In case you didn’t catch Danielle Smith’s bizzarro Address to the Province last week, the one where she signalled what we could expect in the 2024 Budget, here’s a brief synopsis. (Smith’s comments are edited for tone and appear in bold). Premier Smith’s pre-budget address to the province We need
Continue readingTag: Norway
Things Are Good: Norway Gamed Oil to Get Rich and Go Green
Norway figured out how to make money from its oil while going green, and other countries should learn this nifty trick. Yes, oil is bad and we need to stop using it right away to avoid climate collapse. What Norway has done is take their bad oil and export it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Neil Shaw reports on the demands by Scottish doctors that their government reinstate COVID -19protections in health care facilities. And Tia Ewing reports on new research showing the devastating and lasting effects of long COVID. – AFP reports on what’s already a record-breaking
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Norway’s oil fund approaching C$2 trillion
In 1996, Norway began depositing oil revenue into a national wealth fund so that current and future generations would benefit from the nation’s oil wealth. Bolstered by oil taxes and by profitable investments in more than 9,000 companies outside Norway, the fund is today valued at C$1.84 trillion.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman notes that hostility toward basic public health protection such as masks represents a stark example of conservatives sacrificing human lives to identity politics – though it’s far from the first or the last one. And James Downie writes that the Republicans
Continue readingIn-Sights: BC NDP should pay attention to a Republican Senator
Long time United States Senator Charles Grassley is an Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He joined with retiring Democratic Senator Tom Udall to state a position that current BC NDP members ought to heed.
Continue readingIn-Sights: Saving or foregoing oil dollars is a choice
On the day Jason Kenney’s Alberta announced their single year budget deficit will exceed $24 billion, Norway advises it’s national wealth fund had passed C$1.52 trillion in value…
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Why Would the UN General Assembly Elect Canada to the Security Council?
Prime Minister Trudeau has been hustling around the world, attempting to round up votes for Canada when the UN General Assembly elects members of the Security Council in June. Two seats are available for the Western European and Others Group, and three countries are in the running: Norway, Ireland and
Continue readingIn-Sights: Oilberta
Alberta has long been a puppet of the oil and gas business but Kenney’s compulsion to deliver benefits to this private sector is unprecedented. It is as if Alberta’s right wing government looked at what Norway has been doing and decided to do the exact opposite. In the first 13
Continue readingIn-Sights: Norway sets an example
Norway has done far more than put aside a substantial part of the value of fossil fuel production. It has has taken aggressive action to deal with climate change…
Continue readingIn-Sights: Sacrificing the future
Norway made a choice to take a material share of oil and gas revenues and distribute the value of its non-renewable resources to citizens over multiple generations. Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan chose to benefit whichever corporations happened to be involved when production of oil and gas took place…
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 readingAlberta Politics: Not a lot of light between UCP and Alberta Party ‘Ministry of Truth’ schemes, or for that matter the NDP approach
Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel got a couple of things right about Jason Kenney’s plan to establish a “war room” in the Ministry of Energy to pump out belligerent propaganda attacking environmentalists, other governments and private citizens who fail to support of Alberta’s wishes for endless oilsands expansion with sufficient
Continue readingIn-Sights: Canadian natural resources almost given away to mostly foreign owned producers
In Norway, with 5.3 million people, upstream petroleum companies are subject to a 27% petro tax plus a special tax of 51%. Alberta petroleum tax is less than 4%. BC’s is near zero.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Oliver Moore reports on Greyhound’s elimination of most of its Western Canadian bus service. Emily Riddle offers a reminder that the lack of transportation puts Indigenous women and other marginalized people at risk. And Simon Enoch highlights the obvious need for Saskatchewan to
Continue readingIn-Sights: Ferry innovation? Wazzat?
The Havyard shipyard announced that it received a contract to build seven battery-powered ferries for Fjord1, Norwegian transport conglomerate. The news comes after the operators of the first all-electric ferry in Norway, the ‘Ampere’, reported some impressive statistics after operating the ship for over 2 years. They claim that the
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Oslo Builds for a Sustainable Transit Future
Oslo: The Journey to Car-free from STREETFILMS on Vimeo. Oslo’s transition from car-focussed to people focussed transportation is well underway and is causing ripples around the world. Other cities are noting how the scandinavian city works with locals to get them out of their cars and onto the streets. Last
Continue readingIn-Sights: Norway’s national wealth fund
Norway sets aside proceeds from oil and gas production and now has an investment fund worth 8,140 billion NOK, which is about $1.3 trillion Canadian. Given the present population, that’s more than $250,000 for every man, woman and child.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Matt Bruenig highlights Norway’s high level of social ownership, with 76% of non-home wealth in public hands in an extremely prosperous country. And Patrick Collinson reports on the latest World Happiness Survey, showing Norway within a group of relatively equal Nordic countries
Continue readingThings Are Good: Zero Emission and Autonomous Shipping to Start in Norway
Norway will soon see a fully autonomous ship navigating its waters. A resource company in the country presently uses trucks to transport fertilizer from one port to another, the new ship will replace 40,000 of these diesel truck journeys. The ship is battery powered meaning that it will be zero
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