In our high-speed digital world, there is no excuse for regulators failing to post and update information that is readily available to them and of evident public interest. This is especially true when the fate of vitally important, publicly owned assets such as water hangs in the balance. To have faith that water resources are [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Energy'
Lack of water data a cause for public concern
August 19th, 2010 · Ben Parfitt · No Comments · Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Tags: accountability·BC Oil and Gas Commission·oil and gas·water
‘Prosperity’ Mine
July 30th, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · No Comments · Economy, Energy
So there I was in Durham near Newcastle, enjoying a pint in a very historic and charming little pub called the Dun Cow (where do the Brits come up with these names). I was looking at some old photos of hard working folks coming out of the mines and couldn’t help but think of B.C.’s [...]
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Western Climate Initiative: another baby step
July 29th, 2010 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Climate change, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability
It has been a while but this week climate change is back in the news cycle. The front page of today’s Globe reports on the latest climate impacts tally: The report … concluded 2000 to 2009 was the warmest decade ever, and the Earth has been growing warmer for 50 years. Each of the past [...]
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Gas prices and consumption: BC vs Pacific Northwest
July 12th, 2010 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Climate change, Energy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes
On a weekend getaway to Washington state, I was alarmed at how much cheaper gas prices are south of the border. Typically, we paid $3 per gallon, whereas the price in Vancouver upon our return was $1.16 per litre, which is $4.39 per gallon (with the exchange rate roughly parity over the weekend). This is [...]
‘Green’ Summer Reading
June 3rd, 2010 · Karen Cooling · 1 Comment · Climate change, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Recommended reading
As I was wandering through the airport this spring I succumbed to my one true addiction: books. Yes, I know that a good environmentalist uses the local library, but I’m working on it….. Anyway, as always, I try to pick up something that I’ve read a review on or something that just jumps out at [...]
Tags: Summer Reading
Buying off industry
May 27th, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · 3 Comments · Energy
At first glance, the response of the forest sector and other large energy users to the province’s Clean Energy Act was surprising. Here is an Act that will force BC Hydro to waste literally billions of dollars to create an artificial demand for private power. It will without question drive up BC Hydro’s rates far more [...]
Tags: BC Hydro·Clean Energy Act·IPPs
The Clean Energy Act – adding insult to injury
April 29th, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · 2 Comments · Energy
I don’t follow the provincial legislature closely enough to judge whether the proposed Clean Energy Act is the worst legislation the Liberals have introduced since first being elected, but it has to be a front runner. The first objective listed in the Act is the government’s misdirected requirement for BC Hydro to be self-sufficient, with all of [...]
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Site C
April 19th, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · No Comments · Energy
I recall talking to a senior BC Hydro planner a number of years ago who mapped out a very sensible way to develop the BC Hydro system. Retain the Burrard gas-fired thermal power plant as a back-up for extreme drought, when electricity supply at the hydro facilities on the Peace and Columbia river systems is [...]
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Peddling GHGs: How much does BC export?
March 16th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 9 Comments · Climate change, Energy
Bill Rees, the father of the ecological footprint, likes to say that fossil fuels are a powerful hallucinogenic drug. We are all addicted to cheap and abundant fossil fuels, and so have reshaped our economy and society in fundamentally unsustainable ways. When emissions are reported for BC or Canada, there is an accounting convention that [...]
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More Please!!!
March 9th, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · 1 Comment · Economy, Energy
Every now and again you read something so outrageous you have to laugh. So it is with the report recently released by BC Citizens for Clean Energy: A Triple Legacy for Future Generations. The essence of this lobby group’s proposal is that the government should develop an export policy for green energy targeting up to [...]
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