The start of a new year is often a time of reflection, quiet, and goal setting. Minus 30 temperatures and pants that no longer fit do make a person contemplative, and we look back to learn from the year past, calibrate where we are at, and put ourselves vigorously on a new path, to the extent that there is not a new year's bonanza on Netflix. The hydrocarbon sector is more aptly described as shell-shocked rather than reflective. Despite rebounding commodity prices, the ground-shift beneath [Read more]
Column: Don’t lose your mind reading mainstream energy chronicles – try these for immediate relief
It’s the end of the year, a time for positivity and hope for the new year. A time of relaxation, reflection, and grounding with friends, family, or whomever/whatever turns your crank. A time to set resolutions and/or objectives for the new year. The whole season just tees it up for an uplifting, go-get-‘em-in-the-new-year type of message. I got nothin’. That’s because, from an energy perspective, we seem to be witnessing a global and utter abandonment of sense, an incomprehensible flailing at [Read more]
Column: Death threats, socialist resonance, and other weird progress on the energy road
It’s time to turn over a new leaf. Maybe it’s the spirit of the season, maybe it’s delirium from a third vaccination (tip: just wander into a little pharmacy and ask for one, they’re happy to inject anything), or maybe it’s the turning tide in the energy world. At any rate, despite what the news might tell you, there is a converging energy harmony taking place that is good news indeed. But getting there to investigate is a dangerous journey. People ask if the crazies that attack [Read more]
Column: Why so torqued up about Suzuki’s comments? Did you sleep through the first two acts?
“Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification. A contradiction cannot exist. No concept [wo]man forms is valid unless [s]he integrates it without contradiction into the total sum of [her]his knowledge.” Ayn Rand This quote might seem esoteric (being from philosophy) or confrontational (being from Rand) but it is actually relevant beyond belief. Here is what happens if you don’t think so. Calgary has a new mayor, Jyoti Gondek. She must be good at some things - intelligent [Read more]
Column: Enthusiastic idiocy vs. infrastructure optimization – two strategies for an energy transition
Last week, buried in the flow of weird crap that fills the mailbox these days, was a small treat - the Lee Valley catalogue. It is a booklet of wonder, even if delivery apparently might take a year…not sure how I’m going to survive without the $80 “Discover Whittling Set” or the $135 Camera Lucida. Beyond those staples a German tool caught my eye - the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher (wow did spell checker ever get mad at that). It is pretty much what it sounds like; a metal egg cup [Read more]
Column: Concentric circles of power – Canada’s resource-rich regions’ uphill battle to be heard is not hopeless
The following is a brief roadmap that is of cultural significance to no one but me, but bear with me for a minute. There is a point. I grew up near a small Saskatchewan farming town of about 25 people (ok, village) (ok, hamlet) (ok, shut up), the name of which apparently means ‘dead horse’ in Cree, to give you some idea of its ranking in the pecking order, right on the rugged line where farmland ends and the endless northern wilderness begins. I bussed 20 miles to school in a town of about [Read more]
Column: Oh Canada…not content with 50 mph, Trudeau looks to hit the wall at 100
I couldn’t help myself, had to peek at the news. A headline said that Trudeau had installed Steven Guilbeault in charge of the climate portfolio, so I rubber-necked on over to see the car wreck. Of more interest, frankly, was where the man he was replacing, Jonathan Wilkinson, was going. Wilkinson, a two-decade green-tech exec, had shown zero interest in the world’s primary and utterly dominant energy system while in the Environment/Climate Change seat, and had brought the trademark Trudeau [Read more]
Column: Do you rip off your shingles before finding out if new ones are available? It’s painful to watch those that do
So, the energy crisis has finally arrived. I am mulling this over from my underground bunker, my ‘home office’ on one side and flats of dried pasta/canned goods/instant coffee/baked beans on the other (speaking of the beans, hmm, there’s no proper ventilation - I did not think this through very well). While, like most serious students of energy, I’d expected its arrival sometime, but scrolling through the energy news flow, I must admit I had no idea it would unfold quite like this. To anyone [Read more]
Column: As the world’s energy and supply systems teeter, Thanksgiving season is particularly relevant this year
Some might argue that it’s hard to whoop it up too much this Thanksgiving season. It’s true, much is not going well. Covid is proving to be the most robust of China’s exports. Supply chain problems are so bad that that power sander in the garage you bought 20 years ago and used once to try to remove your fingerprints is probably appreciating in value, because inflation is here, it’s feisty, and it is just getting settled in. Of course, the idea that things are all that difficult is a bit [Read more]
Column: European cargo cults? Standing on the shore, waiting for ‘energy cargo’…a full circle of colonial irony
I’m not sure what is politically incorrect, what isn’t these days, but screw it - some aspects of history are just too absurd to not be amused by. It becomes even funnier when, subjected to certain lenses of political correctness, the mirth is multiplied into top-notch black humour. In today's sermon, colonialism provides just such a wonderful tipping-of-the-table. Consider a cultural oddity of last century - ‘cargo cults’ that appeared in some undeveloped countries like Papua New Guinea. [Read more]
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