This and that for your Thursday reading. – Leyland Cecco discusses how a combination of feckless government and decades of carefully-stoked anti-science sentiment has turned Alberta into North America’s COVID-19 hot spot, while Max Fawcett writes that Jason Kenney’s response has been the picture of cowardice. – Ediriweera Desapriya, Parisa
Continue readingTag: natural gas
In-Sights: Not even a peanut stand
Believe it or not, the Horgan Government is even worse than BC Liberals on natural gas. But don’t expect them to admit it.
Continue readingIn-Sights: BC NDP should pay attention to a Republican Senator
Long time United States Senator Charles Grassley is an Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He joined with retiring Democratic Senator Tom Udall to state a position that current BC NDP members ought to heed.
Continue readingIn-Sights: Future generations will decry what we’re doing
Subsidizing natural gas production by ending industry payments for rights and royalties, while the government is also offering billions in electricity subsidies is indefensible. But the most serious issue is the environmental effect, on the ground and in the atmosphere.
Continue readingIn-Sights: BC is eliminating natural gas revenues
Beginning in Premier Gordon Campbell’s term as BC Premier, natural gas producers lobbied mightily for reductions in the public share of revenue derived from exploiting the natural resource. BC Liberals were receptive to the idea. Surprisingly, when the formerly centre-left New Democrats came to power, they accelerated the reductions.
Continue readingIn-Sights: Indifferent to existential threats
While natural gas producers now pay nothing to the BC public in comparison to earlier days, production of the fossil fuel has about doubled in the last ten years. Fossil fuels may pose an existential threat to the world, but politicians in Canada are either unaware or indifferent. Evidence suggests
Continue readingIn-Sights: BC Government hides fossil fuel subsidies
In 2019, BC’s Auditor General concluded natural gas operators were not required by government to decommission or restore inactive well sites. Furthermore, that funds collected from operators were inadequate to cover restoration costs for wells “orphaned” by gas company bankruptcies. The Auditor General found that because of these deficiencies, the
Continue readingIn-Sights: Privatizing natural resources, by stealth
Despite the NDP promise that resource development must provide a fair return to the public, John Horgan’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources functions just as it did under Christy Clark…
Continue readingIn-Sights: Our BC Hydro bills subsidize fossil fuel industries
You will find evidence at In-Sights proving government policies and subsidies have cut public revenue from petroleum and natural gas producers to a tiny fraction of what it once was. This despite substantial increases in natural gas production. But, gas producers have hands in our pockets in less obvious ways…
Continue readingIn-Sights: Clark formed the policy; Horgan accelerated it
Petroleum and natural gas rights sale results reflect policies of a government dedicated to increasing fossil fuel production. To do that, they are giving away the public share of these natural resources. Christy Clark formed the policy; John Horgan accelerated it.
Continue readingIn-Sights: Radioactive
We already knew the oil and gas business was poisoning land and water and polluting the atmosphere. Most people, including workers in the northeast gas fields, are probably unaware that people are being exposed to radioactivity as well.
Continue readingIn-Sights: Unmeasured GHG emissions ignored
One of the pre-election promises made quietly by the BC NDP to me and other concerned citizens was to apply best scientific practices in regulating British Columbia’s northeast gas fields. In another post-election policy reversal, John Horgan’s NDP government decided the only action needed was a little green washing…
Continue readingIn-Sights: Natural gas production up, public revenue down
Citizens of BC are misled by government about economic returns from natural gas. Relevant statistics are not readily available and the ministries prefer to conceal them. Since government does not issue press releases with awkward news, the incurious press gallery ignores information like that shown below…
Continue readingIn-Sights: Ruled by climate change deniers
Both the Horgan and Trudeau governments made symbolic commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Neither was sincere. Horgan passed UNDRIP into BC law but now ignores the declaration. Trudeau said they would table a bill on UNDRIP but this week decided to put
Continue readingIn-Sights: Delusion, deception, inertia
Faced with a choice between respecting Supreme Court confirmed indigenous governance and serving foreign financial interests (Shell, Petronas, and PetroChina), BC NDP joined with the land polluters, not the land protectors.
Continue readingIn-Sights: Public consultations, sincere or fake?
Transparent decision making and promises of public engagements have been common in British Columbia. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell’s 2001 platform undertook to: Hold open Cabinet meetings at least once a month that […]
Continue readingIn-Sights: We’re fracked!
Remember when mendacious BC politicians spoke of massive wealth from natural gas production? Eight of the last ten monthly sales of petroleum and gas rights rank amongst the worst in 23 years.
Continue readingIn-Sights: Revenue from natural gas rights hits 23 year low
Were timber companies offered similar levels of cost relief as gas producers, the province would not have thousands of forestry workers hungry for employment. Politicians seem to believe that non-renewable resource companies are more deserving of financial support than ones harvesting renewable assets…
Continue readingIn-Sights: Democratic delusion
“Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.” Even with contribution limits, generous as they are, government remains biased toward serving interests of prosperous citizens…
Continue readingIn-Sights: Rising production, declining gas revenue
Sale of crown petroleum and natural gas rights in the first nine month of 2019 totalled $12 million. The average for the first nine months of the preceding 20 years was $448 million. That is a reduction of more than 97%.
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