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Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs

Brexit is Britain’s Rosa Parks Moment – by Peter Foster (Financial Post – June 28, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

One knowledgeable friend to whom I spoke about Brexit when I was in Britain recently said that he knew that the EU was doomed, but that he was going to vote to stay. Why? Because if Britain left, it would be blamed for the EU’s inevitable collapse.

That’s why it is important to refute the idea that Britain’s vote to leave the EU has endangered, or doomed, a fundamentally viable entity. The EU is a failed project because, to turn one of the favourite mantras of Eurocrats back on them, it is “unsustainable.”

The immediate problem for Britain is that the Scaremongers of Stay, who have spent recent months preaching disaster, now have to face the consequences of their alarmism, which unfolded in falling global stock markets, and a falling pound, on Friday.

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China’s nuclear war on coal – by Frik Els (Mining.com – June 23, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Beijing’s already cut coal miners working hours by 16% and plans to eliminate 500 million tonnes of coal capacity within just 3–5 years

After 13 years of rapid growth, China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. The country was responsible for more than 80% of global growth in coal usage since the start of the century.

Even these numbers were upped in a recent study by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) that showed energy-content-based coal consumption from 2000 to 2013 was up to 14% higher than previously reported at nearly 4.5 billion tonnes, while coal production was up to 7% higher.

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As Europe Drops Coal, Poland Embraces It – by Ladka Mortkowitz Bauerova and Maciej Martewicz (Bloomberg News – June 24, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The World Health Organization estimates that two-thirds of the European Union’s 50 most-polluted cities are in Poland, largely in the mining region of Upper Silesia, where the smell of burning coal lingers in the air.

Undaunted, Poland’s government is doubling down on coal. “Building more efficient coal power plants will get us better results in cutting CO2 emissions than building renewable energy sources like wind or solar,” says Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchorzewski, a member of the Law and Justice party, which swept to power in October with union backing after it pledged to preserve mining jobs.

Even as other European countries shun coal, Poland is still addicted, getting almost 90 percent of its electricity from it. That has more to do with politics and fear of job losses than with the inability to generate power from other sources.

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Japan Unswayed by Increased Pressure to Disavow Coal Support – by Chisaki Watanabe and Emi Urabe (Bloomberg News – June 14, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Japan, faced with increasing calls from environmentalists to phase out coal, is standing by its support of the fossil fuel, saying it will help developing countries adopt the best available technologies for coal-fired power plants.

Pressure to rein in carbon dioxide emissions is intensifying, especially after the Paris Agreement, a global deal reached in December to tackle climate change. Environmentalists have criticized Japan for being one of the biggest providers of coal financing among Group of Seven nations and for being a laggard in switching to cleaner energy sources.

In response, Japan says it’s helping to develop more efficient coal-fired plants that can cut carbon dioxide emissions. The Asian nation’s financing of coal-fired projects is also helping to improve energy security in countries that still rely on the cheap fuel, officials say.

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Ontario is fighting climate change the wrong way – Editorial (Globe and Mail – June 11, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Let’s start with the good news. The national debate over global warming has largely moved on from arguing over whether anything should be done to reduce carbon emissions, to debating how best to do it. This is progress.

More good news: Ottawa and provincial governments covering the bulk of the Canadian population – British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario – all agree with the idea of putting a price on carbon, as a way of discouraging the burning of fossil fuels. Making it more expensive to use carbon is the easiest and most efficient way to begin to lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

And now, on to the less positive news. Last Tuesday, Ontario released its “Five Year Climate Change Action Plan.” The Liberal government of Premier Kathleen Wynne could have simply brought in a carbon price and stopped there. The principle of taxing carbon has all-party support, from the Leap Manifesto wing of the NDP to Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown.

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Oil CEOs meet to plot new strategy as fissures within industry grow – by Claudia Cattaneo (Financial Times – June 10, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

At a private meeting at the Calgary Petroleum Club last Friday, 150 or so oil and gas CEOs and other business leaders met to discuss the future of Canadian energy. Most of the companies represented were small players. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the large industry association that is seen as being dominated by the largest companies, was not invited.

