Climate change & energy policy

Planning for a Green Vancouver

Oct 28, 2009
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Last week, the City of Vancouver’s task force, the Greenest City Action Team, issued a plan for the city with short and longer-term goals and policy advice on achieving them. The report covers more than climate change, a good thing as it is important to identify win-wins that lead to improvement on other environmental, health… View Article

Carbon Capture and Storage: Magic Bullet or Delusion?

Oct 27, 2009
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Depending on who you talk to, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is either the face of climate salvation or the height of delusional behaviour associated with our favourite hallucinogenic drug, fossil fuels. I have read both cases and suspect that the truth is somewhere in between, but I’m not an engineer either so it has… View Article

Canada-US Clean Energy Dialogue – worrisome signs

Oct 7, 2009
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In February 2009 the US and Canada initiated a joint effort to deal with climate change issues through the US-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue (CED). The CED`s working group issued its Action Plan on Sept. 16th.  Much of the plan is encouraging, particularly priorities around clean energy technologies and research and development. But there are a… View Article

James at the UBCM: A welcome move off revenue-neutrality

Oct 6, 2009
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In her  speech last Thursday to the annual meeting of the Union of BC Municipalities, NDP leader Carole James declared: “I am calling on the provincial government to cancel the corporate tax cuts that are scheduled to come in over the next two years related to the carbon tax. And let’s put that money into… View Article

Green in a Different Sense

Oct 2, 2009
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It is all about marketing I suppose, but I still can’t believe the proponents of the Highway 37 Northwest electric transmission line labelling it a green initiative. The only thing green about it is all the money BC Hydro will lose if it goes ahead. The proponents’ spin is that this transmission line will enable… View Article

That sinking feeling: BC’s forests and CO2 emissions

Sep 15, 2009
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As everyone knows, BC has a lot of trees. From a climate change perspective the nice thing about trees (forests, really) is that they suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In the jargon, forests are a “sink”, reducing CO2 emissions, rather than a “source” that contributes them. At least, that used to be the… View Article

Out of the Closet on Site C

Sep 14, 2009
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For years, successive BC governments have forbidden any new large-scale hydro dams. When I was on the BC Hydro Board of Directors in the mid-1990s, the Board passed a motion that all government land-holdings associated with Site C should be sold. The BC Hydro Board was against building Site C, or any other large dam,… View Article

Bike to Work Week and our transportation culture

May 11, 2009
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Pouring rain marked the start of Vancouver’s Bike to Work Week (May 11 – 17) this year, but those who braved the weather conditions are being rewarded with a beautiful sunshine for the ride home. Bike to Work Week is an annual event organized by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, which aims to raise the… View Article

Planet Before Politics

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I signed the following open letter published in the Globe on the weekend. I cannot take any credit for organizing or writing the letter (hat tip to Ian Bruce of the David Suzuki Foundation). On the other hand, I can say that I have co-published with David Suzuki! It’s time to put the planet before… View Article

Mischief making by oil and gas industry

May 8, 2009
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Ben Parfitt and I submitted the following letter to the Vancouver Sun yesterday. Hopefully it will run in the next couple days. Here it is: Letter to the editor Re. “Maintaining momentum in oil and gas,” May 7. The oil and gas industry should stop its political mischief-making, and obfuscating the numbers about the industry’s… View Article