Climate change purity is expensive
Big infrastructure plans in Canada, the United States and the European Union place a lot of emphasis on renewable energy displacing coal, gas and petroleum. Yet little attention is given to the one vital element that makes all these ‘green’ energy transition plans for power plants and vehicles viable: practical and affordable energy storage. Solar…
Despite the dramatic decrease in carbon emissions intensity
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre Want to know why Canadian oil and gas gets so little respect from anti-oil and gas activists? It’s not because Canada’s main energy sector is somehow a miscreant on measures of carbon emissions or anything else. Instead, it is often due to three approaches: focusing only…
Dealing with only one side of an issue – whether it’s migrating fish or electric cars – can generate more problems than it solves
Economists often talk about over-constrained problems. These are situations where there are so many goals to be reached and/or so many limitations that it’s impossible to find a solution that meets all requirements. Contrast this with advice often given to politicians to never talk about anything that can’t be fully described on a bumper sticker.…
There is no subsidy pot of gold going to oil and gas companies that can be diverted to renewable energy ventures
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre When the issue of taxpayer subsidies for energy comes up – oil and gas and renewables alike – the public, policy-makers and media could be forgiven if they feel like they’re drowning. Endless decimal points and numbers that run into the trillions can make it near…
Plenty of other countries ready to take over Canada’s market share if Canada exits the oil business
By Mark Milke and Ven Venkatachalam Canadian Energy Centre The killing of the cross-border Keystone XL pipeline due to anti-oil activism and politics will change nothing about worldwide oil demand. All it does is hand an advantage to Canada’s competitors. Worldwide oil consumption has been on an upward trajectory, and with the COVID-19 pandemic subsiding…
If the fertilizer, tractor and other equipment used to produce by-local carrots were made elsewhere, do the carrots still count as local?
In his 1776 seminal work The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote: “It always is and must be the interest of the great body of the people to buy whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest. The proposition is so very manifest that it seems ridiculous to take any pains to prove it.”…
Suggesting humanity got it wrong by eating meat is unsupported by scientific evidence
Protein wars have taken a back seat to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020. Most of the attention was obviously given to the virus, variants, vaccines and how to keep safe. That makes sense. But since we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, proteins appear to be back in the spotlight. Just…
Plastics have allowed a revolution in material science that has vastly improved our quality of life
By now, most everyone has seen the memes of Dr. Evil ordering a change of focus in his campaign to maintain global fear: “Fear of [the last crisis] is no longer working. Release the murder hornets!” To judge from recent news articles, the meme should read: “Fear of COVID-19 is no longer working. Restart the…
Canada wasn’t targeted for international outrage because it was a threat to the global climate, but simply because it was an easy target
For several decades, Canada was the focus of a global attack on its natural resource economy, with its oil sands deposits (the world’s third-largest oil reserve) ranked as public enemy number one. Though only a tiny contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions (about 1.6 per cent of the total), the oil sands were seen as…
First Nations are fighting to determine their own futures. Why are environmental groups standing in the way?
Not enough has been said about the recent memorandum of understanding between the First Nations Climate Initiative table and the First Nations Major Projects Coalition, which represents 70 First Nations from across Canada. In December 2020, the two parties signed an agreement to advance an Indigenous-led, net-zero carbon-emissions policy framework, including nature-based solutions for carbon…