The general discussion was about frustration that Canadians are being played for fools by their own governments about the real potential and cost of renewable energy, leading to rushed decisions to transition away from hydrocarbons and meet greenhouse gas reduction targets, without a fulsome and honest assessment of the consequences.

“Why are we only looking at the impacts of oil and gas, compared to the benefits of renewables?” asked Michael Binnion, the president and CEO of Calgary-based Questerre Energy Corp., who convened the meeting.

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Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall warns the oilpatch is under siege by activists – by James Wood (Calgary Herald – June 8, 2016)

http://calgaryherald.com/

“Alberta has made their decision. I think the timing for another new national tax,
carbon tax or levy of some sort, is just wrong,” he said, comparing the situation
to a hypothetical new tax on vehicles being introduced when the auto industry
was in turmoil during the economic crisis of 2008-09….Wall said he isn’t
suggesting governments shouldn’t try to curb greenhouse gas emissions but he
downplayed Canada’s 1.6 per cent contribution to global carbon output.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall came to the heart of the oilpatch Wednesday to warn that the energy industry is under “existential threat” from environmental activists.

In a speech to the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada at the Petroleum Club, Wall slammed the idea of a national carbon tax and took aim at both the United States government for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline and other Canadian provinces for throwing up obstacles to energy transportation projects.

Wall, whose Saskatchewan Party was recently re-elected for a third term, said the energy industry needs defenders against “an ever-growing matrix of activists,” citing proponents of the Leap Manifesto within the NDP and the divestment movement that calls for companies and public bodies to shed their energy holdings.

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The false ‘choice’ of Kathleen Wynne’s high-cost, low-carbon Utopia – by Kevin Libin (Financial Post – June 9, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

“As economist Ross McKitrick has pointed out, even the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading light for climate-change scientists, has
suggested a point at which the economic costs of eliminating carbon are more
damaging to people and society than the climate impact from the same amount of carbon.”

Towards the end of the 86-page “Five Year Climate Action Plan,” officially released by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on Wednesday, is an artist’s representation of what the province is intended to look like in 2050. Designed like a screenshot of a progressive policy-maker’s utopian video game, there are rows of condos — no sign of any single-family houses — cladded with solar panels and tapping the earth’s geothermal energy for warmth.

Towering wind turbines spin overhead helping to power “low-carbon” businesses, bearing trite signs on their buildings like “Kleen Tech” or simply a logo of a green leaf. Commuters are whisked about on electric rail and electric buses.

You have to look closely to find the cars being refueled with ethanol and renewable electricity; they’re outnumbered by the bicycles.

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The economic fraud of Ontario’s carbon pricing – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – June 9, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

The Ontario government’s Climate Change Action Plan is apparently so devoid of solid rationale that Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals have resorted to using videos that manipulate nine-year-old children into making statements on climate science. Brief bits of intellectual child abuse, the main event on the province’s climate change web page, feature five little boys and five little girls declaring that climate change “sucks” and “it’s not like it’s fake or anything! It’s not like an April Fool’s joke.”

The abuse gets worse in a 30-second Ontario-sponsored commercial/video featuring David Suzuki speaking to a large audience of boys and girls, scaring the hell out of them with talk of “we’re in trouble and not enough adults are listening.”

Traffic jams and pictures of cute but vulnerable beavers and caribou flash across the screen.

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Revealed: Ontario’s ‘climate change action plan’ – by Robert Benzie (Toronto Star – June 7, 2016)

https://www.thestar.com/

Queen’s Park will start a “cash-for-clunkers” program to encourage motorists to switch to electric cars, subsidize free overnight electrical charging at home, and make garage plugs mandatory in all new houses and condos, the Star has learned.

Those are some of the 28 key measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in “Ontario’s Five Year Climate Action Plan 2016-2020” to be introduced Wednesday in Toronto.

The 85-page plan will also “increase the availability and use of lower-carbon fuel” to convince truckers to switch from diesel to natural gas, propane, or gasoline mixed with ethanol. That’s being done in conjunction with the Ontario Trucking Association, Union Gas, and Enbridge.

