1754 replies to this topic

[jonny]

Like it or lump it, the lack of any LNG success was a huge black eye on the Liberals that never stopped talking about how much they were going to grow that industry.  

 

Who knows if the NDP will pull it off but the bar is at zero so if they can get anything off the ground it will be a big win (or a big loss depending on your perspective).

 

I agree. The Liberals' failure was using the fledgling LNG industry as a political pawn by exaggerating the potential benefits of the industry and underestimating the risks. They essentially promised all of these wonderful benefits, when really, government has absolutely zero say in whether or not a corporation decides to go ahead with a project or not. [not to mention the carbon tax the Liberals implemented substantially damaged the oil and gas industry's willingness to operate in BC] 

 

But, assuming LNG Canada actually goes ahead, lumping the failure of the LNG industry to take off in BC as something the BC Liberals failed to do while the BC NDP "made happen" in a matter of a few months is far too simplistic. 

[jonny]

The point I’m trying to make is massive undertakings and major energy projects rarely follow a clean linear path. They can take a lifetime to execute.

 

Not in Louisiana or Texas where these projects receive state and federal approvals in a fraction of the time it takes here and have actually been built and are in operation today, despite their industry 'taking off' at the same time ours did (or at least tried to). 

 

Interestingly, Trump's recently announced tariff's on Chinese imports may actually help BC's prospects by raising the cost of any future US projects. 

[Mike K.]

Quite right, there those projects fly through. But in Canada we can't even build a pipeline to a neighbouring province in this day and age without a generation of controversy.

[VicHockeyFan]

Quite right, there those projects fly through. But in Canada we can't even build a pipeline to a neighbouring province in this day and age without a generation of controversy.

 

A pipeline beside the existing pipeline.

[jonny]

A pipeline beside the existing pipeline.

 

And the whole aim of the project is to export a product out of one of North America's largest ports in a region where lots of this same product is already safely moved around. 

[Mike K.]

...aaaaaaand the leader of the federal Green Party just got arrested at an anti-pipeline protest.

[VicHockeyFan]

Elizabeth May has been arrested at the pipeline protest.

[jonny]

NDP MP Kennedy Stewart was apparently arrested today for defying the court order. Elizabeth may was apparently violating the court order this morning as well. 

 

lol triple post by three different people. Nice. 

Edited by jonny, 23 March 2018 - 11:32 AM.

[Mike K.]

Lol, we've got all the bases covered.

 

In fairness VHF tipped me off about the arrest. I don't know how I managed to sneak in here before him, though. Must be the drugs hockey fans are apparently on nowadays.

[Jackerbie]

I don't think I've seen this here yet, but offers a very different perspective from the usual reporting on fossil fuel opposition in BC

 

 

As protesters in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland go berserk over tankers from the federally approved Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion, First Nations in the Northern Coast are suing governments for banning them.

The Lax Kw’alaams are among 30 First Nations that launched a GoFundMe campaign in January to challenge the tanker ban in court that has raised $33,000 so far — a third of its target. Other First Nations that support the Eagle Spirit oil pipeline and energy corridor, which requires tankers to transport Alberta oil to Asia, are expected to file similar lawsuits. http://business.fina...-oil-tanker-ban

 

A First Nations’ led $17-billion project to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast has put in motion a back-up plan to site its terminal across the border in Alaska to get around an imminent oil tanker ban in British Columbia’s northern coast.
 

Vancouver-based Eagle Spirit Energy Holdings Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Roanan Corp., a private landowner in Hyder, an old gold-rush town on the Alaska side of the Canada/U.S. border at the head of the Portland Canal, to locate the pipeline’s endpoint.
 

That’s where tankers could load Canadian oil and sail through the disputed waters of Dixon Entrance, claimed by both Canada and the United States, if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tanker ban becomes law, project chairman and president Calvin Helin said in an interview. http://business.fina...-town-in-alaska

[jonny]

The average Lower Mainlander or Vancouver Islander really has no clue what life is like in remote BC communities, whose economies often hang on by a thread of one or two industries/employers. The decline of the pulp & paper and sawmill industries has been devastating, especially to northwestern BC, where there's no mining or oil & gas industries to speak of.

