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Ongoing efforts to oppose nuclear power in Quebec and New Brunswick.
energy
The energy crunch looms closer, even the oil barons are noticing
The question is worldwide, but it's also intimately local: how close are we to the big crimp in all our driving and flying and inefficient, electronic gizmo-infested houses?
How close to having to pay sharply more for everything, including food? How close to having to traumatically change the wastrel ways and infrastructures (notably urban sprawl) we've built up over the past 50 years of cheap oil? When are we going to get serious about preparing for the inevitable?
The question is raised by the upset in Libya, which provides two per cent of the world's oil. How can two per cent drive oil prices up so sharply? Yes there's speculation, hoarding and panic, but oil supply is that tight. It's coming anyway, and these hiccups are just reminders.
Doing energy policy right in Nova Scotia
We should ban these outside energy experts. Every time one shows up at a Utility and Review Board hearing to remind us how muddled our energy practices are, it makes us look bad. This time it's about the planned $200-million-plus wood-burning power plant at Port Hawkesbury.
As if it wasn't enough that the project will devastate the forest even more than it already is, that burning wood is apparently as bad as burning coal and won't reduce greenhouse gas, and that a similar plant in New England was apparently built for half the projected cost, along comes U.S. renewable energy consultant Barry Sheingold to tell us that Nova Scotia Power Inc. hasn't done its homework on the project.
The oil price-loonie transmission mechanism
The most interesting comments from Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney last week, in releasing the Bank's semi-annual Monetary Policy Report, dealt with the relationship between the price of oil and the Canadian currency. The Globe and Mail reported Carney as publicly questioning why currency traders automatically presume such a direct link between the loonie and the world oil price. After all, he accurately pointed out, Canada produces a lot more than just oil.
April 4, 2012 |
Earth Hour is more than just switching off lights for one hour once a year. It is meant to raise awareness about climate change issues, which continue to worsen.
Pushing back on the nuclear path: Part 2
Part 1 of Pushing back on the nuclear path outlined three post-Fukushima nuclear battles in Ontario. They were the campaigns to stop the construction of two new reactors at Darlington Station, the life extension of 10 more reactors in Ontario, and efforts to prevent economically desperate communities in Northern Ontario from becoming dumping grounds for Canada's radioactive waste.
In this final part, we're headed to Eastern Canada to outline the ongoing efforts to oppose nuclear in Quebec and New Brunswick.
Point Lepreau: Down the re-furbishment rabbit hole
