The math is so easy. So why is BC ramping up coal and LNG production? STOP THEM! It really doesn’t get any simpler than this. Climate realities mean not ignoring science. Here’s some math. Let’s get off the coal, oil and gas. Click on the image for more enlightenment!
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Northern Insight / Perceptivity: Different ways, different results
Note 11 from a study by John Calvert and Marjorie Griffith Cohen of Simon Fraser University, Climate Change and the Canadian Energy Sector: “In this regard it is interesting to compare the approach of Alberta with Norway. While the timing of their respective production rates varies, both jurisdictions have produced
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Official opposition on resource development
John Horgan in the Legislature, October 8, 2014: “…Three years ago the Premier told B.C. families that she would make B.C. a leader in private sector job creation. Three years later we’re No. 9. When it comes to LNG, three years ago she said we’d create 100,000 jobs, we’d eliminate
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Repeaters, not reporters
Ever notice that corporate media seems to speak with one voice? On balance – or rather, on lack-of-balance – they do. It is the voice of big business. Vaughn Palmer, with American shale gas boom a major threat to B.C. exports, is the latest columnist lobbing fat pitches into the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Wadena Derailment Crisis: Early Lesson
http://t.co/rSh4hfhlbN Let’s move to the post-carbon energy infrastructure NOW! Publicly-owned wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, hydro is our future. No tarsands. No pipelines. No tankers. No coal. No LNG. No fracking. No climate change by rail either. http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/saskatchewan/major-train-derailment-and-fire-near-wadena-sask-1.2791337 June 16, 2014 Hey, BC: Want More Jobs? Dump the LNG and Pipelines!
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Captives of industry
Regular readers are aware that British Columbia’s natural gas industry provides surprisingly little return to the province by way of royalties for depleting non-renewable public assets. In the last two fiscal years, after accounting for drilling and road subsidies taken by or owed to producers, the province’s net gas royalty
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Yes, red tape may interfere with business
Mount Polley operator was raising height of tailings dam at time of breach, Wendy Stueck, Globe & Mail, August 15 2014 “Crews were working to raise the tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine by up to four metres before the structure failed and sent a torrent of waste and
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Extractivism – B.C. as third world economy
Examining British Columbia’s natural resource sector, I was surprised that public returns had declined although produced quantities increased and values rose exponentially. Not long ago, British Columbia thrived on resource based industries. Today, involved individuals do well but the public — putative owner of natural resources — gains little for
Continue readingNorthern Insight: When you buy yourself a government, you expect results
From RossK, The Gazetteer, Mines Are Sparkle Ponies Too?….Who Knew? But here’s something that even we, the purveyors of all that is neither established nor credible, missed from Ms. Clark’s October 2012 ‘Calgary Speech’: …”Mining is an area where we have set some pretty ambitious targets. We’re planning to build
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Welcome to the 1,000th Politics, Re-Spun Editorial!
Steve Harper, the greatest threat to Canadian security in the modern era. Happy August! Happy Day! I have a few comments about this, the 1,000th editorial at Politics, Re-Spun. But you can read them below, about my sabbatical plan, new visions for this almost 12-year-old website, and other things. But
Continue readingNorthern Insight: This week’s Liberal direction: lower LNG expectations
Friday, The Common Sense Canadian — a site that usually provides worthwhile journalism — posted an article written by Keith Baldrey for Glacier Media, publisher of numerous community recyclables. Not surprisingly, anyone reading the Global News reporter’s account needs the rest of the story. Here is part of Baldrey’s item,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Lego Pimps Your Kids’ Brains For Shell Oil
This is just too much. Lego has teamed up with Shell Oil to pimp your kids’ brains for Shell. We need to be helping our children understand that our future lies in the post-carbon energy infrastructure and things like solar roadways. Here’s one way to do that, at Lego Block
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Has Changed the Narrative, But We’re Not Done
Recently, with the WEF spending the last few years acknowledging global income inequality is a problem, I’ve declared a kind of victory for the Occupy Movement: getting the lexicon on the 1% and inequality on the tongues of the sly gazillionaires who rule the world, and into mass consumption. Now
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Volatile gas revenues tend to evaporate
BC Liberals are reluctant spenders when it comes to improving public schools. However, they’re not reluctant to put money into the pockets of natural gas producers. The amounts are in the billions but it’s not much discussed, either in the Legislature or in budget documents. However, careful reading of the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How the Tsilhqot’in Land Title Ruling Can Help Kill Enbridge
Watch Pam Palmater’s response to the SCC ruling. Click above. Stephen Harper had about a week to enjoy the glory of his remarkably understated whispery notification that the Enbridge climate killing pipeline will proceed. Yesterday the Supreme Court shut down the prime minister, which they have a tendency to do
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How the Federal NDP Plans to Alienate Eco-Voters
Mulcair wants to out-Liberal the Liberals led by the charismatic son of a charismatic Liberal prime minister. He will fail: “I think what Canadians want are people who are realists, who understand for example the importance of our extractive industries and the creation of jobs but they also want to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Hey, BC: Want More Jobs? Dump the LNG and Pipelines!
Well, I found yet another [like this] study showing how many MORE jobs we’d get by moving to a post-carbon energy infrastructure and dumping LNG, tarsands, pipelines and all the other Mordor Industrial Complex BC and Alberta are embracing. Not only is dumping the carbon energy infrastructure essential to do
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What Does Soft Fascism Look Like These Days?
We don’t see brown shirts and jackboots, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t seeing the de-democratization of our society. In Vancouver this month, armed police with guns drawn, raided a house because they suspected people inside not of being terrorists, but of spray painting “No Pipelines” all over the place.
Continue readingNorthern Insight: $80M annual power subsidy, one LNG proposal
Regular readers know that I focus attention on natural resource revenues earned – more often, not earned – by the citizens of British Columbia. Click here to read many articles on the subject. Information I use is usually from Finance Ministry documents such as Public Accounts, including audited financial statements,
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Why have our trees have lost half their value?
BC Stats released an updated report ‘British Columbia Origin Log Exports’ and I extracted data to produce these graphs. The statistics show the volume of raw logs leaving the province continues at record levels. This demonstrates the average monthly volume of exports over time. I’ve written much about the subject
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