Tag Archives: oilsands

Peter Foster: Don’t mention renewables

Germany is still hurtling into the renewables cul-de-sac Continue reading

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Peter C Glover: Whatever Happened to Peak Oil?

Why are peak oil-ers like Jehovah’s Witnesses? Answer: When the definitive JW prediction of the ‘Day of Wrath’ failed in 1914, they did what false prophets have done in every generation: shifted the goalposts (to 1975 in the case of JW’s – and wrong again). It’s what false prophets do to save face, enabling them to keep fleecing the inherently gullible. Peak-oilers do likewise. Continue reading

Nation’s First Tar Sands Mine Stirs Water, Environmental Fears Out West

A Canadian company opens a test pit in Utah and could be running a sizeable mine by early 2014. But is there enough water to support the industry? Continue reading

Is the era of oil nearing its end?

The handwringing about running out of hydrocarbons is really quite absurd. The Fisher-Tropsch process is not particularly efficient nor economical but it is perfectly serviceable. In other words the coal resources we have can keep us supplied with liquid fuels for centuries to come. More efficient processes sourcing hydrogen from natural gas rather than water could be developed (they are known to work but no one has yet scaled them up to try industrial-scale CTLs, as far as I know), so the bottom line is that we have ample hydrocarbons for centuries to come. ‘Peak hydrocarbon’ is just not on the horizon nor in the foreseeable future. Continue reading

Stephen Maher: Critics of climate change are losing their PR battle

University of Calgary Prof. Barry Cooper wrote a funny piece for the Calgary Herald on Tuesday, in which he humorously derided British Columbians for their opposition toward a pipeline that would carry Alberta bitumen to the B.C. coast. Continue reading

The Coming Oil Boom

Forget America’s fiscal cliff, Europe’s currency troubles or the emerging-markets slowdown. The most important story in the global economy today may well be some good news that isn’t yet making as many headlines — the coming surge in oil production around the world. Continue reading

John Merline: Do Greens Have A None-Of-The-Above Energy Policy?

Two environmental groups in April filed suit to block an energy project they said would seriously harm the local ecosystem. Continue reading

Bakken Crude and Canadian Oil Sands in Battle for Space on U.S. Pipelines

Dispute between Enbridge and small U.S. pipeline operator offers glimpse of the industry’s future as North Dakota oil booms. Continue reading

Oilsands lobby group accuses Tides Canada of ‘laundering’ money

An oilsands industry lobby group with links to the Harper government is urging the Canada Revenue Agency to consider whether Tides Canada, a Vancouver environmental and social justice organization, has violated Canada’s charity laws. Continue reading

Ivo Vegter: It’s A Disaster That ‘Peak Oil’ Is Not A Disaster

It seems that betting against the “consensus” of left-wing academics, regulatory-state bureaucrats and anti-capitalist activists can be a rather profitable sideline. First nuclear power, and now peak oil. At the rate George Monbiot is changing his mind, we’ll all soon agree that the disaster of the peak oil non-disaster is not much of a disaster after all. Continue reading

Peter Foster: Not much to fear from CNOOC

The takeover in no way represents a ‘predator’ stealing ‘our’ oil

The proposed $15.1-billion takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by majority Chinese state-owned CNOOC has inevitably brought out the reflexive economic nationalists, wailing collectivists, fretters about “hollowing out,” champions of “national champions” and peddlers of muddled metaphors. Continue reading

Robert Bradley Jr.: Energy Freedom Bus Tour: Hitting the Open Road for Consumers, Taxpayers, and Common Sense

“We will take the vision for affordable energy, common sense regulation, and safe technology to the American people; then return to Washington D.C. to deliver the message — it’s time to free the American people from costly, unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy. It’s time for Washington to untie the hands of American energy producers and manufacturers, and free these job creators to put our country back to work again.” Continue reading

Keystone XL pipeline may threaten aquifer that irrigates much of the central U.S.

Jane Kleeb is a savvy activist who, Nebraska’s Republican governor once said, “has a tendency to shoot her mouth off most days.” A Florida native who moved to Nebraska in 2007 after marrying a rancher active in Democratic politics, she did as much as anyone to bring the massive Keystone XL crude oil pipeline to a halt last year. Continue reading

Art Horn: Will The Rising Oceans Be Our Downfall?

The night was almost four years ago. Candidate Obama had defeated John McCain. This victory was to introduce a new and magnificent period of “hope and change” to America. The bad old Republicans and their money grubbing ways had been swept into the past. The changes to come would be breathtaking! There would be so much hope and so much change that, according to the new President his election signaled that “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”. Continue reading

Obama Handed the Ball to China When he Rejected Keystone XL

US dreams of energy security involve the easy access to abundant oil and gas sources both domestically, and also from its neighbours. Continue reading

Canada needs energy diversity: federal documents

A dependence on fossil fuel resources is making the country vulnerable to a planetary “mega trend” toward low-carbon energy that “will affect the whole of Canada’s economy,” Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was told in newly released internal briefing notes.

What makes them think “low-carbon” is anything but a flash in the pan? Global warming hysteria looks increasingly desperate and ridiculous and more carbon resources are coming online by the day. Carbon-dense power will be with us for decades if not centuries yet. Continue reading

President Obama’s Energy Outlook Is Far Too Sunny

The administration refuses to increase the amount of federal land open to oil and gas drilling. But it is happy to unlock public land for another energy source. It just happens to be one that doesn’t work well. Continue reading

“Hockey stick” climate scientist challenges Keystone XL pipeline

Looks like Mikey has been tallying up what Jim’s been raking in in “environmental prizes” and wants a piece of the action. Wonder if he’ll start getting himself arrested outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Continue reading

Energy: All for All of the Above

While the campaign was launched as prices at the pump were creeping upward to the highest levels in years, AEA spokesman Benjamin Cole said the group’s theme of energy affordability continues to resonate with voters, even as oil prices have stabilized in the subsequent months. “The fact is, gas is twice what it was in 2009 when President Obama took office,” he said. “The fact is, the sources he’s invested in are the most expensive.” Continue reading

Debate: Bill McKibben vs. Alex Epstein on Fossil Fuels

On November 5, I will be debating Bill McKibben, considered “world’s leading environmentalist” by some, on the proposition: “Fossil fuels are a risk to the planet.” I will be arguing that fossil fuels dramatically improve the planet for human beings. Continue reading