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By Greg Fingas, on July 27, 2014, at 1:12 pm Assorted content for your Sunday reading.
- Pierre Beaulne discusses the inequality-related problems and solutions brought into the spotlight by Thomas Piketty, and notes that they can’t simply be swept under the rug: When all is said and done, the capitalist globalization has boosted economic growth for a certain time, but has by the same token greatly increased income inequalities and exacerbated wealth concentration. Tax breaks for the highest incomes and social spending cuts have intensified the trend. In Canada, for instance, the top marginal income tax rate at the federal level has gone down from 43% in 1981 to (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on July 21, 2014, at 10:45 am Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.
- Paul Krugman calls out the U.S.’ deficit scolds for continuing to invent a crisis to distract from the real problems with middling growth and high unemployment. And Bruce Johnstone singles out a few of the Cons’ talking points which have somehow become conventional wisdom without having an iota of truth to them. But in case there was any doubt why the Cons aren’t being exposed to their own patent wrongness, William Watson’s (hardly people-friendly) column explains why – as Jack Mintz manages to qualify as the least corporate-biased member of a (Read more…)
By Rafe Mair, on July 19, 2014, at 4:02 pm BC Premier Christy Clark touts “world-class” safety for fossil fuel projects (Canadian Press)
Many times I have referred to Premier Clark’s demand that Enbridge and others have “world-class” cleanup processes in place. To repeat myself, these are “weasel words” and mean absolutely nothing. “World-class” firefighting procedures doesn’t mean the building didn’t burn down.
I was delighted to read Stephen Hume’s column in the Vancouver Sun of July 17, where he talks about “weasel words”, especially the term “world-class”, and other matters. This particular article is about fracking and in his surgical way, Hume carves up the government for it’s utter (Read more…)
By Canadian Press, on July 2, 2014, at 2:05 pm
By Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON – In Pennsylvania’s gas drilling boom, newer and unconventional wells leak far more often than older and traditional ones, according to a study of state inspection reports for 41,000 wells.
The results suggest that leaks of methane could be a problem for drilling across the nation, said study lead author Cornell University engineering professor Anthony Ingraffea, who heads an environmental activist group that helped pay for the study.
Drilling on a fracking well pad in Pennsylvania
The research was criticized by the energy industry. Marcellus Shale Coalition spokesman Travis Windle said it reflects (Read more…)
By Admins, on July 1, 2014, at 7:30 am The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that local communities have the right to ban the environmentally-harmful practice of fracking by oil and gas companies.
The post Court Upholds Small Towns’ Right to Ban Fracking appeared first on THE CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE.
By Common Sense Canadian, on June 30, 2014, at 6:46 pm Watch this video from last week’s “BC LNG: Cold Gas, Hot Air” presentation and discussion in Squamish – where the proposed Woodfibre project is currently in a public comment period.
Featuring The Common Sense Canadian’s Damien Gillis on the 3 top myths surrounding BC LNG – that it’s a “clean” fossil fuel, that the financial fundamentals are strong, and that First Nations largely embrace it.
The June 27 event was hosted by local citizen group My Sea to Sky at the Squamish First Nation’s Totem Hall. The videos were produced by Tracker Productions.
Also watch introduction from local Squamish First Nation (Read more…)
By Common Sense Canadian, on June 30, 2014, at 12:18 pm The catastrophic explosion in Lac-Mégantic of a shale oil train brought the product’s volatility to the fore
Read this June 24 story from the Wall Street Journal on the volatility of shale oil around the United States – making it challenging and dangerous to process and transport.
Millions of barrels of crude oil flowing from shale formations around the country—not just North Dakota—are full of volatile gases that make it tricky to transport and to process into fuel.
Oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale field has already been identified as combustibleby investigators looking into explosions that followed train (Read more…)
By LeDaro, on June 28, 2014, at 12:30 pm I believe it does. Are Oklahoma Earthquakes Tied to Fracking? Answer is yes. But gas/oil companies won’t admit it.
Please watch the video here.
By Canadian Press, on June 25, 2014, at 4:01 pm 3.0-plus magnitude earthquakes in the midcontinental US. USGS
By Emily Schmall And Kristi Eaton, The Associated Press
AZLE, Texas – Earthquakes used to be almost unheard of on the vast stretches of prairie that unfold across the U.S. Midwestern states of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma.
