The Price Ain’t Right
Back in August of 2018 our federal government bought us a pipeline. Not exactly a bargain, it set us back $4.5-billion. The pipeline, the Trans Mountain, carries oil from Edmonton…
dilbit
This Is What Gives Them Away
A lot of stupid people in Canada have come to think of Athabasca bitumen as “oil.” That is the single most important victory the petro-state has achieved. It’s not oil.…
Norway Shines a Light We Don’t Care to See
Little Norway and it’s big sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, are once again leading the way, this time by plunging into alternative clean energy investment. Not for the first…
The Perils and Pitfalls of the J. Trudeau Memorial Pipeline – They’re Very Real
To hear many east of the Rockies tell it, a dilbit spill in British Columbia’s coastal waters isn’t going to happen, although it is, and, should it, they have a…
Great. Now Notley Imagines She’s Speaking for All Canadians. You Too?
Rachel Notley is taking to the interwebs in her war with British Columbia. If it’s war B.C. wants, it’s war she’ll get. Now the Alberta premier, speaking for Alberta and…
Setting the Record Straight on Trudeau, Notley, Bitumen, and Our Future.
What’s the difference between all-out nuclear war and catastrophic climate change? So far we haven’t been stupid enough to resort to all-out nuclear war. Both of them can end civilization,…
Whether You Support Pipelines or Not, Here’s Something We Can Surely Agree On.
No secret I’m opposed to both Kinder Morgan and Northern Gateway. A sizeable majority of British Columbians are of the same mind but a significant minority supports the pipeline initiatives.…
Pondering a palatable pipeline…
I guest-hosted TWiE podcast episode 137 a few days ago, an episode devoted to the Alberta oil sands / tar sands. If you ask me (and I realize none of…
Cognitive Dissonance is a Lousy Political Platform, Even for the Liberals.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when an entity embraces two or more contradictory beliefs or values at the same time. As social psychologist Leon Festinger showed, cognitive dissonance in an individual leads…
And We Thought All We Had to Deal With Was Enbridge.
Nexen, the Chinese Communist Party’s anchor in Athabasca, is urging Canadian National Railways to start shipping bitumen by rail car to Prince Rupert where it can then be loaded on…
Geriatric Pipelines?
An analysis of the pipeline failure that spilled 200,000 gallons of Athabasca dilbit in Mayflower, Arizona concluded there was a manufacturing fault in the pipe. Here’s the thing. The pipe…
InsideClimate wins Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Canada’s tar sands
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: On Monday, three reporters from nonprofit online news site InsideClimate were honored with a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Canada’s tar sands and…
Everything You Need to Know About DilBit
Confused about diluted bitumen, the stuff Ottawa and Alberta are so determined to push through British Columbia? It’s not easy to find balanced information on dilbit so it was great…
Does Red Leaf’s "EcoShale" Technology Greenwash Oil Shale Extraction?
Red Leaf EcoShale.png At the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008, former Vice President Al Gore called the possibility of fossil fuel corporations extracting oil shale "utter insanity." Insanity, though, doesn't…
Must Read Muckrake on the Whistleblower Behind the Enbridge Tar Sands Pipeline Spill
feature_enbridgemain.jpg On a midsummer evening in July of 2010, heavy crude started gushing from a 30-inch pipeline into Talmadge Creek, near Marshall, Michigan. By the next morning, heavy globs of…