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Written by Joan Russow
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Tuesday, 26 May 2020 05:20 |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Canadian Oil Service Sector supports the Emergence of New Canadian Geothermal Developers
Calgary, Alberta, May 26, 2020 – At the end of April, The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC), Clean Energy Canada and the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) joined together to establish an alliance with the existing geothermal industry participants to promote Canadian geothermal development and to create jobs for displaced oil and gas drilling contractors and oilfield service workers.
See the link for details on this Geothermal Alliance here.
Under such an initiative, Eavor believes Alberta could attract up to $4 billion in private and foreign investment capital, to create 400MWe of clean dispatchable power and eliminate 2,000,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, all the while eventually employing 5,000+ displaced oil service workers. Such a plan could kickstart a geothermal ecosystem in Canada that could lead the world and represent a clean sunrise export industry for the nation.
To rapidly scale a Canadian geothermal industry, however, will require an incentive plan that can attract new developers and participants to the market. Such an incentive plan will need to include Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) or their equivalent to provide guaranteed offtake at a reasonable price for the value delivered (no different than for any new power generating asset). The advantage of such incentives are that they are technology agnostic and let the market decide which technologies and developers are involved.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 May 2020 05:23 |
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Written by Joan Russow
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Monday, 25 May 2020 10:35 |
Crisis Hits Oil Industry in latin america
Mexico's state-run oil giant Pemex faces a difficult outlook due to the fall in international oil prices and the crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, which threatens its production and finances, in a situation analysed during the 29th La Jolla Energy Conference, organised online by the Institute of the Americas. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS
MEXICO CITY, May 22 2020 (IPS) - While it attempts to cushion the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the Latin American and Caribbean region also faces concerns about the future of the energy transition and state-owned oil companies.
These questions were discussed at the 29th La Jolla Energy Conference, organised by the Institute of the Americas. It was held online May 18-22, rather than bringing together more than 50 speakers at the institute’s headquarters in the coastal district of San Diego, in the U.S. state of California, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alfonso Blanco of Uruguay, executive secretary of the Latin American Energy Organisation (OLADE), said during a session on global trends and the regional energy industry that the changes seen during the pandemic will spread after the crisis and will be long-lasting.
“There will be structural transformations and we are convinced that most consumer behaviors will change after the pandemic. Demand will vary due to changes in the main areas of transportation and other energy areas. The effects on fossil fuel consumption will be strong and there will be a greater impact on renewable energies,” he said.
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Written by Joan Russow
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Monday, 25 May 2020 10:18 |
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For immediate release: May 25, 2020
Absolutely Unacceptable: Resumed Nuclear Explosive Testing
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons on May 23 unanimously adopted a statement condemning recent reports of White House discussions to resume nuclear weapons testing. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic Abolition 2000 had to take the unprecedented step of holding its AGM online, allowing participants from some 40 countries to join.
The statement (full text below) warns that resumed US testing of nuclear weapons would inevitably lead to resumption of testing by other nations. Such testing would, in any case, be in contravention of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, signed by the United Stated in 1996, yet pending entry-into-force.
John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and one of the statement's drafters said, "Testing of nuclear weapons evokes nuclear apocalypse, as in the days of US-Soviet brinksmanship. It must not be resumed. At the same time, we must recognize that the capabilities for apocalypse remain in place, and are being maintained and improved in the absence of nuclear explosive testing. This too must be brought to an end."
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Last Updated on Monday, 25 May 2020 10:24 |
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Written by Joan Russow
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Saturday, 23 May 2020 16:57 |
The Arkema chemical plant near Houston caught fire after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, forcing an evacuation.
In 2017, Hurricane Harvey soaked Houston with record-setting downpours. At the nearby Arkema chemical plant, flooding knocked out the power and disabled refrigeration systems that were cooling hazardous chemicals.
The chemicals decomposed and combusted, and the trailers where they were stored caught fire. More than 200 nearby residents were evacuated for an entire week.
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Last Updated on Monday, 25 May 2020 11:30 |
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Written by Joan Russow
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Friday, 22 May 2020 17:36 |
Image by Rachael Merrett.
As the oceans become quieter amidst the global pandemic, an application for seismic surveys off the West Coast of Vancouver Island threatens the recovery of endangered Southern Resident killer whales. This week, in response, a coalition of conservation groups has written to the federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans to inform her that approval of the application would be illegal under the Species at Risk Act.
Recently, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University requested a permit under the federal Species at Risk Act to conduct geophysical surveys in the habitat of the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales. The seismic survey will produce high-intensity sound from an array of towed air guns through Southern Resident habitat, including areas designated as critical habitat. With only 72 remaining, the Southern Resident Killer whales are endangered under the Species at Risk Act. In May 2018, the government announced these whales face imminent threats to their survival and recovery.
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Last Updated on Friday, 22 May 2020 17:41 |
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Written by Joan Russow
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Friday, 22 May 2020 07:50 |
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Bruce Power ordered to reveal prices
The Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner has ruled that Bruce Power and the Ontario Government must come clean on the cost of power from rebuilt reactors noting that “the public has a right to know what the electricity cost will be from the multi-billion Bruce NGS [Nuclear Generating Station] project as they are paying for it and will be locked into paying for it for almost 50 years.”
