Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs – Page 32

Regulatory ‘poisons’ are ‘suffocating’ oil industry by driving investors away – by Claudia Cattaneo (Financial Post – April 5, 2018)

April 5, 2018

http://business.financialpost.com/

Industry’s warning that toxic regulations mean no more major pipelines will be built in this country is not hyperbole

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is planning another tour to Toronto and New York to talk up the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to business leaders.

It’s certainly good exposure for her re-election campaign. It probably won’t change investors’ pessimistic views of Canada’s oil and gas sector.

Here’s the problem. Aside from Canada’s dysfunctional handling of the Trans Mountain project, governments (including Alberta’s) have burdened energy companies with so much new regulation, so many new costs, and are on a path to make regulatory reviews of big energy projects so much more political, investors have tuned out and moved to jurisdictions where governments aren’t kneecapping their companies to meet commitments on climate change.

The growing national push to suppress Alberta’s economy – by Don Braid (Calgary Herald – April 3, 2018)

April 5, 2018

http://calgaryherald.com/

A few years ago, Albertans would only see red ink in a Quebec budget. Now we just see red. Quebec’s latest budget is being painted as a model for Canada. The province will have a $1.3 billion surplus. Its Generations Fund, devoted to paying down debt, is growing. Quebecers will get a tax break of up to $336 per person.

Wonderful. Way to go, Quebec. But could the province do all this without its annual equalization cheque — $11.8 billion today, rising to $13.3 billion next year?

Of course it couldn’t. Without this indirect wealth transfer based on the strength of western economies, Quebec would still be a deficit-ridden mess.

BHP says to quit global coal lobby group, stick with U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Reuters U.S. – April 4, 2018)

April 5, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Global miner BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) said on Thursday it had made a final decision to leave the World Coal Association (WCA) over differences on climate change but would remain a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

BHP has largely quit mining coal for power plants, but is the world’s largest exporter of coal for steel-making. It said in December it had taken a preliminary decision to withdraw from the WCA, pending a full review.

The miner came under pressure from Australian green groups last year to leave any industry associations with policies that fail to match the company’s support of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

[Canada Climate Change] The same old Liberal arrogance sure is coming back in a hurry – by Kelly McParland (National Post – April 3, 2018)

April 3, 2018

http://nationalpost.com/

Catherine McKenna is the latest to display a sense of righteousness in telling CTV she can’t be bothered with people who don’t support her approach to climate change

Governments grow understandably tired of critics who spend their days finding new things to complain about, but the Trudeau Liberals are unusually forthright in displaying their contempt for anyone who holds views they reject.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau did little to make life easier for himself when he heaped derision on anyone who dared question his attempted changes to the small business tax last summer. If he’d done a bit more listening and a lot less attacking he might have lessened the embarrassment that came when he eventually had to capitulate.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau evidently learned nothing from concerns — including from within his own caucus — raised when he made clear that anyone who differs from his beliefs on abortion is not welcome to run for the Liberal party or to vote their conscience in the House of Commons.

Ottawa to levy tax against polluting industries in non-compliant provinces under planned carbon-pricing regime – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – March 28, 2018)

March 28, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ottawa is targeting heavy industry in provinces that fail to adhere to federal standards for carbon pricing by forcing those emitters to reduce their greenhouse gases by 30 per cent or pay tax on emissions above that threshold.

The federal carbon levy – which could grow to tens of millions of dollars per plant – would currently only apply to Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.

However, opposition Conservatives in Ontario and Alberta have threatened to kill existing carbon-tax plans in their provinces should they win in coming elections, raising the spectre of future federal-provincial showdowns.

Judge says officials must consider reduced coal mining to address climate change (Casper Star Tribune – March 26, 2018)

March 27, 2018

http://trib.com/

CHEYENNE — U.S. government officials who engage in regional planning for an area of Wyoming and Montana that supplies 40 percent of the nation’s coal must consider reducing coal mining as a way to fight climate change, a judge has ruled.

Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls, Montana, applies to the Powder River Basin, where house-sized dump trucks haul loads mined around the clock from open-pit coal mines. Some of the mines measure more than a mile wide.

