Apparently Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is determined to make the flagging Trudeau Liberals look like the grownups in the room! Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault (Photo: UN Biodiversity, Creative Commons). What other explanation is there for Ms. Smith’s childish official outburst yesterday assailing federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault for his
Continue readingTag: Suncor Energy Inc.
Views from the Beltline: Oil industry disappoints (but doesn’t surprise)
Once upon a time I toiled in the oil patch and it was good to me. I worked for Shell Canada and the royal pectin paid well, provided excellent benefits and training, and offered ample opportunities for advancement. I made lifelong friends and was proud to be helping folks heat
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The oilsands’ other dirty little secret — Canadians barely own ’em
It’s the other dirty little secret of the oilsands: Foreign companies and their shareholders are benefitting from the huge dividends produced by Alberta’s vast bitumen sand deposits while Canadians are stuck with the vast bill for the cleanup. It’s like a latter-day update on one of those Country & Western
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Day After: Alberta heavy crude prices squirt upward in wake of Rachel Notley’s production cap announcement
It was nice for Alberta’s New Democratic Party Government that the first thing the price of Alberta heavy crude did the morning after Premier Rachel Notley’s announcement her government would cap production of Alberta oil by 8.7 per cent for three months was to squirt upward. On Friday night, Western
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If Rachel Notley caps Alberta oil production tonight, how quickly will Jason Kenney change his tune?
If Rachel Notley uses the Alberta Government’s power to put a cap on oil production tonight, as she hinted she would do in a newspaper op-ed Friday, how long will it take Opposition Leader Jason Kenney to change his tune? Not long, one imagines. Of course, if Mr. Kenney does
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If other Canadians don’t think Alberta should go suck a lemon, they probably soon will
Alberta! Go suck a lemon! I don’t endorse that sentiment, of course. I’m an Albertan, after all. The person who did say something like that, as it happens, didn’t say it about Alberta. It was a long, long time ago, 1976 as a matter of fact, when Catherine Ford said
Continue readingAlberta Politics: While Albertans panicked about state of the oilsands, the Big Five bitumen-extraction corporations made billions
While Albertans have been in flap over the state of the province’s oilsands industry, the Big Five Oilsands extraction corporations have been raking in billions. “Despite the 2014 oil price crash and the ongoing hand-wringing over pipelines and the price differential, the reality is the Big Five oilsands producers have
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘A disservice to our nation’ – Tzeoporah Berman fires back at Jason Kenney’s ‘crass, simplistic narrative’
In a blistering broadside on social media yesterday, prominent B.C. environmentalist Tzeporah Berman fired back at Opposition Leader Jason Kenney for his continuing effort to reduce her to a figure of hatred, ridicule and contempt as a way to undermine Alberta’s NDP government. “You keep simplifying what I am saying
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Opposition focuses its fury on Tzeporah Berman, ignores oilsands advisory group’s consensus recommendations … why?
PHOTOS: Environmentalist Tzeporah Berman. Below: Former Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president Dave Collyer, who worked successfully with Ms. Berman to produce the recommendations of the Alberta Government’s Oil Sands Advisory Group, and Opposition leaders Jason Kenney of the Progressive Conservative Party and Brian Jean of the Wildrose Party, who
Continue readingI know you have to say that stuff, Rachel, but still ….
At a recent speech to international investors in Calgary, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley described the tar sands as “a tremendous asset” and an “international showpiece.” Hearing my premier and the leader of my party describe the tar sands as a tremendous asset makes me cringe. They are indeed an international
Continue readingFinally, a voice Harper may listen to
A carbon tax is an eminently fair and sensible approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And big oil agrees. At least Steve Williams, CEO of Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, Suncor Energy, does. Speaking to a downtown Calgary crowd on Friday, Williams stated, “We think climate change is happening.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The real reason upgrading bitumen in Alberta ‘doesn’t make sense’
A bitumen processing plant near Fort McMurray, back in the day. Below: An actual bitumen bubble. The government of Alberta is “desperate” to get the province’s bitumen resources to market, as its media echo chamber relentlessly informs us. And it says it’s equally desperate to pop the “Bitumen Bubble,” the
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