Tag Archive: tmx

Western Canada needs real climate action, not disingenuous arguments

Feb 26, 2018
In Western Canada’s slow lurch towards sane climate and energy policy, two prominent arguments have been advanced for the continuation of business-as-usual for the fossil fuel industry in BC and Alberta. Both are interesting because they invoke the need for climate action to justify the further growth of fossil fuel production. The first argument comes… View Article

Canada cannot have it both ways on climate and fossil fuel expansion

Jan 25, 2017
With great fanfare and a claim that “Canada is back,” Prime Minister Trudeau helped usher in the Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2015. Since then, however, the federal government has pushed to expand fossil fuel production through new bitumen pipelines and LNG terminals. This contradiction points to a loophole in the Paris Agreement,… View Article

Kinder Morgan’s pipeline sales pitch: Too good to be true?

Dec 8, 2016
After the federal approval of Kinder-Morgan’s controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX), Alberta Premier Rachel Notley came to BC to sell the pipeline’s economic benefits. She claims BC will get a $1 billion per year boost in GDP as a result of the pipeline, as well as thousands of jobs in both construction and operations… View Article

826 reasons Kinder Morgan got a green light for its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion

Nov 30, 2016
Despite sustained opposition to Kinder Morgan’s plan to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Cabinet gave it their blessing yesterday. Reaction from the many people, communities and nations opposed to the pipeline was swift. Twenty one municipalities and over 100 First Nations and Tribes have registered their opposition since the… View Article

The New Climate Denialism: Time for an intervention

Sep 22, 2016
For decades, the urgent need for climate action was stymied by what came to be known as “climate denialism” (or its more mild cousin, “climate skepticism”). In an effort to create public confusion and stall political progress, the fossil fuel industry poured tens of millions of dollars into the pockets of foundations, think tanks, lobby… View Article

Correcting the Fraser Institute’s crude assumptions

Jul 25, 2016
The Fraser Institute’s new report, The Costs of Pipeline Obstructionism, claims that lack of new export pipelines to tidewater is costing Canada $2.02–$6.4 billion dollars per year (depending on the assumed oil price). The authors offer the following table, based on exports via the proposed Energy East pipeline, as evidence (Table 1 from page 10… View Article

Pipelines vs Paris: Canada’s climate conundrum

Apr 21, 2016
The push for new pipelines to bring Alberta bitumen to “tidewater” is on, even as the ink is barely dry on the Paris Agreement, and its call to action on climate change. Alberta Premier Notley argues that “We’re not making a choice between the environment and the economy. We are building the economy.” For his part, Prime Minister… View Article