Canada is the solution for reliable, affordable, environmentally responsible energy supply
Anti-oil-and-gas activists want the world to believe that the ongoing use of natural resources like gas and oil is an imminent threat to human society as bad as the atomic bomb. They’re wrong. Modern life relies on oil and gas for transportation, home heating/cooling, food supply, and everyday products like your cellphone, computer and clothes.…
There are 2,449 coal-fired plants operating worldwide, 189 under construction and 292 planned
Coal use around the world is rising in what the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) calls “a sobering reality check” for targets to reduce emissions. Against that backdrop, global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is soaring, in part because it can help displace coal power and reduce emissions by half – or…
Canadian LNG exports are expected to replace coal power, primarily for growing markets in Asia
In the world’s race for cleaner energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Canada has an advantage. To start with, it comes with a smaller footprint – the lowest emissions intensity of LNG projects in the world. But why? Canada leads among countries able to export natural gas to displace coal,…
The unrealistic goal to achieve net-zero led to impractical, hypocritical and simply bizarre actions
Last year saw an intensification of the great march to “net zero” emissions, aimed at replacing the 84 per cent of global energy currently supplied by fossil fuels. This unrealistic objective saw actions ranging from the impractical to the hypocritical to the simply bizarre. Here’s my list of what I’ll call the fossil fuel follies.…
Movement to reduce global emissions toward net-zero is still too slow
With the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow scheduled to open on Oct. 31, global powerhouses are coming up with their annual energy outlooks earlier than the customary November. With climate issues coming to the forefront at the COP26 summit, most of these reports and analyses are meant to help world leaders make decisions. But…
Rationality can prevail, clean, abundant natural gas can be used for decades, energy ‘transition’ or not
An estimated $55-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to take natural gas from northeastern British Columbia to its northwest coast at Pearse Island recently received the blessing and financial and political backing of the Nisga’a First Nation. The First Nation is on the proposed pipeline route and is the site of planned liquefaction terminal. This…
Nano humus works like a sponge that attaches to and holds cadmium, a common byproduct of mining
A low-value byproduct of the coal mining process is proving highly effective at helping reclaim the land and water used in mining, University of Alberta research shows. Nano humus, a substance extracted from coal mine deposits and then crushed to a black, powdery material, has “outstanding physical and chemical properties” that remove heavy metals from…
Speed and efficiency are not things that Canada’s lumbering and increasingly dysfunctional regulatory systems are known for
By Jock Finlayson and Denise Mullen Business Council of B.C. Building back ‘clean’ and ‘green’ means trillions of dollars of investment, and the electrification of many machines and activities that presently rely on fossil fuels – from personal vehicles and freight transportation to industrial processes. It’s not hard to understand the growing interest in electricity.…
The world sped ahead getting LNG online but Canada stalled, meaning lost revenue and missed environmental opportunity
By Mark Milke and Ven Venkatachalam Canadian Energy Centre Over the past several years, a plethora of naysayers have reflexively opposed the extraction and export of natural gas from Canada. Some critics have even argued that the prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) shouldn’t warrant investment by Canadian companies. Much of this anti-LNG sentiment has…
The government of Premier Jason Kenney has decided to end a 44-year moratorium on open-pit coal mining in southern Alberta
Desperate times sometimes lead to catastrophic measures. In Alberta, the beleaguered provincial government is in a financial situation that could be characterized as desperate, suffering from the double-whammy of collapsed resource revenues and, of course, the massive spending required to address the social wildfire known as the COVID-19 pandemic. The desperate measure that the United…