But in recent years, they have become commonplace. Oklahoma recorded nearly 150 between January and the start of May. Most were too weak to cause serious damage or endanger lives. Yet they’ve rattled nerves and raised suspicions that the shaking might be connected to the oil and gas drilling method known as hydraulic (Read more…)
By Common Sense Canadian, on June 20, 2014, at 2:14 pm
Despite all the assurances by BC Premier Christy Clark that LNG is “the cleanest fossil fuel on the planet”, the evidence paints a very different picture. Check out this June 4 Climate Progress story by Joe Romm on a new report from the US Department of Energy confirming that emissions from shale gas and LNG are higher than those from coal-fired power.
An explosive new report from the U.S. Department of Energy makes clear that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is likely a climate-destroying misallocation of resources.
That is, if one uses estimates for methane leakage based on actual (Read more…)
By Will Dubitsky, on June 19, 2014, at 9:30 pm Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard is putting green jobs on the back burner (Photo: facebook)
One thing Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, BC Premier Christy Clark and new Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard all share in common is the dated notion that economic and sustainable development are competing concepts that need to be reconciled, with great difficulty. And in hard times, the economy must take precedence.
The term reconciliation seems totally out of place when one considers that the green sectors are among the fastest growing and highest job creation sectors of our time and that this growth can only get better as nations adopt more aggressive (Read more…)
By Damien Gillis, on June 11, 2014, at 9:55 pm
The Council of the Haida Nation (CHN) is vowing to support The Fort Nelson First Nation’s tough stand on proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) development and the 600% increase in controversial shale gas fracking it would represent for their northeast BC territory.
According to The Northern View, a recent visit to Haida Gwaii by FNFN Chief Sharleen Gale was met with sympathy from the Haida audience. Gale was there to bring to light the upstream implications if CHN were to support the province’s vision for LNG development, which would also mean significant tanker traffic through Haida waters.
The chief shook (Read more…)
By Common Sense Canadian, on June 11, 2014, at 1:08 pm Abandoned gas wells like this one can continue leaking methane for years (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Read this June 5 story by Andrew Nikiforuk in The Tyee on a new report raising concerns about leakage from Canada’s 500,000 gas wells. The Common Sense Canadian reported recently on funding cutbacks by BC’s Oil and Gas Commission for dealing with abandoned gas wells, as well as the climate implications of leaking methane.
. . . → Read More: The Common Sense Canadian: Canada’s 500,000 leaky gas wells threaten groundwater, health, climate
By Richard Hughes, on June 7, 2014, at 9:00 pm Richard Hughes
With our paranoid PM Steve Harper it is all about control and with this reality in mind we head into what promises to be a hot summer of discontent.
He has empowered his ‘Government Operations Centre’ to monitor all anti fracking protests.
Monitoring is really just a polite term for spying. Canadians have come to expect this from a desperate PM Harper who is under ever-increasing pressure to deliver on his promises to Chinese government investors as well as major oil and gas corporations who have invested heavily in what can properly be described as the worlds (Read more…)
By CuriosityCat, on May 30, 2014, at 8:39 pm Early China coal mine
When it comes to global warming, coal is the biggest culprit in the warming of the earth.
China is taking giant strides to reduce its need for coal to generate energy by exploiting its vast shale gas reserves: Although serious obstacles remain, China is finally making progress on tapping its vast shale gas reserves, which hold the promise of a new source of clean energy for the coal smoke-choked country.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, China holds the world’s largest reserves of technically recoverable shale gas in the world, 1,115 trillion cubic feet. (Read more…) . . . → Read More: CuriosityCat: Good news: China’s Fracking to reduce its use of Coal
By Common Sense Canadian, on May 30, 2014, at 10:04 am Lisa and Bob Parr (Photo: Wise County Messenger / Joe Duty)
Read this April 23 story from the LA Times on the groundbreaking award of nearly $3 million in damages to a Texas family from fracking activity near their home.
In a landmark legal victory that centered on fracking, a middle-class north Texas ranching family won nearly $3 million from a big natural gas company whose drilling, they contend, caused years of sickness, killed pets and livestock, and forced them out of their home for months.
Tuesday’s $2.95-million civil verdict by a six-person Dallas jury is thought to (Read more…)
By The Arbourist, on May 29, 2014, at 7:48 am Business as usual.
Enjoy?
Filed under: Politics Tagged: Corporate Folly, Corporate Greed, Fracking, Gasland, Shitting on the Public Trust, Shitting where we eat
By Damien Gillis, on May 22, 2014, at 1:46 pm In the keynote address kicking of her government’s second major conference on liquefied natural gas (LNG), BC Premier Christy Clark billed the resource as nothing short of “the cleanest fossil fuel on the planet.”
