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Russia killed off any doubt that it was using energy as a weapon by shutting down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Gazprom’s main conduit for natural gas deliveries to Germany, on Wednesday.
While the shutdown, ostensibly for “maintenance,” is scheduled to last only three days – we will see about that – it comes after the Kremlin-controlled gas exporter reduced Nord Stream’s flows by 80 per cent.
Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change. Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.
Energy Minister Todd Smith defended the procurement, made in the wake of last year’s IESO warning that phasing out gas-fired power plants before 2030 would result in rotating blackouts and higher electricity bills because alternate supply and transmission lines could not be built in time.
Saskatchewan is projecting a $1.04 billion surplus for 2022-23, with a large bump from non-renewable resource revenues projected. That figure is a $1.51 billion improvement from budget forecasts, which projected a $463 million deficit for the year.
“A strong economy and higher resource prices have meant a significant improvement in the province’s finances. That means we can balance the budget, pay down debt and help Saskatchewan people with the rising cost of living,” Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said.
Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change.
Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.
Canada is vast, with endless prairies, mountains and shield rock, cut through by rivers. But 140 years ago, Canada accomplished what’s known as the National Dream, building a railway across the land. Could Canada pull off something similarly ambitious today?
Of course, I’m not talking about building with slave labour conditions and without Indigenous consent, as the original railway was constructed. None of that is part of our world any longer. We have benefits agreements with land and rights holders, as well as amazing machines and skilled workers to do the heavy lifting in construction.
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Enbridge Inc. chief executive Al Monaco believes Canada missed a huge economic opportunity to supply the world with natural gas, when demand for the fuel started to climb.
Now, as Moscow’s war against Ukraine continues and Europe struggles to plug the supply gaps left by sanctions on Russian natural gas, Mr. Monaco says he is optimistic that Canada can help shore up the market.
BERLIN (AP) — Rising concern over the impact of a potential Russian gas cutoff is fueling the debate in Germany over whether the country should switch off its last three nuclear power plants as planned at the end of this year.
The door to some kind of extension appeared to open a crack after the Economy Ministry in mid-July announced a new “stress test” on the security of electricity supplies. It’s supposed to take into account a tougher scenario than a previous test, concluded in May, that found supplies were assured.
Big Oil is poised for a record-breaking US$50 billion profit in the second quarter, but the industry’s stellar performance could contain the seeds of its own decline.
The soaring earnings are direct result of the high energy prices that have stoked inflation, piled pressure on consumers, raised the risk of recession and prompted calls for windfall taxes. Amid this political and economic turbulence, shareholders may have to temper their expectations for rising returns.
The rich are choking off funding for any new fossil fuels in the developing world
The rich world’s fossil fuel hypocrisy is on full display in its response to the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the wealthy G7 countries admonish the world’s poor to use only renewables because of climate concerns, Europe and the United States are going begging to Arab nations to expand oil production, Germany is reopening coal power plants and Spain and Italy are ramping up African gas production.
So many European countries have asked Botswana to mine more coal it will have to triple its exports.
CALGARY – The pressing global need to slash emissions in the face of a growing climate crisis is driving renewed interest in nuclear power — and few places more so than in Canada’s oilsands.
While the idea of using nuclear power to replace the fossil fuels burned in oilsands production has been bandied about for years, some experts say the reality could be just a decade or so away. On paper, at least, there is more potential to deploy small modular reactor (SMR) technology in the oilsands region of Alberta than anywhere else in the country.
Ten financial actors with the most influence on the fossil fuel economy own 49.5% of potential emissions from the world’s largest energy firms, a recent study has found.
In a paper published in the journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, researchers from Canada, France and New Zealand take a deep look into the CU200, which are the 200 Carbon Underground firms that own 98% of global fossil reserves in the form of oil, gas, or coal.
Canadian dollar hasn’t gone up with oil prices like it usually does, complicating the Bank of Canada’s inflation fight
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said a surprisingly weak Canadian dollar is complicating his fight against inflation, and could result in higher interest rates than would have been necessary if the loonie was behaving as it has in the past.
The comments followed the central bank’s surprise decision on July 13 to increase the benchmark interest rate a full percentage point after the Bank of Canada‘s latest quarterly outlook predicted headline inflation was on track to crest eight per cent this summer, a startling number for a group of policymakers charged with keeping the consumer price index advancing at an annual pace of about two per cent.
At the end of the day, the cause of climate change is not fossil fuels themselves. It is the carbon emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels,’ says minister of natural resources, Jonathan Wilkinson
In the Financial Post last week, my colleague William Watson called for Canada to adopt a more nuanced view of the struggle between reducing carbon emissions and ensuring the lights stay on.
He offered up the example of Birgitte Nyborg, the fictional Danish foreign minister in the brilliant drama Borgen, who, having run on a climate change platform, brazenly shifts her party’s policy to support the development of oil in Greenland (albeit for reasons of personal political survival).
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to include natural gas and nuclear in the bloc’s list of sustainable activities, backing a proposal from the EU’s executive arm that has been drawing fierce criticism from environment groups and now looks set to trigger legal challenges.
As the EU wants to set the best global standards in the fight against climate change, the decision could tarnish the bloc’s image and question the region’s commitment to reaching climate neutrality by 2050.
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The European Union Parliament has declared that nuclear power and natural gas can be labelled as green for investment purposes, alongside wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.
Environmental activists are not at all pleased, saying including the two energy sources in the EU’s green “taxonomy” will only hamper the fight against climate change. Now the focus turns to other countries, including Canada, hard at work on standards for investments that fit with their own low-carbon transitions.
