Last month I published a full-length article in the “The Monitor” magazine providing a “how we got here” analysis of the Ontario electricity sector and some options for the next Government. Since then, two things have changed: first on May 31 two investigative journalists, Carolyn Jarvis and Brian Hill, wrote
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Earthgauge News: Interview with journalist Paul McKay about pipeline economics in Canada
https://earthgauge.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/paulmckay-part1-forair.mp3 https://earthgauge.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/paulmckay-part2-forair.mp3 Time and time again, we hear from politicians that we need more pipelines to get Alberta’s oil to new markets. But Paul Mckay, an award-winning journalist who has looked at this issue closely, says this is all a shell game, smoke and mirrors designed to distract us from
Continue readingThings Are Good: Costa Rica to Ban use of Fossil Fuels
Back in 2015 Costa Rica ran on only renewable energy for the first quarter of the year, and since then they have improved. The country now regularly runs their power grid using only renewable sources and their new president wants to take that to the next level. The government announced
Continue readingThings Are Good: New Zealand Bans New Offshore Drilling, Plans Fully Renewable Future
While Canada continues to condemn the future to climatic destruction by supporting the tar sands, their common wealth partner has decided to plan for the future. New Zealand has declared an all out ban on new offshore drilling projects and have even taken a step further to ban exploration for
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bird Brains Avoid Wind Farms
Opponents of clean energy try to find any reason to stop renewable installations (I guess they hate the planet?) and when it comes to wind farms they suddenly start caring about birds. Their argument is that birds will fly into the blades of wind turbines. This argument was recently studied
Continue readingEarthgauge News: Earthgauge Radio – April 17, 2018
https://earthgauge.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/earthgaugeradio-forair-18-04-17.mp3 Edition #14 of Earthgauge News for the week of April 16, 2018. A weekly Canadian environmental news podcast featuring stories from across Canada and around the world. Join me here every week or subscribe to the podcast. On the show this week: Palm oil is being banned by a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On the social environment
Having written my column this week on one of the more glaring areas of increasingly alarming neglect from the Saskatchewan Party under Scott Moe, I’ll take a moment to point out the other single policy change that I find most striking. D.C. Fraser has reported on a reduction in funding
Continue readingThings Are Good: Floating Wind Farm in Scotland is a Success
Oil and gas companies have seen the writing on the wall about the future of energy: it’s all about renewables. The Norwegian state-owned company Statoil installed a massive wind farm off the coast of Scotland and it’s a roaring success. The wind turbines float in the water and are operating
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Larry Elliott discusses how the stock market is reacting with disgust against rare good economic news for workers and the general public. Asher Schechter interviews Angus Deaton about the connection between monopolies, rent-seeking and burgeoning inequality. And Bill Kerry writes that we
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar is Booming in Australia
Solar in places with a lot of sun might seem like a no-brainer; yet in Australia it’s taken a long time for the idea to take off. This year is clearly going to be a turning a point for solar in the sunny nation based of the already exploding demand
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2018 Links
The latest from the Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership campaign as the January 19 membership deadline approaches. – CBC and Colton Praill each reported on this weekend’s debate in Moose Jaw, with both reports focusing on a combination of general similarities with slight nuances. – Devin Wilger reported on Trent Wotherspoon’s visit
Continue readingThings Are Good: As Oil Industry Declines, Workers Turn to Solar
The tar sands in Alberta is killing a Canadian climate-friendly future and the people who work there have also realized that jobs in the tar sands isn’t their future. A new not-for profit, Iron and Earth, is building a sustainable future for the climate and for workers. The worker led
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz writes about the need to learn from past mistakes in order to build a sustainable economy for the future: To someone like me, who has watched trade negotiations closely for more than a quarter-century, it is clear that US trade
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Electricity Sector IV: Pre-Election Update
My first, second and third posts on the Ontario electricity sector described how policy and administrative decisions by different Liberal Governments gave rise to excess electricity generation with an inflated cost structure, leading to higher electricity prices. In anticipation of June 2018 elections, the Liberal Government recently implemented a costly
Continue readingEarthgauge News: Earthgauge News – Oct. 23, 2017
Edition #3 of the new Earthgauge News podcast for the week of Oct. 23, 2017. A weekly Canadian environmental news podcast featuring the top stories from across Canada and around the world. Join me here every Monday or subscribe in iTunes or your favourite podcast catcher.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Using a Blockchain for a Smarter Energy Grid
Blockchain technology stems from Bitcoin and provides a platform for change greater than Bitcoin itself. Researchers in the renewable energy industry have realized that blockchains can be used to replace outdated billing and tracking. Presently when a company produces energy it requires verification form other companies and each step eats
Continue readingEarthgauge News: Earthgauge News – Oct. 15, 2017
Edition #2 of the new podcast Earthgauge News for the week of Oct. 15, 2017. A weekly Canadian environmental news podcast featuring the top environmental stories from across Canada and around the world. Join us here every week or subscribe in iTunes or your favourite podcast catcher.
Continue readingEarthgauge Radio: Earthgauge News
The inaugural edition of our new podcast Earthgauge News! A weekly Canadian environmental news podcast featuring the top environmental stories from across Canada for the week of Oct. 9, 2017. Join us here every week or subscribe in iTunes or your favourite podcast catcher.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Living Off the Grid in a Major City
Most people think living off the grid means living the countryside with your own well, reenable energy, and food source. The truth is that style of off the grid requires massive space to work (for example, a well needs a large area to collect water from), so that rural off
Continue readingThings Are Good: International Leaders of Geothermal Energy Agree to Work Together
Geothermal energy is very simple in principal: drill a hole into the hot earth and use the naturally occurring heat to get turbines spinning. In practice it can be very hard. To bridge the practical difficulties getting geothermal around the world running leaders behind the technology are gathered in Florence
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