Morris rejected U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials’ argument that climate change could be addressed when they consider whether to allow individual mine expansions.

‘Off the chart’ carbon target means Canadian refiners stuck paying tax on emissions no one in the world can eliminate – by Peter Boag (Financial Post – March 27, 2018)

March 27, 2018

http://business.financialpost.com/

Peter Boag: This scheme might actually achieve emissions reductions in Canada — by closing refineries

The federal government’s proposed carbon-pricing “backstop” requires large emitters like refiners to reduce their emissions by 30 per cent from their sector average or pay the federally mandated carbon price on excess emissions, starting in January 2019.

For now, refiners in provinces that already have a carbon-pricing system in place — Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia — are exempt. Not so for refiners in other provinces like New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. A review in 2020 will determine the longer-term application of the backstop to refiners currently exempt.

What does a 30 per cent reduction mean for Canadian refiners? It’s an emissions-performance level that no refiner in the world has been able to achieve — by a wide margin. Comprehensive and credible global data shows that when compared with their peers in the developed world, Canadian refiners’ emissions performance is in the middle of the pack.

Trudeau will learn a painful lesson — voters really dislike climate crusading – by Lawrence Solomon (Financial Post – March 23, 2018)

March 23, 2018

http://business.financialpost.com/

Global warming is so yesterday. There’s pretty much nothing the public cares less about than climate change

The United States government is expected to approve a massive US$1.3-trillion omnibus spending bill Friday, a sweeping victory for Democrats who fought for — and won — funding for virtually all of the left’s priorities, everything from Planned Parenthood to gun control to child care to public transportation.

The Democrats even won funding, and plaudits, for infrastructure and domestic programs they couldn’t secure under the Obama administration.

But no one is remarking on the Democratic cause that was thrown off the omnibus — climate change — because no one still considers it a Democratic priority. Nowhere in the bill’s 2,232 pages of spending goodies do the words “climate change” or “global warming” even appear.

Political consensus for carbon tax has gone but Liberals stay on course – by John Ivison (National Post – March 21. 2018)

March 22, 2018

http://nationalpost.com/

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals seemed to be on to a winner with the idea that they would win social licence for a new pipeline on the West Coast by introducing a carbon pricing plan.

Polls suggested this compact had the support of majorities in every region.

But in recent days, there has been a great deal of noise about the plan unraveling, as the Alberta and B.C. governments slugged it out over the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, and as the election of carbon tax opponent Doug Ford as the new leader of the Progressive Conservatives in Ontario raised questions about the participation of the largest province.

The coming carbon tax showdown – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – March 20, 2018)

March 20, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Not so long ago, Justin Trudeau’s energy strategy looked so simple. It rested on a Grand Bargain. Canada would build a pipeline or two, and the citizens would do penance in the form of carbon taxes that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Everybody –environmentalists, the oil industry and right-thinking Canadians – would be happy.

Today, that bargain is looking mighty shaky. Opponents of Trans Mountain aren’t interested in it. Alberta’s Premier, Rachel Notley, will probably lose her job next year because she has delivered carbon taxes but no pipeline.

Her nemesis, Jason Kenney, is planning to abolish the carbon tax as soon as he beats her (as is likely). He points out that it has utterly failed to secure a social licence for pipelines. “Very expensive political theatre for Albertans,” he calls it.

Notorious Russian troll farm targeted Trudeau, Canadian oil in online campaigns – by Alexander Panetta (Canadian Press/Toronto Star – March 19, 2018)

March 20, 2018

https://www.thestar.com/

WASHINGTON—The same Russian online troll farm that meddled in the American presidential election has also taken swipes at Canadian targets, including oil infrastructure and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Evidence is embedded in data made publicly available through investigations in the United States, where congressional probes have been examining Russian information campaigns following the 2016 presidential election.

One report from a Republican-led committee in the House of Representatives released this month said the St. Petersburg troll factory, members of which now face criminal charges in the U.S., posted online about energy roughly half as often as it did about American presidential politics.

