One of the biggest changes of current times, beyond technology or communications, has been the amazing progress of our standard of living. A fundamental shift has occurred in the way we acquire the necessities of life, and even how we define what those necessities are. My ten-year-old son says his worst nightmare is no WiFi. The rest of it is just a given; if you want food well duh, the grocery store is full of it. Any other device he can conceive of is a google search away. There is no value in [Read more]
BC happy to export US coal but not Canadian petroleum – that’s bad for the environment and for Canada
If drunk drivers terrify you, would you let your drunken guests drive themselves home well in advance of when you go out, to avoid the danger? Or, less esoterically, if you want to fight climate change, should you work to enable a substance that produces a quarter of global greenhouse gases or one that produces a small fraction of that? It’s not a hypothetical issue, we’ve just seen it in all its misery. This past summer during British Columbia’s provincial election, a brazenly hypocritical [Read more]
Germany’s electrical Franken-system illustrates green energy challenges and the importance of fossil fuels
Several European countries have spearheaded the global push towards renewable energy. There are several reasons for this drive, care for the environment being the most commonly heard. That factor is no doubt important to the progressive countries of western Europe, but there are other non-trifling reasons as well. Consider this problem for western Europe – would you like to be dependent on Vladimir Putin, or Russia, or anything connected to Russia, for your heat in winter? That is one of the [Read more]
Money laundering and windmills – Canada’s remaining economic engines
Canada is the world’s second largest nation, with only the 38th largest population. It has indescribable natural resource potential, and utilization of these resources has given it one of the world’s highest living standards. It has tens of thousands of miles of coastline accessing three oceans and favourable trade relations with most of the world. It offers, as Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr puts it, “a stable and predictable investment climate, world-class energy reserves, proximity to [Read more]
Energy efficiency, not electro-energy anarchy, is the future and hybrid vehicles point the way
As a youth, I, like most others, did my best to drive my parents crazy by spending my time reading magazines as opposed to anything they might have considered worthwhile. I knew nothing about any historical events before the most recent Tuesday, but I could tell you anything about fast cars. To this day I remember little about high school biology but I do remember quite clearly a review of a Porsche 911 from the early 1980s. I can see the pictures and stats page in my mind, and I can remember [Read more]
Provincial government schemes may be annoying, but it’s the international madness that might bring down the house
Picking on governments is an easy sport. It’s not hard to find dumb policies or some initiative that goes against an ideological viewpoint and infuriates exactly 40 percent of any given population. Instead of getting bogged down in provincial matters (both literally and legislatively provincial), I encourage you to expand your ire to the bigger picture where truly serious damage is happening. Current global policies are impacting not only energy but the whole economic framework. I’m not [Read more]
Saudi Arabia’s new strategy: $130 billion for nuclear/renewables, privatization, neighbourhood turf wars and a radical new vision
The Mariana Trench – the 6 mile deep canyon in the Pacific Ocean, not the misspelled pop band – is notable for at least two things: First, The Onion, the world's best "alternative" news site, described it as “once again the worst place to raise a child” and secondly, it may be the only place in the world yet to be explored for hydrocarbons. True; there are probably other undrilled places like the top of Mount Everest or under St. Paul’s cathedral. But considering that the largest global [Read more]
Soviet-style strangulation of Energy East marks Canada’s latest bullet in the foot
I’ve often felt bad for being amused by the antics of demented government regimes, such as how the Soviet Union officially described the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart, or how North Korea refers to itself as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. To anyone outside the system there is a delightful and almost endearing absurdity in these child-like attempts to disguise the true nature of their actions. But behind the comedy was always the realization that real people were [Read more]
Financial models are sometimes the dumbest models
Out there in the cloud, somewhere in the e-bowels of an upstanding company’s financial reporting cesspool, is a curious commentary about future decommissioning liabilities. Under a "Provisions" subsection, this pipeline company’s annual report discloses that a provision for future liabilities must be recognized when, among other things, “the obligation can be reliably estimated.” That is the standard as set down by auditors, and the section drones about the process until the punch line where it [Read more]
Sacrificing Energy East might be clever politics, but the country needs better
For hard working Canadians it can be painful to watch, but there’s no denying that there’s been some masterful political maneuvering on display recently. This is in reference to the berserk request by the National Energy Board to examine climate change impacts of the Energy East pipeline. This change in the NEB’s stance appears to be part of Prime Minister Trudeau’s master plan for solving pesky energy headaches. It’s easy to see the expediency of Trudeau’s path. He is caught between pursuit [Read more]
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