Twitter
Boston-Bay-Mines-Announcement

Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs

A year after the IRA, industrial policy has gone global. Now what? – by David L. Goldwyn and Andrea Clabough (Atlantic Council – August 7,2023)

Atlantic Council – Shaping the global future together

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) may prove to be one of the most transformative pieces of economic legislation in US history. The vast waves of investment coming to US shores throughout the last year bear out this possibility. One recent analysis estimated that between August 2022 and January 2023, over 100,000 clean energy jobs were created in the United States as a result of almost $90 billion invested in dozens of clean energy projects.

The domestic impacts of the IRA are undeniable. It is less certain what it means for the global energy transition. One year later, much work remains ahead to maximize the potential of the IRA. While US policymakers should consider the IRA’s long-term future and extend many of its provisions past 2032, officials must prioritize opportunities to align with like-minded allies overseas.

Read more

Slowing global trade will make fighting climate change harder, says BHP exec – by Alisha Hiyate (Northern Miner – July 21, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Mega-miner BHP takes a longer view than most. The Melbourne-based company, with copper, iron ore, coal and nickel mines in Australia and South America, looks at broad global trends that will shape markets for 20 years to half a century when choosing investments. Decarbonization, electrification and population growth are the trends that they’re paying attention to.

“We’re going to need more copper. We’re going to need more nickel,” says Ragg Udd, president of BHP’s (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) Minerals America division. “We’re going to need more potash, and that’s where we’re trying to make strong investments into those jurisdictions working at very high ESG standards.”

Read more

By 2050, Used Wind Turbine Blades Will Exceed 43 Million Tons Of Waste Every Year – by Kevin Killough (Cowboy State Daily – March 1, 2023)

https://cowboystatedaily.com/

Because wind turbine blades are very difficult to recycle, the waste stream created by the retired blades is a mounting problem. By 2050, there will be 43 million tons of blade waste produced every year — the equivalent of 215,000 locomotives.

The speed by which wind farms are being constructed across the U.S. is going faster than a spring wind in Casper. In about 20 years, the wind turbines put into operation today will be nearing the end of their lifespan. The ones built 20 years ago are nearing it now.

Since the blades are very difficult to recycle, the waste stream created by the retired blades is a mounting problem. According to a 2017 study published in the scientific journal Waste Management, the world’s wind industry will be producing 43 million tons of blade waste annually by 2050.

Read more

Report: Critical minerals supply chain puts speed of energy transition at risk – by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico.com – July 2023)

https://www.politico.com/

The world’s supply of critical minerals is vulnerable to disruptions that could slow the transition to clean energy because their mining and refining are concentrated in the hands of a few companies and countries, an international renewable energy body said on Tuesday.

Those minerals, used to build clean technologies from wind turbines to electric cars, have drawn increasing interest from national governments eager to cut emissions and fight climate change — an effort that could be slowed if countries don’t work together to diversify the sources of the materials, the International Renewable Energy Agency warned in a new report provided to POLITICO ahead of its release later this week.

Read more

The world’s appetite for solar panels is squeezing silver supply (Bloomberg News – July 2, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Changes to solar panel technology are accelerating demand for silver, a phenomenon that’s widening a supply deficit for the metal with little additional mine production on the horizon.

Silver, in paste form, provides a conductive layer on the front and the back of silicon solar cells. But the industry is now beginning to make more efficient versions of cells that use a lot more of the metal, which is set to boost already-increasing consumption.

Read more

Mineral-Rich Developing Nations Demand Bigger Piece of the EV Pie – by Jon Emont, Juan Forero and Alexandra Wexler (Wall Street Journal – July 1, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

Their policies are aimed at making the most of the clean-energy shift, but they also create challenges for it

Across the developing world, mineral-rich nations say they are moving to end the era of extract and export. Countries with vast deposits of the ingredients essential to making electric vehicles are digging in and trying to take a bigger share of the expected EV boom.

In parts of Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, governments are restricting the export of raw minerals, demanding that miners build processing plants locally and looking to tighten control over foreign-operated mines. The steps are sometimes described as resource nationalism, and their increasing popularity is reshaping supply chains that underpin the shift toward cleaner forms of energy.

Read more

The lunatic left hijacked the environment for anti-capitalist ends – by Conrad Black (National Post – June 24, 2023)

https://nationalpost.com/

Destroying the economy in the name of climate change is their obsession

The recent fog that settled briefly on many northeastern cities from Ottawa to Philadelphia as a result of unusually extensive forest fires in Quebec and northern Ontario led to the predictable conscription of this freakish event as further evidence of the need to assault the oil and gas industry and ratchet up the cost of living of practically everyone.

This is part of the self-assigned Canadian mission of saving the planet from the capitalists. There is never much of a respite from outbursts of delusional absurdities of the climate extremists. I’m not a climate denier but I am a resolute and vociferous opponent of hare-brained, self-punitive, instant cures for problems whose causes, proportions, and possible solutions are not fully known to us.

Read more

Canada’s climate activists want to be taken seriously but not literally – by Sean Speer (The Hub – May 29, 2023)

Home

The Public Policy Forum (disclosure: where I am a senior fellow) recently released a major paper on Canada’s climate goals and the implications for the oil and gas sector. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in climate policy and the inherent trade-offs in different policy approaches.