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Hemlo Mine reduces emissions by 24 percent, captures Canadian industry award (Barrick Beyond Borders – May 2016)

http://barrickbeyondborders.com/

Barrick’s Hemlo mine has been recognized by Canada’s Department of Natural Resources for its innovative energy conservation program. The northern Ontario-based mine received a Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation (CIPEC) Leadership Award for implementing a project that reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent and lowered energy consumption by 10 percent between 2013 and 2015. The award was presented at a ceremony Tuesday in Niagara Falls, Ontario, hosted by CIPEC through Natural Resources Canada and the Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium.

“Congratulations to Barrick Gold Corporation on their CIPEC Leadership Award,” says Kim Rudd, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources. “Their vision for responsible mining and use of new technologies to improve energy efficiency are cutting-edge. I commend them on their extraordinary Hemlo mine that is helping to drive down energy consumption, cost and emissions.”

Hemlo was able to drive down energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by optimizing its underground ventilation system, says Andrew Baumen, the mine’s General Manager.

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Lithium isn’t a bubble, it’s a fundamental change in energy usage – by James West (MidasLetter/Financial Post – June 3, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

James West is an investor and the author of the Midas Letter, an investing research report focused on Canadian markets.

Lately the tone of coverage in regard to the new bull market in lithium has turned cautionary, with a growing chorus of experts warning that lithium is going to be a “bubble just like other bubbles.”

But the price jump in lithium — catalyzed by statements made by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors in reference to an accelerated demand for lithium by his company, and certain unnamed Goldman Sachs analysts (“it’s white gasoline”) — is actually the result of a maturity in our collective acknowledged requirement to leave the hydrocarbon era in the dust.

The evidence demonstrating an anthropological influence on everything from weather patterns to ocean temperatures to aquatic biomassol impels our yearning for a better solution to the combustion engine and coal-fired power plants at the base of our energy consumption.

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Resolute Forest Products uses mafia laws to go after the eco ‘mob’ – by Peter Foster (Financial Post – June 2, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

All too often, corporations, concerned about the potential damage to their bottom lines from any “controversy,” kowtow to media-savvy radical environmentalists. Thus the lawsuit brought three years ago by Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products against Greenpeace for “defamation, malicious falsehood and intentional interference with economic relations” represented a rare display of business backbone.

Greenpeace is still trying desperately to avoid its day in Canadian court, but now Resolute, under its arrow-straight CEO Richard Garneau, has upped the ante. On Tuesday, the company launched another suit — against Greenpeace and STAND (the environmental NGO formerly known as ForestEthics) — under U.S. anti-racketeering laws.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) was introduced early last century, with both criminal and civil provisions, to deal with the mob; that is, a loose organization, or “enterprise,” with a pattern of activity and common nefarious purposes, such as extortion. That is exactly what Resolute is alleging of Greenpeace.

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While Canada dithers, the world shops elsewhere for energy – by Gary Lamphier (Edmonton Journal – May 31, 2016)

http://edmontonjournal.com/

Eventually, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government will have to stop talking out of both sides of its mouth and make some tough decisions on whether to support new oil pipelines or liquefied natural gas projects.

Although the Selfie King’s extended political honeymoon is starting to ebb — witness the blowback over his tough guy act in Parliament two weeks ago — we’re no closer to a final decision on key energy infrastructure projects than we were when Trudeau was elected in October.

This isn’t a fresh observation, of course. Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson, among others, has chronicled the Trudeau regime’s chronic aversion to decision-making, and its affection for seemingly endless consultation and protracted regulatory reviews.

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Kathleen Wynne Ridiculed By Wildrose Party During Visit To Alberta Legislature – by Dean Bennett (Huffington Post – May 27, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

“Currently Ontario has the largest subnational sovereign debt
on the planet,” Fildebrandt told the house. “They’re now even
receiving equalization payments. It’s an example of what happens
when a government fails to get its spending under control.”

The Canadian Press – EDMONTON — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne came to Alberta to talk environment but instead found herself publicly ridiculed on the floor of the legislature as the leader of a failed, debt-ridden enterprise.

As Wynne looked on from the Speaker’s gallery during question period Thursday, the opposition Wildrose party demanded to know why Wynne, a Liberal, was invited while right-centrist and next-door-neighbour Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall was not.

“Invite Premier Wall here! Invite Premier Wall,” Wildrose finance critic Derek Fildebrandt shouted at Premier Rachel Notley as she tried to answer a question.

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