Could Site C Electrify Oilsands?
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- Published on Thursday, 14 April 2016 09:00
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Pipelines or Indigenous Rights? Premier Notley Can't Have Both
The speech Alberta Premier Rachel Notley gave to over 1,000 federal NDP delegates on Saturday in Edmonton’s Shaw Convention Centre was a stunning thing to behold.
In a mere half-hour, she received around a dozen standing ovations, cracked a pretty solid joke about Donald Trump and delivered a unabashed appeal for the approval and construction of pipelines “that are built by Canadians, using Canadian steel.”
But even more stunning was the fact that she completely failed to mention the rights or interests of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people. Read more.
Premier Clark's Proposal to 'Electrify Oilsands' with Site C Dam Has 'Air of Desperation': Panel Chair
Premier Christy Clark has ambitious plans for the copious amounts of electricity — far more than British Columbia is expected to need for more than a decade — generated by the Site C dam on the Peace River: sell it to Alberta.
In a recent interview with Alaska Highway News, Clark said the power from the Site C dam, scheduled to come online in 2024, could potentially provide electricity to Alberta — where the government has recently committed to closing all of its coal-powered energy plants.
“We could potentially electrify the oilsands, which would make the oilsands the cleanest oil produced anywhere on the globe,” Clark said. Read more.
B.C. Orders Enbridge to Seek New Environment Certificate for Northern Gateway
Enbridge will have to secure an environmental assessment certificate from the B.C. government if it wants to proceed with its Northern Gateway oil pipeline according to an order issued by B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office on Friday.
Early on in the Northern Gateway process, the B.C. government signed an “equivalency agreement” with the federal government, giving Ottawa the responsibility for the environmental assessment.
However, a Supreme Court of B.C. decision this January found that the B.C. government acted improperly and that the province must still make its own decision about issuing an environmental assessment certificate. Read more.
The National Energy Board will now require pipeline operators to make emergency response plans publicly available online, according to an order issued this week.
The issue of pipeline transparency made headlines last summer after DeSmog Canada revealed that operator Kinder Morgan refused to disclose emergency plans for the Trans Mountain pipeline to the province of B.C., even though the company had made its oil spill response plans public in Washington state. Read more.
Jumbo Glacier Resort Should Be the Last Fake Municipality B.C. Creates: Andrew Weaver
A municipality should have residents — and grizzly bears and mountain goats don’t count, according to B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver who tabled a private member’s bill in the legislature Wednesday aimed squarely at the controversial Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality.
Weaver’s bill to amend the Local Government Amendment Act would repeal the Liberal government’s 2012 changes to legislation that made it possible for mountain resort municipalities to exist without residents. Read more.
Does National Unity Have to be a Casualty of Canada's Energy Debate?
In a panel discussion last week Environment Minister Catherine McKenna assured Albertans that the Liberal government would not risk damaging “national unity” by acting quickly on climate change.
For some, her comment begs the question: when exactly will the Liberals be ready to start acting on their emissions reductions targets?
McKenna’s comments frame the notion of climate change action as something that can potentially be done gingerly, with the cooperation of emissions-intensive industries, doing little to disrupt the status quo.
Environmental psychologist Renee Lertzman says this kind of wishful thinking is not a helpful way to approach a complex issue.
“As humans we have tremendous capacity and capability to deal with this. When we communicate in ways where we’re trying to be cautious we can unintentionally send a message that’s deeply disempowering," Lertzman says. "What’s most needed, in fact, is leadership that’s deeply empowering, that’s above-board, that’s compassionate but grounded and strong.”r15 |r0
