Imagine if you could run roughshod over the laws and be comfortable in the knowledge that you’d only get in trouble about one per cent of the time, and when you did, it amounted to a miniscule fine. What would you do? You’d probably behave like the oil companies operating within Alberta. In a recent … Continue reading Citizens on the backburner: it’s all about the oil in Alberta
Energy
Big ideas we’d like to see
When compiling this list, we asked ourselves: what kind of city, province and country do we want? What ideas would help get us there? This list is by no means comprehensive, but intended to start a discussion about where we’re going and where we should go. Have you got your own big ideas? Let us … Continue reading Big ideas we’d like to see
You are a slave owner: Andrew Nikiforuk on energy consumption
As the oilsands continue to expand — clearing forest, digging earth and pooling effluent — there’s more than just nature that is being shunted aside. According to journalist Andrew Nikiforuk, we’re also burying debates about what it all means in the process. And so, in his new book, The Energy of Slaves , he revives … Continue reading You are a slave owner: Andrew Nikiforuk on energy consumption
Staunching the flow: As Alberta reviews its pipelines, critics cry foul
On Thursday, June 7, approximately 475,000 litres of oil started pouring into the Red Deer River from a ruptured pipeline owned by Plains Midstream Canada. By the next day, Premier Alison Redford was on scene, eager to show she cares. Just over a month later, a coalition of 54 groups penned an open letter to … Continue reading Staunching the flow: As Alberta reviews its pipelines, critics cry foul
Oil and government
When Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), walked into a conference room in Kananaskis to observe the meeting of energy ministers from across Canada in July, he expected to find a seat in the section reserved for environmental groups, or concerned citizens groups. There was no such section. Looking around the … Continue reading Oil and government
Ethical oil and China
A great deal of attention has been paid to two pipeline projects — one that will see Alberta’s oilsands bitumen transported across the U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico (Keystone XL), and one that will run it through the Great Bear Rainforest in B.C. for shipment to Asia (Northern Gateway). The projects have serious implications, … Continue reading Ethical oil and China
Drew Anderson 