Stelmach Tucks Tail Between Legs and Splits

Special Ed has announced he’ll jump on the short bus and split for Edmonton this afternoon while the gettin’s good.

The Alberta premier has decided to head for the foothills before his fellow premiers begin their summit on climate change tomorrow. Stelmach, whose otherwise modest little province churns out a third of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, has apparently been stampeded out of Vancouver by the representatives of every other province in the country.

Instead of explaining and defending his feeble greenhouse gas plan, Ed seems to have figured that what’s good enough for Dick Cheney is good enough for him and for Alberta and for Canada.

 

The Unstoppable Tar Sands

They’re Canada’s environmental disgrace, the oil recovery projects in the Athabasca Tar Sands, and yet the chances of anything being done to effectively clean them up are almost non-existant.

A CIBC report today suggests world oil prices will hit $150 per barrel within five years. Part of this is a tacit acknowledgement of the “peak oil” phenomenon and part is blamed on delays in bringing alternative oil projects such as Tar Sands expansion on line. The report warns Canadians to brace themselves for $1.50/litre pump prices.

Before you start thinking that the answer to all your problems is to dump that SUV for a fuel-efficient compact (although that is a good idea), remember that we’re an oil-based economy. Higher oil prices are going to find their way into your wallet at every turn whether you’re at an airline ticket counter or the produce aisle in your grocery store or laying in your winter stock of heating oil. Pretty much everything you buy is going to have some form of transportation cost premium worked into the price.

For those already struggling on fixed incomes, life could become a real bitch. Lots of money is going to be made in Canada but our government, by defunding itself through tax cuts, is making sure that there won’t be much left lying around for the truly needy. It’s a trick they’ve learned from their American Idols in the White House and Congress.

So, since there’ll be no stopping Tar Sands expansion and that bitumen is going to become vastly more profitable, where is all this clean technology Big Oil has been bragging about for years now? How’s that carbon sequestration project coming anyway? Harpo’s claimed Canada is going to be a “clean” energy superpower. Okay, show us the goods Steve.

Carbon sequestration is turning out to be a bit trickier and more expensive than was once believed and, let’s face it, Big Oil isn’t going to dip into its Tar Sands profits that far until Ottawa makes them do it and, even then, they can still count on Alberta to run interference for them for years before mandatory cleanup becomes a reality.

Meanwhile, how’s that Ford Excursion anyway?

 

Watch Out Alberta – It’s the Carbonator

The Alberta tar sands have never had it so good since they got their people into power in Ottawa but they haven’t got friends everywhere and especially not in California. The Christian Science Monitor reports that governments are beginning to say “no” to super-dirty oil:

“California has enacted new climate-change policies that make energy companies responsible for the carbon emissions not just of their refineries but all phases of oil production, including extraction and transportation. If that notion catches on – at least two Canadian provinces have already signed on to California’s plan – then the futures of oil-sand, shale, and coal-to-oil projects may look less attractive.

The reason: Extracting these alternative sources of oil requires so much energy that their “carbon footprint” may outweigh their benefits.

“‘As the US and the world move toward more controls on carbon to solve the problem of global warming, it is clear that the development of high-polluting fuels will incur a penalty and the support of and investment in such fuels will be a more and more risky business,’ says Roland Hwang, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

“California’s move came in January, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed a state executive order creating a new “low carbon fuel standard.” The standard gives petroleum refiners 13 years to cut the carbon content of their passenger vehicle fuels by 10 percent. In May, Governor Schwarzenegger signed agreements committing Ontario and British Columbia to adhere to California’s standard.”

Next up, the Governator is heading to Ottawa to wrestle the same deal out of our boss, the Garburetor, Stephen Harper.