It’s Earth Day; today is the anniversary of a green environmental movement that began in 1970. The movement has grown from 20 million participants to over 1 billion people who are committed to the planet we all call home. Prior to December 1970, there was no legal way to thwart environmental polluters until Congress authorised the creation of the U.S.… [Read more]
A few weeks ago, I offered a principled case for the Keystone XL pipeline project and its eventual approval by President Obama. I stand by those opinions – and as I explain here, recent Alberta political pronouncements elevate my views from so much environmentalist digital compost to pure gold. Realpolitik is rarely pretty. My bottom line suggestion that ‘hey, until America evolves beyond its fossil fuels fixation, oil’s gotta come from somewhere, so why not your friends?’ may at first seem an affront to any ‘principled case’ claims.… [Read more]
Today, the Environmental Defense Fund relayed some information that should make all of us breathe a little easier:
The EPA has just announced historic new standards to reduce soot, smog and other dangerous pollution that spews from the tailpipes of our cars and trucks.
With every breath, these standards will deliver cleaner, healthier air to the lungs of millions of Americans, producing billions of dollars of public health benefits every year.… [Read more]
Over the past few months, the question of whether or not to build the Keystone XL pipeline (KXL) has become as divisive as the line its blueprints draw through the heartland of America. One side claims that the pipeline will be ‘game over for the climate,’ while the other asserts it will create jobs and give a much-needed boost to the American economy.… [Read more]
My digital pulpit north of Lake Ontario is no guarantee that brains or intellectual nuance drive every BNV offering forward, but there are elements of the ongoing Keystone XL debate that deserve fuller scrutiny, a discussion that ought to be advanced beyond shallow ‘dirty oil’ polemics.
Keystone is not divinely inspired environmentalism. It fails a number of smell tests – literally, if one passes close enough to Fort McMurray, the Alberta Oil Sands epicenter intended as the Keystone source our petro-industry holds dear.… [Read more]
Though not personally invested in this stock, Chesapeake Energy has always been intriguing to me nonetheless. The more one reads about this company, the more interesting this company becomes. Headed by Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy is a publicly traded company based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and its financial interests lie mostly in the midwestern United States.… [Read more]
I came across an interesting article yesterday in the Telegraph titled, “Climate change deniers ‘are either extreme free marketeers or conspiracy theorists.” Well, I read that headline with a fair degree of skepticism because it was exactly what I wanted to hear: that climate change deniers, like conspiracy theorists, aren’t quite in touch with reality.
The article was about a scientific paper titled, “NASA faked the moon landing — Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science,” which is due to be published in a psychology journal. … [Read more]
Part Two: Canada’s New BFF –China!
The last time out, I explained to America why China is such a swell new Canadian ‘Best Forever Friend’. The former Mao men have no compunctions about buying up other countries national resources, whether farm land in Africa or scoring an ever-greater stake in the gift that keeps in giving, the Alberta Oil Sands.… [Read more]
The Ballad of Canada’s Oil Patch (with apologies to the sainted Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and all fans of an old ’60s fave, ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’)
“Oil sticks to everything. It collects in eddies and sheltered areas away from the rushing current, and swirls metallic, glinting in the sun. It collects in clumps of dry roots and grasses, like slick, matted hair. Along the river, wild strawberries, clovers, and a cluster of wild roses—Alberta’s official flower— were all painted delicately in oil.… [Read more]
It seems bizarre that one industry, centered exclusively in one region, could drive national policy – economic, environmental, and social – in a country as large and regionally diverse as Canada. But that is exactly what is happening. If there is one unifying theme to the Harper Government’s ‘Omnibus Budget Bill’ C-38, it is the expansion of the Alberta tar sands (please don’t be fooled by their misleading re-branding as oil sands – the resource is thick, dirty bitumen, not like crude oil from conventional oil wells).… [Read more]
My involvement with the Keystone XL pipeline began around the same time the media started to cover the issue. I was arrested in front of the White House for protesting against the pipeline on August 26, 2011. Until the week before my arrest, I didn’t know much about what was going on. An oil pipeline? Aren’t those built, like, every day?… [Read more]
