Back in August of 2018 our federal government bought us a pipeline. Not exactly a bargain, it set us back $4.5-billion. The pipeline, the Trans Mountain, carries oil from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C. The government’s reason, apparently, was to reassure Albertans that it really did want to help them get
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The Disaffected Lib: This Is What Gives Them Away
A lot of stupid people in Canada have come to think of Athabasca bitumen as “oil.” That is the single most important victory the petro-state has achieved. It’s not oil. It may be turned into oil at a distant refinery, probably in the States but we’re told even in Asia,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Norway Shines a Light We Don’t Care to See
Little Norway and it’s big sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, are once again leading the way, this time by plunging into alternative clean energy investment. Not for the first time Norway is demonstrating how screwed up Canadian energy policy has become and will continue to be until we get
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Perils and Pitfalls of the J. Trudeau Memorial Pipeline – They’re Very Real
To hear many east of the Rockies tell it, a dilbit spill in British Columbia’s coastal waters isn’t going to happen, although it is, and, should it, they have a “world class” oil spill response programme, although they don’t. Those are just lies they have to spin to scrub the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Great. Now Notley Imagines She’s Speaking for All Canadians. You Too?
Rachel Notley is taking to the interwebs in her war with British Columbia. If it’s war B.C. wants, it’s war she’ll get. Now the Alberta premier, speaking for Alberta and all Canadians (including you, I guess) is going to expose the recalcitrant coastal curmudgeons, damned hippies and geriatric draft dodgers,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Setting the Record Straight on Trudeau, Notley, Bitumen, and Our Future.
What’s the difference between all-out nuclear war and catastrophic climate change? So far we haven’t been stupid enough to resort to all-out nuclear war. Both of them can end civilization, indeed most life on Earth. The way we’re going it’s unclear which will get the job done first. Canada, of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Whether You Support Pipelines or Not, Here’s Something We Can Surely Agree On.
No secret I’m opposed to both Kinder Morgan and Northern Gateway. A sizeable majority of British Columbians are of the same mind but a significant minority supports the pipeline initiatives. In situations like this it can be helpful to seek out areas of agreement, common ground. Here’s an idea we
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Pondering a palatable pipeline…
I guest-hosted TWiE podcast episode 137 a few days ago, an episode devoted to the Alberta oil sands / tar sands. If you ask me (and I realize none of you have 🙂 ) it’s well worth a listen! The week’s guest was US energy analyst Robert Rapier, who had
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Cognitive Dissonance is a Lousy Political Platform, Even for the Liberals.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when an entity embraces two or more contradictory beliefs or values at the same time. As social psychologist Leon Festinger showed, cognitive dissonance in an individual leads to psychological distress. To cope, that individual or entity may simply block out information that contributes to the stress of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: And We Thought All We Had to Deal With Was Enbridge.
Nexen, the Chinese Communist Party’s anchor in Athabasca, is urging Canadian National Railways to start shipping bitumen by rail car to Prince Rupert where it can then be loaded on supertankers for transport to the Peoples’ Liberation Army and other users. Apparently China is getting impatient with Comrade Steve’s inability
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Geriatric Pipelines?
An analysis of the pipeline failure that spilled 200,000 gallons of Athabasca dilbit in Mayflower, Arizona concluded there was a manufacturing fault in the pipe. Here’s the thing. The pipe that failed was 70-years old. Who knows, maybe your great-grandfather had a hand in its construction? But this geriatric pipeline
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: InsideClimate wins Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Canada’s tar sands
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: On Monday, three reporters from nonprofit online news site InsideClimate were honored with a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Canada’s tar sands and rupturing oil pipelines. Elizabeth McGowan, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer were honored for their reporting on “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Everything You Need to Know About DilBit
Confused about diluted bitumen, the stuff Ottawa and Alberta are so determined to push through British Columbia? It’s not easy to find balanced information on dilbit so it was great to find a “Dilbit Primer” published by Inside Climate News. The primer doesn’t answer every question and is remarkably candid
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Does Red Leaf’s "EcoShale" Technology Greenwash Oil Shale Extraction?
Red Leaf EcoShale.png At the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008, former Vice President Al Gore called the possibility of fossil fuel corporations extracting oil shale "utter insanity." Insanity, though, doesn't serve as a hinderance for deeply entrenched and powerful fossil fuel interests. Oil shale, also known as kerogen, should not be confused with
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Must Read Muckrake on the Whistleblower Behind the Enbridge Tar Sands Pipeline Spill
feature_enbridgemain.jpg On a midsummer evening in July of 2010, heavy crude started gushing from a 30-inch pipeline into Talmadge Creek, near Marshall, Michigan. By the next morning, heavy globs of oil soon were coating the Kalamazoo River, into which the Talmadge flows, and the stench of petroleum filled the air. Enbridge,
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