Environment Archives - Page 5 of 6

4Jul

By Bob Ascah2 Comments

Agencies, Energy, Environment, Opinion/Research

Alberta’s environmental bills coming due. Who will Pay?

The release of The Big Cleanup: How enforcing the Polluter Pay principle can unlock Alberta’s next great jobs boom on Tuesday 29 June by the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project is an important next step in the Province coming to terms with its oil and gas legacy. The easy-to-read 40-page report comes complete with nuggets of information to jar government and industry policy-makers along with a dozen recommendations to minimize the costs to Canadian and Albertan taxpayers. Preliminary There is little doubt that Albertans have enjoyed the fruits of the periodic capital investment booms of the energy industry since the 1950s. These fruits included low unemployment rates, highest incomes in Canada, generous government services, low taxes, and Canada’s highest “standard of living.” Standard...

22Jun

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Agencies, Energy, Environment, Health, Politics

The times they are a’changin

Come senators, congressmenPlease heed the callDon't stand in the doorwayDon't block up the hallFor he that gets hurtWill be he who has stalledThe battle outside ragin'Will soon shake your windowsAnd rattle your walls… Bob Dylan On Thursday 18 June a remarkable event took place. The near simultaneous release of an Alberta Energy Regulator (AER)/Canadian Environment Impact Assessment Agency (CEIAA) joint panel rejection of the controversial Grassy Meadows coal project and a news release from Alberta's Environment and Energy ministers "respecting" the Joint Panel’s recommendations. The Thursday announcements followed declarations by federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson that all coal projects which produced selenium would be subject to federal review due to the environmental impa...

13Jun

By Bob Ascah2 Comments

Agencies, Energy, Environment, Government Finances, Opinion/Research

Exploring the Regulatory Maze (3): The Auditor General Reports…

The bizarre story of the Mine Financial Security program (MFSP) continues to unfold. In May, the Minister of the Environment and Parks, Jason Nixon announced a review of the program noting depressed profits in 2020 motivated the government to reset the rules in calculating security requirements. This meant that increased security requirements under the existing requirement would be reduced. Then on 10 June, Auditor General Doug Wylie released a report which focused on processes to provide information about government's environmental liabilities. The report unfortunately raises serious questions about the competencies of provincial officials at all levels as well as the failure of senior officials and ministers to accept responsibility for environmental cleanups. Wylie’s report addres...

30May

By Bob Ascah3 Comments

Energy, Environment, Government Finances

International Energy Agency- Bombshell Report

Until about five years ago the International Energy Agency was beholden to Big Oil. It is no more. Its blockbuster report dropped on an unsuspecting world on 18 May raises deep questions about Big Oil’s survival much past the next decade. The report of 223 pages entitled Net Zero by 2050- A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, contains four main chapters, four appendices, and six pages of references. With ESG investing in ascendance, Alberta’s regulatory system of setting security requirements broken, now there is considerable doubt that long-term bitumen reserves have the value they once had.. The IEA volume is organized in four parts: implications of country’s net-zero pledges; global pathway to net-zero CO2 emissions in in 2050; sectoral pathways to net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050; and...

12May

By Bob Ascah2 Comments

Banks, Environment, Opinion/Research

Mark Carney’s magnum opus: A Book Review

Mark Carney, the much-celebrated central banker from Canada has a new book entitled Value(s). This 600-page (with endnotes) book represents a much-awaited synthesis of his ideas from his days as bank governor, senior Finance official and Goldman Sachs investment banker. His return to Ottawa, appointment at Brookfield and earlier appointment as the U.N. Special Envoy for the Environment might seem like a crowning achievement but Dr. Carney’s career has probably not peaked yet. Naturally there is much speculation about his future relationship with the Liberal Party of Canada but it strikes me that his ambitions (and talents) are more global in nature. Carney is not what I would consider a conventional economist. His D.Phil at Oxford was entitled "The dynamic advantage of competition,” ...