Russians have weaponized social media — but our governments and businesses remain oblivious to the threat – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – March 13, 2018)

March 13, 2018

http://business.financialpost.com/

The weaponizing of social media by Russians and others has afflicted the U.S., France, Germany, Britain and others. But there is no controversy about this concerning Canada — and it should be.

Consider the fact that the anti-development forces in B.C. won its election by a hair, and have disrupted the oil and liquefied natural gas industry in Canada, the country’s only engine of economic growth.

The Russians and others who have meddled to prevent resource development here for years should be drinking champagne and eating caviar as casualties pile up. Stoppage of Malaysia’s LNG project in B.C.; the Alberta-B.C. trade fight; blockage of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline, a legally permitted pipeline; and cancellation of TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East east-west pipeline.

[Australia Coal Mining] Against Adani? You’re against lifting the world’s poorest out of poverty – by Danny Price (Australian Financial Review – February 27, 2018)

February 26, 2018

http://www.afr.com/

Danny Price is managing director of Frontier Economics. Disclosure: Frontier has advised Adani on Australian regulatory matters.

For several years Adani Group has been progressing with plans to invest in a large coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee basin.

Once mined, coal will be sent by a railway, constructed as part of the project, to the Adani-owned Abbot Point port, from where it will be shipped to the Indian province of Gujarat, to fuel among others, the Adani Mundra power plant.

This power plant generates electricity for some of the poorest people in the world so they can have lighting to study at night and power for clean water. Reliable power is also crucial to attract industry so that people can have jobs to lift themselves out of poverty.

Polar bear battle in Toronto! It’s good science vs. climate do-gooders – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – February 22, 2018)

February 22, 2018

http://business.financialpost.com/

Two events next week juxtapose two conflicting conclusions on the current health and future for polar bears. Behind the science, there’s also a juicy personal clash

Coming next Tuesday to Toronto’s swanky Yorkville district, it’s the 2018 Polar Bear Showdown, an international display of conflicting views on the state of polar-bear science. Are the great, charismatic creatures, all white, cuddly-looking and dangerous, caught in the death grip of climate change?

At one corner in Yorkville, in the ballroom of the upmarket Four Seasons Hotel, Polar Bears International (PBI) will stage a grand, $15,000-a-table gala to raise funds to protect the allegedly threatened Arctic species from the ravages of our addiction to fossil fuels.

Sponsored by a klatch of corporate goody-two-shoes — a couple of Canadian banks, a major accounting outfit, The Globe and Mail — and filled with razzle-dazzle entertainment and good food, the purpose of the event is to mark International Polar Bear Day and draw attention to PBI’s science-based effort to sound a global polar-bear alarm.

The ugly pipeline war is no accident. It was the plan – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – February 9, 2018)

February 9, 2018

http://business.financialpost.com/

Wake up, Canada. The Trans Mountain constitutional meltdown is the product of an aggressive radical campaign by green extremists to rip up the economy

“The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that fossil
fuels will hold at 80 per cent of U.S. energy consumption through
to 2050. While the U.S.-based green militants and their Canadian
cohorts have successfully promoted the shutdown of Canada’s pipeline
development, American oil production hit record levels in January.”

The Canadian pipeline crisis is developing along the usual constitutional divide and within the tired context of party politics punditry. Will Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government use its federal powers to overrule the unconstitutional moves by B.C.’s NDP government? Will B.C.’s attempt to block the $7.4-billion expansion of the Trans Mountain oilsands pipeline to the West Coast lead to a trade war with Alberta’s NDP?

And what will the Liberals’ new plans, announced Thursday, to gut the National Energy Board’s power and responsibilities, and new environmental rules released this week to protect the lives of fish against human encroachment by pipeline do to the state of the federation?

Wake up, Canada. This is not another political game show about the powers and rights of different levels of government. Nor is it about ritual inter-party rivalries among Liberals, New Democrats and Conservatives. The Trans Mountain constitutional meltdown is the product of an aggressive radical campaign by green extremists to rip up the Canadian economy.