Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jim Stanford weighs in on the need for increased worker input into economic decision-making – particularly as change is otherwise imposed by management with little regard for the people most affected. – Nathaniel Erskine-Smith makes the case for a wealth tax to recoup
Continue readingTag: oil industry
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Noah Ivers writes that people need to take the first COVID-19 vaccine available in support of everybody’s health, rather than assuming that consumerist philosophy applies to vaccinations. Arthur White-Crummey reports on new modelling showing how Saskatchewan is at grave risk of seeing our
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Steven Lewis writes that the Saskatchewan Party’s mealy-mouthed messaging around the coronavirus looks to be a calculated political choice which is having devastating public health consequences: There has been a pattern in Saskatchewan’s communication about COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. The language is
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: All hands on deck to rig the oil market
The oil industry and the free market are not well acquainted. The price of oil has long been manipulated more by cartels than by free markets. Since the 1970s, the manipulator in chief has been the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its collaborators (OPEC+). The recent collapse in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Laura Spinney writes about the debate as to whether to eliminate COVID-19 or control its continued spread. And Carl Zimmer reports on the Brazilian variant which represents just the latest new mutation which may complicate any attempt to barge ahead with business
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andrea Reimer examines the power dynamics at play in government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the limits of formal political power where it isn’t paired with knowledge and networks. And the Globe and Mail’s editorial board rightly questions the dubious math
Continue reading52 Ideas: Rex Murphy’s poor argument about the Tragedy in Texas made me write this post
“In reality, failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, said in a press conference Tuesday.” No, renewable energy is not primarily
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Angela Stewart interviews Malgorzata Gasperowicz about the potential for Alberta to eradicate COVID-19 with a seven-week shutdown, rather than letting new and more dangerous variants run rampant in the months before vaccines can be widely distributed. Jillian Horton observes that premiers who have
Continue reading52 Ideas: And the World moves on…. (or why Alberta needs to pay attention to the way other people are getting their energy)
When I was a child, I was privileged in that I got to travel to Jamaica and Barbados to see my relatives. The trips were amazing; and, each time I went down, I learned more about the Caribbean. At some point, in the 1980s and 1990s, my education about my
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford explores how a just transition plan can ensure that workers have new opportunities in the midst of a needed shift away from dirty fossil fuels – and also highlights how a blinkered refusal to accept the decline of the oil
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On climate pollution
Martin Olzynski’s submission this week has called plenty of attention to the Kenney UCP’s funding of climate denialism through an inquiry attacking environmentalism. But let’s note that the response to Olzynski’s observations only makes the inquiry look all the worse. Here’s the excuse from the inquiry’s spokesman: Boras suggested to
Continue reading52 Ideas: Within the decade, Electrification Technology will quickly impact the Alberta Economy & Athabascan Oil Sands
If I were the Mayor of Calgary, an Alberta MLA who goes to Edmonton or a MP for a riding in Alberta, the thing that would terrify me the most is the decreasing cost and improving efficiency of Electric Vehicle (EV) battery back technology. In reading OilPrice.com – a leading
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Robyn Urback writes that the second wave of COVID-19 can be traced largely to people – including far too many political leaders – who have been able to treat a pandemic as somebody else’s problem due to their own privilege. Aaron Wherry points
Continue reading52 Ideas: Germany’s pandemic recovery has a direct effect on Alberta
It is rare for the Province of Alberta to feel the effects of a policy decision made by the German Federal Government. However, it is clear that over the next few years, Alberta’s economy – from Calgary to Edmonton, from Banff to Lloydminster – will begin to see an unprecedented
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Use the war room to educate Albertans?
In December 2019, the Alberta government launched the Canadian Energy Centre. The new UCP government had fulfilled its election promise of an energy “war room” that would “fight fake news and share the truth about Alberta’s resource sector and energy issues.” The promise has turned out to be a huge
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Boxing Day reading. – Kyle Hanniman and Trevor Tombe examine the relative fiscal positions of Canada’s federal and provincial governments – concluding that while there isn’t a need for austerity anywhere, there’s a lot more room to maneuver at the federal level than in most provinces
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Parsing Alberta’s oil industry
One could divide Alberta up in various ways. First, as in most provinces and elsewhere, there is town and country, the old story of liberal cities and socially conservative hinterlands. And in the 2019 election the pattern held: the UCP dominated the countryside. And then there’s north-south. The southern part
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jeremy Samuel Faust, Harlan Krumholz and Rochelle Walensky write about the false – and dangerous – assumption that COVID-19 would pose few risks for young adults. – David Cyranoski examines how restaurants and other crowded businesses have proven to be regular transmission grounds
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Elisabeth Rosenthal writes about the need to ensure that our public health messaging includes the graphic details of the severe threat of COVID-19. And Josh Kovensky points out one of the crucial questions still unanswered about the vaccines we’re hoping to rely on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Carl Meyer writes about Denmark’s move to finally and fully shut down oil and gas production as part of a transition to clean energy. And Abacus finds strong public support for Canada to also be a world leader in that process – even
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