Workers on LNG Canada project (Source: Kitimat LNG) Read this June 17 story from The Globe and Mail on the conditional approval awarded to Shell-led consortium LNG Canada’s proposed terminal for Kitimat. The B.C. government has conditionally approved a liquefied natural gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Environment Minister Mary
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The Common Sense Canadian: Harper says LNG tankers too dangerous for East Coast, but OK for BC?
I live on Howe Sound in lovely Lions Bay. I have lived my entire life in British Columbia, growing up in Vancouver and spending much of my boyhood on this lovely fjord. Howe Sound belongs to all of us. It had been all but destroyed by industry until 20 years
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canadian oil industry slashes production forecast by 1.1 million barrels/day due to price slump
Enbridge tank farm at “Refinery Row” in Sherwood Park, Alberta (Damien Gillis) Read this June 10 Calgary Herald story by Stephen Ewart on the Canadian oil industry’s diminished projections for daily production, amidst $50 oil: Well, there’s a quick 1.1 million barrels a day towards the no-carbon economy. Day One of the 85-year
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: BC not ready for major oil spill, minister admits after Vancouver diesel spill
Minster Mary Polak Announces BC will move ahead on world-leading spill response team (BC govt) Republished with permission from the ECOreport. Within hours of Vancouver’s second oil spill of the year, BC Environment Minister Mary Polak was reassuring the public that the province will move ahead on a “world-leading” spill response team.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Has fracking peaked?
Bloomberg graph shows cresting of production at major US shale oil plays Read this June 9 EcoWatch story by Aanastasia Pantsias on the declining production at the big US shale oil plays. Since fracking began its boom period in the last decade, its supporters have promoted it as the answer to all
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Petronas’ LNG project gets ‘conditional approval’, despite First Nations opposition
Ex-Petronas CEO Shamsul Abbas shaking hands with BC Premier Christy Clark in 2014 Read this June 11 Globe and Mail story by Brent Jang on the “conditional approval” given by Malaysian energy giant Petronas and its partners to their Pacific Northwest LNG project. An international consortium has committed to building a
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fraser River LNG tankers carry explosive risk – Last chance for public comment
How LNG Tankers would turn from from WesPac Tilbury Marine Jetty (Project Description – CEAA Summary) This article is republished with permission from The ECOreport. Building a major LNG terminal in Delta would have a big impact on the mouth of the Fraser River. The diagram at the top of this
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fracking industry stonewalled EPA on data for safety assessment
Chemical and water mixing for hydraulic fracturing (Joshua Doubek/Creative Commons) Republished with permission from The ECOreport. After five years of research, the EPA’s painfully inadequate fracking assessment has been released. “It’s a bit underwhelming,” said Amanda Frank, from the Center for Effective Government. Dr Allan Hoffman, a retired senior analyst
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Major energy worker union opposes Kinder Morgan pipeline
Artist’s rendering of proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker expansion Read this May 28 Burnaby Now story by Jennifer Moreau on Unifor’s decision to oppose the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion through its submission to the ongoing National Energy Board Hearings. One of Canada’s largest unions for energy workers has come
Continue readingThe 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: 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
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