Ocean pollution specialist Dr. Peter Ross displays an oily substance from English Bay (Vancouver Aquarium) The following is an open letter by Ben West of the group Tanker Free BC to Christy Clark. Dear Premier Clark, In a 2013 interview with Peter Mansbridge, you discussed Canada’s inability to handle a
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Vancouver Sun keeps shilling for “clean” LNG, Woodfibre plant
Christy Clark promotes “Clean LNG” at Vancouver conference last year (David P. Ball/The Tyee) The Vancouver Sun – rapidly becoming, if it hasn’t already become the “Pravda” of Vancouver – has done it again with another article supporting LNG and the proposed Squamish plant. This one is by a father and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Ret. Navy Commander torpedoes LNG lobby’s tanker safety story
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.” ― Sir Walter Scott One Stewart Muir is the executive director of Resource Works, an elite organization formed to tout Woodfibre LNG. Muir was once the business editor and deputy managing editor of the Vancouver Sun, thus the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: All hands on deck for Howe Sound as LNG storm brews
Boaters raise the alarm over plans to re-industrialize Howe Sound (Future of Howe Sound Society) Howe Sound needs the help of all British Columbians and it needs it now. The proposed Woodfibre LNG plant in Squamish has got some very powerful allies. Both governments support it. That means that there’s
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Last day for public comments on Woodfibre LNG proposal
Rendering of proposed Woodfibre LNG project near Squamish, BC Citizens have until Midnight Monday to submit their comments to the current phase of environmental assessment into the controversial Woodfibre LNG proposal, near Squamish. The project and its Indonesian billionaire proponent Sukanto Tanoto have garnered intense scrutiny from citizen groups, First Nations
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: A PR Flack’s Guide to LNG: Dream Team tries to repair industry’s image
Clockwise from top left: Teck’s Doug Horswill, Stewart Muir, former A-G Geoff Plant, and Lyn Anglin It’s an axiom of debate that if you don’t like the argument you’re in, find one that you’re more comfortable with. Barristers use this technique before juries all the time and that’s precisely the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Joe Oliver says fracking is safe, so it must be
Finance Minister Joe Oliver (Adrian Wyld/CP) I must apologize for being an alarmist. I now discover there is no reason for concern about hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking”. I have been alleging that this process of “mining” natural gas is dangerous not only to the atmosphere and the people around
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Federal leaders out of touch on LNG, fracking
Thomas Mulcair, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau Prime Minister Stephen Harper has thrown down the gauntlet with his promise of federal tax giveaways for LNG enterprises. I expected this sort of nonsense – just one look at the smug sneer of power on the face of James Moore, Minister of Industry,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Harper slashes federal taxes for BC LNG industry
Stephen Harper announces the Government’s intent to support the creation of BC’s LNG industry in Surrey, BC (PMO) Prime Minister Stephen Harper jumped on the BC LNG ship this week with the announcement of federal support for the embattled industry during a speech in Surrey, BC. A PMO press release trumpeting
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Asian LNG prices take record 60% plunge from last year
Asian spot market prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) have plunged by a single year record of 61.7% since February 2014, according to Platts JKM (Japan/Korea Marker) – a leading source of benchmark prices for the industry. Average prices for March delivery peaked at a historic high of $20.20 per million British thermal units (MMBtu)
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