 

FNs have been used effectively by the environmental activist side of things. The activists have really done a good job of controlling the messaging and getting the message out there that "FNs are opposed to oil & gas development". In reality, the 51 FNs along the TMPL route support the pipeline in some fashion. A lot of remote FNs rightfully see industry as their ticket out of the poverty cycle.

[rjag]

Also keep in mind the disproportionate number of public sector workers on the Island and Lower Mainland. A lot of this is driven by a large section who have no real concept of how important the commodity industry is and how the economy is intertwined with the resource sector. Heck I bet less than 3% of folks down here have ever been to the Peace or Dawson and even less have seen first hand Ft Mac....yet they drink the Koolaid while the US is now one of the worlds largest producers of energy.

 

I think they honestly believe that if they shut down KM that the world will consume that much less energy...I guess they forgot the old saying....Nature abhors a vacuum

[jonny]

I think they honestly believe that if they shut down KM that the world will consume that much less energy...I guess they forgot the old saying....Nature abhors a vacuum

 

Absolutely. If the world consumes less Canadian oil, it only means they are consuming more Venezuelan, North African and Middle Eastern oil - complete with propping up their corrupt, oppressive governments that have atrocious environmental standards, non-existent employment standards and inferior safety practices. 

[LeoVictoria]

I don't think I've seen this here yet, but offers a very different perspective from the usual reporting on fossil fuel opposition in BC

 

An "enthusiastic" environmental activist friend of ours unfriended and blocked us on Facebook for pointing out that quite a few First Nations actually supported Site C.    The narrative that the anti-site c group was trying to spin was that all First Nations were against the project and seeing the truth didn't sit well with him. 

 

It's an inconvenient truth for both sides that First Nations are not on one side or another.  Each one will support or oppose the projects they think are best for them.   It means that any large scale development crossing several First Nations lands is also going to be extremely difficult to ever get consensus on.   

Edited by LeoVictoria, 29 March 2018 - 08:15 AM.

[Mike K.]

Crown prosecutors are set to consider laying charges against Elizabeth May for contempt of court related to her protest at a TransMountain site in Burnaby.

 

May, Stewart and the other protesters first appeared in court on charges of civil contempt last week. They were accused of violating a court order to stay five metres back from the Trans Mountain pipeline construction site on Burnaby Mountain.

 

At the hearing, the judge recommended the protesters be prosecuted by the Crown, rather than in civil court as part of a lawsuit from Kinder Morgan. - http://www.cbc.ca/ne...today-1.4621340

[rjag]

Elected Politicians just like officers of the court and law enforcement need to be held to a higher standard. These are the primary lawmakers of our land and cannot be seen to be snubbing the very laws they are sworn to uphold.

 

I hope they get the book thrown at them...but it wont

[Bingo]

The National Energy Board says crude-by-rail exports from Canada set another record in June, rising to 204,558 barrels per day.

That's up almost three per cent from 198,800 in May and 86 per cent from 109,500 in June 2017.

In a report Wednesday, analysts at AltaCorp Capital linked growth in railway oil shipments to the wider-than-usual discount being paid for Western Canadian Select crude compared with New York-benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil.

The discount increase has been blamed on the difficulty in getting western Canadian oil to market because of tight pipeline capacity as three proposed export pipeline projects face ongoing delays.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ts-up-1.4795429

[Mike K.]

Holy moly...

The Trans Mountain Pipeline has been quashed by the Federal Court of Appeal which leaves the project in limbo.

“In a stunning blow, the Federal Court of Appeal has quashed the government's approvals to build the Trans Mountain expansion project — a major victory for Indigenous groups and environmentalists opposed to the $7.4-billion project.” - https://www.cbc.ca/n...peals-1.4804495

[spanky123]

Really sounds like the court just wanted to pass the buck. 

[Jackerbie]

Ironically, the sale was approved by KM shareholders this morning, shortly after the Federal Court of Appeal decision was announced.