18Apr

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Environment, Health, Opinion/Research

Exploring a regulatory maze

This post, the first of a series of articles dealing with the nature of regulation-making authority in Alberta endeavours to understand the breadth and complexity of regulation in various forms. This post was tweaked by a news release concerning a violation of the Environment Protection Enhancement Act. The series will investigate the complex nature of legislation and delegated regulation-making powers, the nature of enforcement, and the possible implications for society and the economy at large. Suncor pleads guilty On Friday 16 April the Alberta Department of Environment and Parks issued a press release stating Suncor Energy Products Partnership Product s Suncor Energie, S.E.M.E pleaded guilty to breaching legislation “relating to the release of hydrogen sulphide.” The event happened on ...

25Nov

By Bob Ascah1 Comment

Capital Spending, Economic Data, Energy, Environment, Fiscal History, Government Finances, Politics

Presentation to EQUS directors- 23 November

EQUS is a small, co-operative distributor of electricity to 12,000, mostly rural, customers. The organization is the product of a series of mergers of rural electrification co-operatives over the past two decades. EQUS employs about 100 staff with its head office in Innisfail. The presentation, provocatively entitled "Alberta's Crumbling Economic and Fiscal Foundation" builds on concerns about the future health of Alberta's economy in a world where international financial capital places more emphasis on renewable energy solutions. The presentation highlights the pivotal role of capital expenditures of the oil and gas sector which have driven the Alberta economy since 1947. Alberta's gross fixed capital formation (oil and gas, institutional, industrial, residential and non-residential bui...

10Oct

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Employment, Energy, Environment

Knowing a future?

An indirect effect of the “cashing-in” on virgin natural resources by the introduction of the new industrial technique with government support has been an indeterminate relationship between government expenditures and government revenue. Expenditures made on the assumption that revenue will return from various directions has been responsible for the incurable and dangerous optimism which characterizes government effort. On the whole, public enterprises to which government contributes have introduced an element of uncertainty in the financial position of the government and a degree of unwholesome inelasticity. Harold A.Innis, Problems of Staple Production in Canada. 1933, 64-65-emphasis added On Tuesday, 6 October Premier Kenney, Associate Minister of Natural Gas Dave Nally, and a phalan...

9May

By Bob Ascah1 Comment

Bankruptcies, Energy, Environment, Loan Losses

Follow the Money- if you can

Updated 13 May 2020 and 4 August 2020 In this post, I return to the receivership of Trident Exploration and the various "legal fictions" used including: Trident Limited Partnership, Trident Exploration (Alberta) Corp., Trident Exploration (Aurora) Limited Partnership I, Trident Exploration (2006) Limited Partnership I, and Fenergy Corp. Trident was a debtor to two provincial agencies: ATB Financial (ATB) and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo). The Creditors Trident was placed into receivership in May of 2019 and attracted considerable attention because of the large number of unproductive wells and its vast reclamation obligations. The 177 page affidavit of Yvette Kennedy, Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Stettler initiated the receivership process. AIMCo and A...

Federal Energy Program Finally Announced- Analysis/Opinion

20Apr

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Bankruptcies, Banks, Energy, Energy, Environment, Opinion/Research, Politics

Federal Energy Program Finally Announced- Analysis/Opinion

Belated Announcement On Friday, 17 April, the anxiously awaited federal program to support the oil and gas industry was announced by Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan (pictured). Details were minimal despite weeks of waiting. As anticipated, much of the money was directed at orphan well clean up in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The amount- $1.75 billion was substantial and included $75 million for the offshore sector. In addition, $750 million was allocated to “create a new Emissions Reduction Fund to support workers and reduce emissions in Canada's oil and gas sector, with a focus on methane.” The announcement noted that the measure will maintain about 5,200 jobs in Alberta alone. In addition, loans would be provided through the Business Development Bank to qualifyin...