In her response to an appeal by Bruce Power of an earlier decision, Adjudicator Diane Smith acknowledged that the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has the power to suppress this information, but ruled that the public right to know trumped this authority.
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Written by Joan Russow
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Thursday, 21 May 2020 08:31 |
COVID-19 Has Blown Away the Myth About ‘First’ and ‘Third’ World Competence
JOHANNESBURG, May 15 2020 (IPS) - One of the planet’s – and Africa’s – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19.
For as long as any of us remember, everyone “knew” that “First World” countries – in effect, Western Europe and North America – were much better at providing their citizens with a good life than the poor and incapable states of the “Third World”. “First World” has become shorthand for competence, sophistication and the highest political and economic standards.
So deep-rooted is this that even critics of the “First World” usually accept it. They might argue that it became that way by exploiting the rest of the world or that it is not morally or culturally superior. But they never question that it knows how to offer (some) people a better material life. Africans and others in the “Third World” often aspire to become like the “First World” – and to live in it, because that means living better.
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Written by Joan Russow
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Friday, 15 May 2020 14:38 |
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Jamelle Bouie
By Jamelle Bouie
Opinion Columnist
May 8, 2020
Demonstrators take part in an American Patriot Rally on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing last month.
Demonstrators take part in an American Patriot Rally on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing last month.Credit...Jeff Kowalsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Most Americans support the lockdowns and want the government to bring the coronavirus under control before opening up the economy. But “most” is not “all,” and a small minority is eager to end all the restrictions now, even as the virus spreads and Covid-19 caseloads continue to grow.
A small faction of that minority has taken to the streets in vocal opposition to stay-at-home measures and the politicians responsible for them. They carry guns and wave Confederate flags and denounce virus mitigation strategies as “tyranny,” an imposition on their liberty to shop, consume and do as they please.
The vast majority of these protesters — like the vast majority of those who want to prematurely reopen the economy — are white. This is in stark contrast to the victims of Covid-19 (who are disproportionately black and brown), as well as those who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic (who are also disproportionately black and brown), as well as those who have been or will be forced to work — or work more — as a result of reopening (the service workers and laborers who are again disproportionately black and brown).
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Last Updated on Friday, 15 May 2020 14:45 |
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Written by Joan Russow
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Monday, 11 May 2020 19:36 |
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May 2020
This Solutions Statement was developed with input from more than
a hundred people representing dozens of community organizations,
in a collaborative policy-development process in April 2020
facilitated by Common Vision, Common Action.
Common Vision, Common Action is a grassroots initiative in
British Columbia's Capital Region, Coastal Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth Territory,
to create and implement a regional agenda for social and ecological justice.
To get involved or provide feedback on this Solutions Statement,
please contact us at contact@commonaction.
Preamble
The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of the private enterprise economy in
British Columbia’s capital region – how a temporary shift in consumer spending habits and
government policy can immediately result in unemployment and economic insecurity for tens of
thousands of working people in the region, and the closure of thousands of businesses.
The pandemic has also demonstrated enduring sources of strength, including the natural human
inclinations toward co-operation, care, compassion and the rendering of mutual aid.
Finally, the pandemic has demonstrated ecological benefits arising from reduced impacts from
human activity on the atmosphere and on fragile ecosystems, with substantial reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions (CO2), which contribute to climate change, and nitrogen dioxide
(NO2), which impacts air quality and human health. Natural ecosystems are already
demonstrating signs of recovery within the very short timeframe of declining economic activity.
2 As we look ahead to the post-Covid-19 recovery, and begin to consider the measures that
individuals, communities and public and private institutions can take, it is worth considering
retaining elements of the Covid crisis response on a steady-state basis, to respond effectively to
three major crises that pre-dated Covid-19 in BC’s capital region and beyond:
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 May 2020 15:39 |
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Written by Joan Russow
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Tuesday, 05 May 2020 18:42 |
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By Gregory Jaczko
The danger from climate change no longer outweighs the risks of nuclear accidents. Gregory Jaczko served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2005 to 2009, and as its chairman from 2009 to 2012. The author of "Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator," he is the founder of Wind Future LLC and teaches at Georgetown University and Princeton University.
Nuclear power was supposed to save the planet. The plants that used this technology could produce enormous amounts of electricity without the pollution caused by burning coal, oil or natural gas, which would help slow the catastrophic changes humans have forced on the Earth’s climate. As a physicist who studied esoteric properties of subatomic particles, I admired the science and the technological innovation behind the industry. And by the time I started working on nuclear issues on Capitol Hill in 1999 as an aide to Democratic lawmakers, the risks from human-caused global warming seemed to outweigh the dangers of nuclear power, which hadn’t had an accident since Chernobyl, 13 years earlier.
By 2005, my views had begun to shift.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 May 2020 21:57 |
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