Special treatment for special friends
Andrew MacLeod of The Tyee is reporting that BC Government officials aim to exempt natural gas producers from requirements they contribute to an industry fund that would pay to clean…
Natural Resources
Carbon Energy Is Dead, Wake Up?
The math is so easy. So why is BC ramping up coal and LNG production? STOP THEM! It really doesn’t get any simpler than this. Climate realities mean not ignoring…
Different ways, different results
Note 11 from a study by John Calvert and Marjorie Griffith Cohen of Simon Fraser University, Climate Change and the Canadian Energy Sector: “In this regard it is interesting to…
Official opposition on resource development
John Horgan in the Legislature, October 8, 2014: “…Three years ago the Premier told B.C. families that she would make B.C. a leader in private sector job creation. Three years…
Repeaters, not reporters
Ever notice that corporate media seems to speak with one voice? On balance – or rather, on lack-of-balance – they do. It is the voice of big business. Vaughn Palmer,…
Wadena Derailment Crisis: Early Lesson
http://t.co/rSh4hfhlbN Let’s move to the post-carbon energy infrastructure NOW! Publicly-owned wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, hydro is our future. No tarsands. No pipelines. No tankers. No coal. No LNG. No fracking.…
Captives of industry
Regular readers are aware that British Columbia’s natural gas industry provides surprisingly little return to the province by way of royalties for depleting non-renewable public assets. In the last two…
Yes, red tape may interfere with business
Mount Polley operator was raising height of tailings dam at time of breach, Wendy Stueck, Globe & Mail, August 15 2014 “Crews were working to raise the tailings dam at…
Extractivism – B.C. as third world economy
Examining British Columbia’s natural resource sector, I was surprised that public returns had declined although produced quantities increased and values rose exponentially. Not long ago, British Columbia thrived on resource…
When you buy yourself a government, you expect results
From RossK, The Gazetteer, Mines Are Sparkle Ponies Too?….Who Knew? But here’s something that even we, the purveyors of all that is neither established nor credible, missed from Ms. Clark’s…
Welcome to the 1,000th Politics, Re-Spun Editorial!
Steve Harper, the greatest threat to Canadian security in the modern era. Happy August! Happy Day! I have a few comments about this, the 1,000th editorial at Politics, Re-Spun. But…
This week’s Liberal direction: lower LNG expectations
Friday, The Common Sense Canadian — a site that usually provides worthwhile journalism — posted an article written by Keith Baldrey for Glacier Media, publisher of numerous community recyclables. Not…
Lego Pimps Your Kids’ Brains For Shell Oil
This is just too much. Lego has teamed up with Shell Oil to pimp your kids’ brains for Shell. We need to be helping our children understand that our future…
The Occupy Movement Has Changed the Narrative, But We’re Not Done
Recently, with the WEF spending the last few years acknowledging global income inequality is a problem, I’ve declared a kind of victory for the Occupy Movement: getting the lexicon on…
Volatile gas revenues tend to evaporate
BC Liberals are reluctant spenders when it comes to improving public schools. However, they’re not reluctant to put money into the pockets of natural gas producers. The amounts are in…
How the Tsilhqot’in Land Title Ruling Can Help Kill Enbridge
Watch Pam Palmater’s response to the SCC ruling. Click above. Stephen Harper had about a week to enjoy the glory of his remarkably understated whispery notification that the Enbridge climate…
How the Federal NDP Plans to Alienate Eco-Voters
Mulcair wants to out-Liberal the Liberals led by the charismatic son of a charismatic Liberal prime minister. He will fail: “I think what Canadians want are people who are realists,…
Hey, BC: Want More Jobs? Dump the LNG and Pipelines!
Well, I found yet another study showing how many MORE jobs we’d get by moving to a post-carbon energy infrastructure and dumping LNG, tarsands, pipelines and all the other Mordor…
What Does Soft Fascism Look Like These Days?
We don’t see brown shirts and jackboots, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t seeing the de-democratization of our society. In Vancouver this month, armed police with guns drawn, raided a…
$80M annual power subsidy, one LNG proposal
Regular readers know that I focus attention on natural resource revenues earned – more often, not earned – by the citizens of British Columbia. Click here to read many articles…