Environmentalists on both sides of the Atlantic are aghast at the news the European Union (EU) is proposing to scrap a mandatory requirement to label tar sands crude as highly polluting. It’s a triumph of five years of lobbying by both the tar sands industry and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which […]
Campaign pushes for stiffer penalties in environmental disasters
A global campaign to make “ecocide” a crime under international law is an attempt to outlaw the worst kinds of environmental destruction. A grassroots movement called End Ecocide on Earth is seeking to have the wholesale destruction of ecosystems ranked alongside offences such as genocide and war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) would then […]
Oil sands product finds way into Europe
The European Commission released a proposal requiring energy suppliers to reduce the carbon intensity of their fuels by 6 percent by 2020 as well as disclose those products’ greenhouse gas emissions. That falls short of a previous plan that would have labeled fuels from oil sands processed in Canada and elsewhere as “dirty.” “It is […]
A new novel drills into Alberta’s oilpatch
Novelist Fred Stenson’s new book is “Who By Fire”. the main character engages in a real life battle that causes strife in his community, his family and is the source of his son’s constant guilt throughout his career in the oil patch. “It’s hard to talk about this novel without lapsing off into the issue […]
Impact of falling oil prices on Canada
Oil prices are coming down and analysts aren’t mincing words saying say it’s bad news for Canada’s oil-producing provinces. But there is a flip side because bad news for the drillers in this instance is good news for Canadian consumers, who should be able to get a respite from high gas prices. Brent crude prices […]
Comment: Oil sands love/hate relationship
Having spent seven years in my early career as an on-site executive of Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor) – Canada’s pioneer developer and first successful extractor of oil from this massive all-Canadian resource – I feel compelled to comment on the increasing tendency by many to criticize this economic crown jewel. Not one Canadian […]
Investigation called for into Alberta’s toxic tailings ponds
The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has found enough evidence to warrant an investigation into the Harper government’s failure to enforce the federal Fisheries Act, with respect to continuous leaking from Alberta’s toxic oil sands tailings ponds. Since 2010, the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Canada-based Environmental Defence, as well as three […]
Quest to sequester, a Shell Canada first
To paraphrase a famous observation, “Everybody talks about climate change, but nobody does much about it.” Indeed, media reports and scientific publications may be thick with discussion of this extraordinary environmental phenomenon but practical proposals for directly dealing with it are thin on the ground while full-scale initiatives are even more scarce. It is worth […]
Comment: Oil sands phase-out may be Canada’s greatest contribution to the world
The occasion of writing this column prompted reflection on my engineering career, in particular three critical junctures. The first was in 1970, when my teacher pointed to Northern Alberta on a map at the front of our classroom, declaring that the oil embedded in the soil there would be Canada’s most important contribution to the […]
Promoters of proposed Sarnia refinery launching study
Backers of a push to see a new $10-billion refinery built in Sarnia-Lambton, Ontario to upgrade oil sands bitumen gathered in late August to launch a pre-feasibility study. Clem Bowman, a former head of Imperial Oil’s research department in Sarnia who went on to play an important role in developing Alberta’s oil sands, returned to […]
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