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Showing posts from May, 2019

Canada's energy policy, and its increasingly fact-free discourse, demands a rethink

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 peaked; i

Green enviro-dreams based on fantasy, not science

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.          Into all this green dreaming steps Mark Mills, an energy anal

B.C. won't be able to quit fossil fuels any time soon

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 up.     Let's consider the bigger p

Canada’s upstream oil and gas sector is in intensive care

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) and the increasing abandonment of oil drilling sites.       B

"The End Game", a Call to Action

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