Canadian News
The latest news from and about Canadian issues.Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Ontario rolls dice on carbon.
National Post, July 22, 2008 - “To California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s delight, Ontario joined the Western Climate Initiative last week. One wonders if Canada’s flagship province, along with the governments of Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia that have already signed on to the California-led pact, are prepared to accept the potential consequences: Gasoline shortages in their markets, while growing supplies of Canadian crude from the oil sands are shipped by bullet line to Texas. That could happen under the alliance, in which a key plank is a low-carbon fuel standard that will require a 10% cut to the carbon-intensity of transportation fuels by 2020.” Read more.
Transcanada awaits the governor’s call.
Globe & Mail, July 22, 2008 - “Through 35 years of false starts and disappointments, it’s been Alaska’s greatest pipe dream: A natural-gas pipeline that would unlock the state’s rich gas reserves for the massive market in the continental United States. Now, with energy supply issues on the global front-burner, the expensive, complex and risky project may finally be about to leap into the realm of reality. And a critical springboard is emerging from a confluence of forces: A state government hungry for revenues, a Canadian pipeline company hungry for volumes, and some major producers who don’t want to get left out in the cold.” Read more.
Monday, July 21, 2008
U.S. carbon initiative nets key Canadian province.
Reuters UK, July 21, 2008 - “The province of Ontario, Canada’s industrial heartland, will join the Western Climate Initiative, a planned U.S.-based regional carbon credit trading pact aimed at curbing global warming. Ontario is the fourth province to join the effort that includes California and six other U.S. states, and was established by U.S. state governors tired of what they saw as the Bush administration’s inaction on climate change. Canadian environmentalists hailed the announcement as evidence that provincial leaders were losing faith in Ottawa’s stand on climate change, but federal Environment Minister John Baird said he saw no problem with Ontario’s decision.” Read more.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Bottlenecks at the border are taking a toll on U.S.-Canada trade.
Cleveland.com, July 20, 2008 - “As the sum grows—and everyone thinks it will—backups of an hour, two hours, sometimes much longer become more frequent. Hassles multiply, ballooning the cost of shipping, interfering with just-in-time inventory needs and ‘thickening the border,’ as shippers say, referring to the decline in efficiency that more traffic brings.” Read more.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
TransCanada-ConocoPhillips to double capacity of Canadian crude line to 1.1M barrels per day.
IHT, July 16, 2008 - “Two major energy companies will spend $7 billion to nearly double the amount of crude flowing through a pipeline from Canada’s tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast, highlighting intense demand for crude that was once too expensive to pull from the ground and process. Alberta, Canada-based TransCanada Corp. and Houston-based ConocoPhillips Co. said Wednesday they will add 500,000 barrels of daily capacity to the Keystone Pipeline, a 1,980-mile (3,186- kilometer) project connecting Hardisty, Alberta with a delivery point near existing terminals in Port Arthur, Texas.” Read more.
Canada, U.S. partners in economies of world, Arizona.
Tucson Citizen, July 16, 2008 - “Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., was the target of a foreign intervention last month. It was the friendliest of interventions, but it was dead serious in its intent: ensuring that the economies of the United States and Canada continue to flourish and that our citizens achieve the prosperity they deserve. Canada-U.S. trade supports 128,750 jobs in Arizona. An example of the local benefits of these supply chains is Bombardier, based in Montreal, Quebec, which is the largest business jet maintenance and overhaul facility in the Southwest and employs 600 American workers at the company’s Learjet facility in Tucson.” Read more.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Made in America energy policy.
The Star, July 15, 2008 - “When Americans want something that lies in another country, the consequences for that other country can be severe. Even if they don’t actually invade, they put a lot of pressure on lesser countries to behave as they want. Canada, for instance, hasn’t been invaded by the United States since 1812, but Ottawa has proved highly co-operative with Washington’s desire to have access to our oil. We are America’s Number 1 supplier.” Read more.
Stupid Oilsands Schemes.
Edmonton Sun, July 15, 2008 - “ Premier Ed Stelmach was spreading the good news last week in hopes of deflecting any bad news he might get later this week when he meets his provincial counterparts in Quebec City. ‘We need to spread the word,’ the premier told oil industry execs a day after unleashing $2 billion in oilpatch welfare, which had haunting echoes of the pump-priming Don Getty years. ‘Our province is a reliable supplier of abundant energy produced in a responsible manner.’ He didn’t define ‘responsible’ for obvious reasons.” Read more.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Ontario sets boreal forest protection plans.
Reuters Canada, July 14, 2008 - “The government of the Canadian province of Ontario said on Monday it will conserve a huge swath of the province’s northern wilderness in a bid to protect the region’s vast boreal forest, as well as polar bears and other wildlife, and to help fight climate change. The plan to protect permanently at least 225,000 square kilometers (87,000 square miles) of the northern forest—an area nearly the size of the United Kingdom—won praise from environmental groups, which said it should serve as an example for other governments.” Read more.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Industry cautious over carbon capture.
National Post, July 10, 2008 - “The Alberta government answered one of the demands from oil sands producers when it set aside about $2-billion to help fund carbon-capture and sequestration projects, but a second crucial piece of the puzzle is still missing. Without details on the provincial and federal rules governing CCS and CO2 emissions, the industry remains in limbo, reluctant to plunge into any massive projects.” Read more.
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