Yet the paper has been criticized in some policy quarters for various reasons including, for instance, that it doesn’t properly account for the economic benefits of cultivating fossil fuel alternatives. (The researchers who produced the analysis have responded to this particular critique.)

Read more

OPINION: How big are Canada’s carbon emissions? Compared to China, we’re a rounding error – by Tony Keller (Globe and Mail – May 30, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Please note that Canada is the 4th biggest oil producer and the 6th largest natural gas producer in the world, and yet we still only contribute 1.5 per cent of global carbon emissions!- Stan Sudol

And two points to remember: Canada is the 4th biggest oil producer and the 6th largest natural gas producer in the world. And we still only contribute 1.5 per cent of global carbon emissions!! – Stan Sudol.

The statement from the most recent Group of Seven heads of government annual meeting, held earlier this month in Japan, is an encyclopedia of commitments and wishes, weighing in at 40 pages and 19,000 words. It takes positions on everything from human rights in Afghanistan to the challenge of artificial intelligence to the need for “stable access to affordable, safe, sufficient and nutritious food for each and every individual” on the planet.

Read more

Saskatchewan: ‘Come get me’: Premier Moe responds to federal minister on running coal plants past 2030 – by Adam Hunter (CBC News Saskatchewan – May 18, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/

Premier Scott Moe said “come get me” on Thursday when asked about the potential legal ramifications of running coal-fired power plants past 2030 in violation of federal regulations. On Wednesday, Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada Steven Guilbeault said Saskatchewan would be breaking the law if it ran coal-fired electricity after 2030, unless they were equipped with carbon capture technology.

“We’ve regulated the ban on coal through CEPA (Canadian Environmental Protection Act) which is a criminal tool that the federal government has. So not complying with this regulation would be a violation of Canada’s Criminal Code.”

Read more

Power grid can’t handle Biden’s climate rule, industry groups say (Politico.com – May 12, 2023)

https://www.politico.com/

Power producers say squeezing fossil fuels will worsen the strains on the grid, though EPA’s backers say those risks are manageable.

The Biden administration’s new greenhouse gas rule is designed to drive drastic changes in how U.S. power companies produce electricity — but utilities say it could escalate the risk of outages as it squeezes fossil fuel plants into retirement.

Power producers are already warning that the rule threatens to compromise the power network’s reliability by pushing their older, dirtier coal and gas plants into retirement at an even faster pace than they are closing now. They say it’s especially worrisome if the plants aren’t replaced as quickly as they shut down.

Read more

The Green Revolution Is Here. Which Big Miners Are Prepared? – by Megha Mandavia (Wall Street Journal – May 5, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

New U.S. legislation points to the world being short of copper in a few years. A few big mining firms could be huge beneficiaries.

A decade of underinvestment and a dense thicket of permits are challenges that the world’s top miners need to tackle head on. That is, if they want to ride a probable surge in copper prices as the world finally gets its act together to tackle climate change—a task which will require vast quantities of the red metal.

Over the last six months mining firms have begun jostling to acquire copper assets. One major reason: The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, essentially a massive green industry policy bill, which passed last August. Copper supply now looks likely to fall far short of demand over the next decade—unless big new greenfield projects are brought online.

Read more

The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics – by Andrew Nikiforuk (The Tyee – May 2, 2023)

https://thetyee.ca/

The green techno-dream is so vastly destructive, they say, ‘we have to come up with a different plan.’

“Sometime during this century, it is highly likely that worldwide depletion of natural resources will force an entire reorganization of social and economic structures, perhaps violently.” — Walter Youngquist, ‘Our Plundered Planet’

We are going to have to dramatically downsize the dream of a future in which we replace 150-year-old fossil fuel infrastructure with “clean energy” by 2050. That’s the message in a number of recent important reports and books. They underscore a number of problems with the renewables illusion, including the complexity of the task, the toxicity of rare earth mining and the scarcity of critical minerals.

Read more

Why China Is Investing in Africa’s Green Energy Future – by Kate Bartlett (Voice of America – May 3, 2023)

https://www.voanews.com/

JOHANNESBURG — A wind farm in Namibia and a floating solar farm on Zimbabwe’s massive Kariba Dam are among the new green energy projects Chinese companies are looking at investing in this year after Beijing pledged to help African countries address their energy problems with renewable sources rather than fossil fuels.

“Chinese overseas renewable energy investments aim to deliver China’s international climate commitments of accelerating the energy transition away from fossil fuels in Africa, China’s largest trading partner,” Lei Bian, a policy fellow at the The London School of Economics and Political Science, told VOA.

Read more

A not-so-green reality behind green transition – by Terence Corcoran (Fiancial Post – May 3, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

If fossil fuels are destructive, renewable alternatives are maybe even more so

In the rollicking world of net-zero policy-making and initiatives, Canada aims to be a global leader. The country’s bankers, mining executives, auto companies, electricity producers and political leaders have merged into a unified machine around the idea that a new green economy can be achieved via a just transition to a global energy system free of carbon emissions.

The nationalist clatter last week around the possible sale of Teck Resources of Vancouver to Swiss mining giant Glencore reflected the new official Canadian corporatist approach. As a key global player in the business of producing “critical minerals” — copper, zinc, molybdenum — Teck is seen as a vital cog in the wheel of economic fortune swirling around the net-zero objectives.

Read more