Radioactive
We already knew the oil and gas business was poisoning land and water and polluting the atmosphere. Most people, including workers in the northeast gas fields, are probably unaware that…
natural gas
Unmeasured GHG emissions ignored
One of the pre-election promises made quietly by the BC NDP to me and other concerned citizens was to apply best scientific practices in regulating British Columbia’s northeast gas fields.…
Natural gas production up, public revenue down
Citizens of BC are misled by government about economic returns from natural gas. Relevant statistics are not readily available and the ministries prefer to conceal them. Since government does not…
Ruled by climate change deniers
Both the Horgan and Trudeau governments made symbolic commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Neither was sincere. Horgan passed UNDRIP into BC law…
Delusion, deception, inertia
Faced with a choice between respecting Supreme Court confirmed indigenous governance and serving foreign financial interests (Shell, Petronas, and PetroChina), BC NDP joined with the land polluters, not the land…
Public consultations, sincere or fake?
Transparent decision making and promises of public engagements have been common in British Columbia. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell’s 2001 platform undertook to: Hold open Cabinet meetings at least once a…
We’re fracked!
Remember when mendacious BC politicians spoke of massive wealth from natural gas production? Eight of the last ten monthly sales of petroleum and gas rights rank amongst the worst in…
Revenue from natural gas rights hits 23 year low
Were timber companies offered similar levels of cost relief as gas producers, the province would not have thousands of forestry workers hungry for employment. Politicians seem to believe that non-renewable…
Democratic delusion
“Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.” Even with contribution limits, generous as they are, government remains biased toward serving interests…
Rising production, declining gas revenue
Sale of crown petroleum and natural gas rights in the first nine month of 2019 totalled $12 million. The average for the first nine months of the preceding 20 years…
Natural gas is not a bridge fuel
Cornell University scientists, including Professors Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea, have been credited with raising scientific and public awareness of fracking and its dangers. As a result, the fossil fuel…
Rising gas production; declining gas revenue
It is not just royalty reduction programs that caused provincial revenues to crash. The energy ministry has followed a comprehensive program of reducing the public benefit from petroleum and natural…
Sacrificing the future
Norway made a choice to take a material share of oil and gas revenues and distribute the value of its non-renewable resources to citizens over multiple generations. Alberta, British Columbia…
Rhetoric subjugated reason
In British Columbia, the energy ministry is staffed by regulators who don’t believe in regulation. That is a BC Liberal philosophy sustained by NDP timidity because the Horgan Government is…
Generational sellout
Green Party leader Andrew Weaver spoke to the BC Legislature March 26, 2019. He reported a former insider’s views of why BC natural gas royalty revenues have declined. These were…
“We are profoundly ignorant about what is going on”
I question why we allow fracking while there are significant knowledge gaps about safety. Authorities will not approve anyone to command flight controls of a loaded aircraft without certainty that…
Natural gas revenues: going, going, almost gone
In 2008, British Columbia gained $3.2 billion from sale of petroleum and natural gas rights. If the second half of 2019 matches the first, revenue from right offerings for the…
Grand scale giveaway
Why the NDP has decided to fight teachers and not the gas industry is a mystery to me. The volume of BC natural gas production has increased substantially in the…
Fugitives in our midst
Politicians in British Columbia’s two major political parties may speak about the need for urgent climate action in Canada. But, their moves to ramp up this province’s fossil fuel production…
Promises, promises
LNG plants will only be constructed in BC if the province provides unprecedented subsidies and tax relief. Inducements include natural gas that is essentially free of royalties and other levies,…