Clark touted LNG as a “generational opportunity” for the province’s economy, before a sold-out crowd at the Vancouver Convention Centre yesterday. Then the Liberal leader made the following extraordinary claim:
This is about our opportunity to make…the biggest contribution we ever have, as a province, to reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the globe – by powering up the economies of Asia and helping them move to the cleanest (Read more…)
By Richard Hughes, on May 19, 2014, at 9:16 pm Long time Cowichan activist Bill Woollam has offered this guest post critical of fracking and David Black’s refinery proposal.
Bill has his own blog that covers wide-ranging issues. It can be found here.
Bill Woollam Guest Post
I recently wrote to David Black, newspaper owner/manager, in response to his support for the oil/gas pipelines and refinement industry. After watching the ‘Gasland part 2? documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96AEzQYangE, even he had to admit the toxicification of our aquifers by fracking for natural gas is, quote, “Alarming”.
In one out of every five completed hydraulic fracking shafts, the concrete which encases (Read more…)
By Common Sense Canadian, on May 16, 2014, at 2:45 pm
Are you concerned about the impacts of fracking and liquified fracked gas (also know as liquefied natural gas or LNG) export? Join us for a night of powerful speakers from the frontlines of the communities facing the true impacts of LNG development.From May 21-23rd, the BC government and big oil will be converging on Vancouver to hold a large LNG summit. Come and hear the other side of the story – from Treaty 8 Tribal Chief Liz Logan, whose territory would feed LNG through fracked gas; The Common Sense Canadian’s Damien Gillis – taking a closer look at the (Read more…)
By Damien Gillis, on May 9, 2014, at 12:23 pm Documentary filmmaker and Common Sense Canadian Publisher Damien Gillis
Listen to Fractured Land filmmaker and Common Sense Canadian Publisher Damien Gillis talk about the costs and conflicted benefits of natural gas development in British Columbia at J-Fest, a special event for the public organized by the Canadian Association of Journalists.
Other speakers include Michener Award-winning journalist Lindsay Kines and former Province editorial cartoonist Dan Murphy.
Among journalists, our profession is manifestly seen as being an important part of democratic society. For us, the evidence can be seen every day on the news pages and hours of our nation.
What if all (Read more…)
By LeDaro, on May 7, 2014, at 11:13 am Earthquake damage (cropped) by Martin Luft.
The Latest Fracking Earthquake Research
Now for the meat of the matter. SSA cites significant increases in seismic activity linked to increased fracking and wastewater operations in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Ohio among other states.
To give you an idea of how significant, the average rate of earthquakes above 3.0 was 21 from 1967 to 2000 according to the US Geological Survey, but it was about 100 per year between 2010 and 2012.
Read more here.
By Richard Hughes, on May 3, 2014, at 10:44 am Richard Hughes-Political Blogger
The number of concerned Canadians opposed to hydraulic fracturing, aka ‘Fracking’ is increasing on a daily basis.
The Council of Canadians are among them and carried their protest to Parliament Hill to bring their message to the MP’s and policy makers.
In spite of known risks the oil and gas industry just plows ahead in this gold rush frenzy to make the big bucks, aquifers and drinking water be damned. The biggest ponzi scheme ever has gained momentum that challenges rational thought or action.
Media Release
Parliament Hill gets “Fracked”
‘Frack Corp’ fracked Parliament Hill this morning (Read more…)
By Admins, on May 2, 2014, at 10:11 pm by: Council of Canadians | Press Release | May 1, 2014
‘Frack Corp’ fracked Parliament Hill this morning using a 14-foot fracking rig spilling fracking wastewater in the process. The Council of Canadians, the organization behind the action, said it was to highlight the grave risks associated with fracking such as well leaks and wastewater spills.
“We organized this action to drive home to Members of Parliament why Canadian and Indigenous communities are calling for a ban on fracking,” says Emma Lui, water campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “Affected communities have been sounding the alarm on fracking for years because (Read more…)
By Richard Hughes, on May 1, 2014, at 10:55 am Richard Hughes-Political Blogger
Look for a rejuvenated BC NDP under Horgan’s leadership. He will engage and entertain voters so tired of seeing a dull plodding uncertain opposition. Yes, politics in BC is about to become interesting again.
The Damien Gillis piece above focuses on the foibles of the ‘Christy Clark Choir’ singing in unison about the riches that will soon be a reality in their magnificent LNG con job.
BC NDP Leader John Horgan will bring spark and substance back to BC politics
BC NDP’s acclaimed leader John Horgan will soon be in the saddle and the LNG file is one (Read more…)
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