Have the Alberta NDP Lost Their Way?
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- Published on Thursday, 05 May 2016 11:45
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Orange Crushed: Have the Alberta NDP Lost Their Way?
Exactly a year has passed since the centre-left New Democratic Party (NDP) rolled to a stunning win in Alberta.
Yet it’s still deeply surreal to think about that victory on May 5, 2015, which increased the party’s seat count from four to 54 in the 87-seat legislature and elevated former labour lawyer Rachel Notley to the position of premier.
After all, the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) — a union-bashing and petroleum-entrenched behemoth of a party — had governed the province without challenge since 1971.
For some progressives, the election of the Alberta NDP remains surreal for a different reason: thus far, the party has refused to lock horns with private industry, especially the oil and gas sector. Read more.
Geothermal Could Put Thousands from Alberta’s Oil and Gas Sector Back to Work
Abandoned oil and gas wells in Alberta are on the rise — but where many see a growing liability, Alberta’s fledgling geothermal industry sees massive opportunity.
“We’ve got these old wells that we know are hot and we’re going to fill them with cement and walk away,” says Tim Davies, CEO of geothermal company Turkana. “It’s just stupid.”
There’s currently no permitting framework for geothermal in Alberta, leaving the renewable energy out of play.
“I own the well, I own the land and I own the oil. But I can’t own the heat,” Davies said. “There’s just no mechanism for that in place.” Read more.
Regulations, Not Carbon Pricing, Are Key to Reducing Emissions: Jaccard
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna earlier this month said the federal government does not have a preferred carbon pricing system.
Yet a recent meeting between premiers and the federal government on a national climate strategy nearly broke down in March because of the Trudeau government’s insistence on a national minimum carbon price.
“The carbon pricing lobby sucked all the air out of the room,” Canadian energy economist Mark Jaccard told DeSmog Canada. “What we should be doing is looking at those jurisdictions that have made progress and learn from them instead of closing our eyes saying ‘I want a carbon price and don’t bother me with the evidence.' ” Read more.
Brave, Beautiful, Renewable: Exploring Geothermal Energy in Iceland
A drive along Iceland’s ‘ring road,’ a winding narrow highway that encircles the isolated island’s 1,332 kilometre circumference, will take you from the sublime to the beautifully desolate in quick succession as views of snow spotted mountains give way lava fields, relatively young in geologic time at 800 years, covered in the country’s signature muted green moss.
But perhaps no natural feature is so stunningly otherworldly than Iceland’s geothermal activity.
The remote island is the outcome of upwelling forces, emerging in the volcanic seam between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. The result is a remarkably active geologic landscape, one pitted with boiling mud pots, meandering hot rivers and steaming caverns that open up out of a serene landscape like gaping mouths of Hades. Read more.
Peace River Break a Critical Conservation Corridor in Rare Intact Mountain Ecosystem
On a clear day after the thaw, I climb a meandering hiking trail through thick forest, crossing springs swollen with alpine melt, and scramble up rocky slopes to a wind-swept vista of alpine tundra at the weather-beaten peak of Mount Bickford, about 40 minutes west of the small industry town of Chetwynd, B.C.
From this lofty vantage point above the Pine Pass, I can gaze out upon an uninterrupted view of one of the most important landscapes in British Columbia.
This is the Peace River Break, the lifeblood of a diverse ecosystem and a critical part of a continental landscape. The east-west traveling Peace River is the only major river to “break” through the Rockies, funnelling warm Pacific air across the mountains.r0
