Tar Sands

19/02/24
Author: 
Andrew Nikiforuk
St. Mary Reservoir, near Lethbridge, just 11 per cent full. Climate change is only part of the reason Alberta is reeling for lack of water. Photo via Alberta government.

Feb. 19, 2024

Scientists who studied the region’s arid past warned this drought was coming. Thirst for growth won out. A Tyee special report.

11/02/24
Author: 
Dave Rollo,
 Fracking has left its mark. (Flickr)

Feb.7. 2024

Warn anyone in the USA about the coming energy crisis and you’re likely to see eyes roll. “What energy crisis? That was half a century ago! Markets and technology won. Today we’re back among the top oil suppliers!”

All true, but the response gives a false sense of security that has policymakers and publics sleepwalking toward a cliff. An energy crisis is likely ahead, no matter our rank (currently third) among oil supplying nations. Seeing the coming crisis requires looking beneath the veneer of oil supply claims and asking some deeper questions.

11/02/24
Author: 
Andrew Nikiforuk
‘Canada faces daunting challenges in meeting its net-zero commitments,’ writes David Hughes. ‘These are not insurmountable but must be clearly understood and faced head-on.’ Photo by Adrian Wyld, the Canadian Press.

Feb. 8, 2024

A leading energy analyst crunches and questions the numbers that national goals are built upon.

Canada’s road to net zero by 2050 will be bumpy, winding and “daunting.”

02/02/24
Author: 
John Woodside
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland responds to a question during a news conference in Ottawa on Jan. 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Feb. 2, 2024

A pair of new analyses from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) finds the federal government intends to provide over $11 billion to companies investing in carbon capture and hydrogen technologies.

01/02/24
Author: 
Bob Weber
Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz says negotiations between water licence holders in three southern Alberta river basins will open this week. Schulz shakes hands with Premier Danielle Smith in Edmonton on Oct. 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Jan. 31, 2024

Drought-weary Alberta opens water-sharing talks with large users

EDMONTON — Lance Colby saw what was coming.

The Alberta government said Wednesday it would open talks on water-sharing between large users as the province's drought situation worsens. But Colby, chair of the Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission in central Alberta, had already begun such discussions.

26/01/24
Author: 
Benjamin Shingler
A study conducted in 2018 used aircraft to collect air samples around 17 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

Jan. 25, 2024

Data collected by air finds levels of harmful pollutants can be more than 60 times higher than estimated

Alberta's oilsands operations produce far more potentially harmful air pollutants than are officially reported, with the daily output on par with those from gridlocked megacities like Los Angeles, new research suggests.

20/01/24
Author: 
Linda McQuaig
Carbon Engineering's plant in Squamish, B.C. is part of growing carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) industry.  Hannah.Griffin

Jan. 11, 2024

Seeing carbon capture and storage as “a way to compensate for ongoing fossil fuel burning is economically illiterate,” concludes an Oxford University study.

One can only imagine the positive buzz these days inside the boardrooms of Canada’s oil companies, as they rake in record profits and plan major expansions of their oil production.

13/01/24
Author: 
Katrina Miller
The federal government needs to think holistically about how we support fossil fuels through the tax system, direct government funding, and other financial aid. Photo by Shutterstock

Jan. 8, 2024

The UN Climate talks ended with a global commitment to transition away from fossil fuels and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault celebrated Canada’s leadership role in negotiating the agreement.

15/12/23
Author: 
Natasha Bulowski & John Woodside | News, Politics, Ottawa Insider
NDP MP Laurel Collins is the party's environment and climate change critic. File photo by Natasha Bulowski

Dec. 13, 2023

The federal government faced fierce external pressure to abandon or weaken its plan to cap oil and gas sector emissions from provincial governments and industry lobby groups in the lead-up to its announcement last week.

01/12/23
Author: 
John Woodside
 UN climate change executive secretary Simon Stiell speaks during the opening ceremony of COP28. Photo via UN Climate Change/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Deed)

Nov. 30, 2023

Countries around the world, including Canada, are officially under pressure to further ratchet up their commitments under the Paris Agreement, the UN’s climate change executive secretary Simon Stiell told delegates at the annual climate negotiations in Dubai.

The latest grim findings from climate scientists estimate that based on current trajectories, the planet has roughly six years before blowing past the Paris Agreement’s goal to hold global warming to 1.5 C, Stiell said during the COP28 opening ceremony.

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