CAGC

Written by: Mac Van Wielingen The Globe and Mail  Mac Van Wielingen is the Calgary-based founding partner of ARC Financial, the largest energy-focused private-equity firm in Canada, and the founder and chair of Viewpoint Group.  I am a committed, first-generation Canadian. I care deeply for this country that gave my parents a new start after Canada liberated the Netherlands in the Second World War. And, I should say, I accept the science of climate change; I believe we need solution-focused change on both the production and consumption of fossil fuels. But I am deeply concerned about the future of the country, amid the alarming polarization in the discourse on energy development. This debate – more specifically, the one around recent legislative initiatives such as Bill C-48 and Bill C-69 – is clear evidence that we’ve moved away from certain basic facts and this country’s energy policy needs a rethink. Contrary to what many believe, oil demand has not ...

By: Ken Green - Analyst - The Fraser Institute Energy analyst Mark Mills says we're decades away from renewables providing 100% of the power that drives our economy         Environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, remain enamoured of renewable energy, telling followers that the "global push for cleaner, healthier energy is on. With costs dropping dramatically, renewable energy is becoming the best choice for the environment and the economy."         The Green Party of Canada is on board, touting the idea that Alberta "should be ready" to go to 100 per cent renewables.          And the Citizens' Climate Lobby Canada says that not only can we go 100 per cent wind, water and solar for "all purposes," we can reap a windfall by doing it.          Renewable Cities notes cities going big for the 100 per cent dream include Edmonton, Banff and Victoria.     ...

By: Jock Finlayson and Denise Mullen - Business Council of B.C. The results of greater energy efficiency will materialize over the long term, even if politicians seek abbreviated timelines     Metro Vancouver residents are rightly upset over paying the highest gasoline prices ever recorded in a North American city. Cost-of-living pressures are already significant for many households in British Columbia, making the recent jump in pump prices particularly hard to stomach.     The unprecedented attention being given to gasoline prices underscores a couple of facts.     First, fossil fuels, including refined petroleum products, remain the lifeblood of modern economies, including in B.C., and they will continue to play this role for the next two decades (at least).     Second, like it or not, the market is working. When demand for a commodity increases but supply is constrained, as is the case with refined petroleum products in B.C., prices go u...

The economic damage to the energy industry is due largely to government regulatory and tax policies. By: Steven Globerman and Joel Emes – The Fraser Institute             Canadian oil and gas companies face major problems, in great part due to government policy.        Legal restrictions on the expansion of pipeline capacity have restricted exports of oil, shrinking profit margins. The subsequent price decline for Western Canada Select oil spurred former Alberta premier Rachel Notley to temporarily reduce the production of raw crude oil and bitumen starting on Jan. 1, 2019.       What’s perhaps less appreciated, at least outside oil-producing regions of Canada, is the extent of economic damage to the energy industry due largely to government regulatory and tax policies, as manifested by reduced rates of capital investment in the upstream oil and gas sector (essentially exploration and production) a...

Written By: Rod Garland Having just watched Marvel Studios movie “Avengers, End Game” with my son, which is probably well on its way to becoming one of the most watched movies of all time, it got me thinking about which super hero I would like to be. Perhaps ‘Iron Man’, aka Tony Stark who seems to be extremely gifted and able to conceive and construct anything he needs, definitely one of the main characters and the star in this movie? Or, maybe ‘the Hulk’, aka Bruce Banner with unmatched strength, although his strength comes mostly out of anger akin to the ultimate ‘road rage’? There are so many heroes in the movie it is hard to choose. God of Thunder, Thor; Captain America; maybe, or possibly the Canadian equivalent, Captain Canada? He, somehow didn’t make the cut for this movie and I’m not sure why. Probably for the same reason that Canada always seems to play second fiddle to our American cousins to the south. Instead of identifying with any one of the superheroes in t...

By: Rod Garland I am writing this during a “booth duty” break in the ESFS (Earth Science for Society) event. The event introduces Earth Sciences to the youth of Calgary. The kids are mostly aged from 4 to 16 years old, and are from school groups, Guides, Scouts and the public. It is inspiring to see their excitement as they participate in “hands-on” activities, experiments and experience the technologies we use daily in our work.  They are Canada’s future and some, no doubt, will be influenced by this experience when the time comes to choose a career path as they embark on life’s journey.  This event is a credit to the many volunteers who give their time and effort so graciously to make it such a success. Thank you, Annette Milbradt, for getting the CAGC involved with this project and also for the many hours you volunteered at SIM (Seismic in Motion) over the past 15 years. How often have you said, or thought, “if only I had taken a different path in life”...

By: Doug Uffen Amidst all the hype and hysteria in the media, the posturing by politicians these days, and then the involvement of the courts about the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project, the timely construction of my woodshed in Windermere, British Columbia languished, suffering months of construction delay.   The proposed pipeline route goes nowhere close to Windermere, yet this is what happened. Initial construction began in October of 2017 but was suspended in November as the winter weather closed in.   While the foundation and moorings were set in place with the floor and walls framed in, the trusses had not been completed yet and nothing had been closed in.   Plans to invite a couple of friends out to Windermere, B.C., from Calgary for a woodshed “BRO-Project” extended weekend in April of this year, that included some golf and probably a few beers, ran afoul of politics, yes thanks to the impasse with the Kinder Morgan pipeline fiasco.   On...