All posts by Canadian Press

Explosion, flames as CN oil train derails in Alberta

Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas
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Explosion, flames as CN oil train derails in Alberta
RCMP photo

GAINFORD, Alta. – Firefighters who were battling a major blaze Saturday after a CN tanker train derailed west of Edmonton have decided to withdraw and wait for the flames to burn themselves out.

Jackie Ostashek, a spokeswoman for Parkland County, says fire crews were waiting outside a perimeter about a kilometre-and-a-half away from the derailment scene near the hamlet of Gainford.

Ostashek said one of the tankers carrying liquefied petroleum gas was flaring as pressure inside the container built up and vented from a valve, but flames were dying down again after the pressure was released. Officials said that’s the way the safety mechanisms in the tankers are supposed to work.

Thirteen cars — four laden with petroleum crude oil and nine carrying liquefied petroleum gas — came off the tracks around 1 a.m. local time and about 100 people in Gainford were evacuated.

Witnesses said they heard an explosion and saw a fireball when the train derailed and another official with Parkland County said there was a second smaller explosion later in the morning.

No injuries were reported.

Huge, Huge Fireball

One resident told CHED radio he heard a series of crashes moments before seeing a “huge, huge fireball” shoot into the sky.

“The fireball was so big, it shot across both lanes of the Yellowhead (Highway) and now both lanes of the Yellowhead are closed and there’s fire on both sides,” said the witness, identified only as Duane.

CN spokesman Louis-Antoine Paquin said three cars containing gas were leaking and on fire.

Paquin said the train was travelling to Vancouver from Edmonton.

The area, which is about 80 kilometres from Edmonton, remained under a state of emergency. Travel was restricted and news media were being kept far back.

“We’re going to let it burn itself out”

Parkland County’s fire chief, Jim Phelan, said the tanker that was flaring was venting gas through valves, which it and the other cars were designed to do. He said it was unlikely there would be any further explosions.

“We’re going to let it burn itself out,” Phelan said. “The best thing to do now is allow the product to be consumed.”

He expected that could take about 24 hours.

Devon Cadwell, who lives on a ranch just outside Gainford, said he was sleeping when he heard the first explosion. He gathered his animals into a corral and got ready to leave. Said Caldwell:

[quote]It was a huge boom and the house started shaking.

[/quote]

Residents evacuated

Gainford resident Glenda Madge said she and her husband were jolted awake at 3 a.m. by pounding on their door. It was the fire department telling them they had to get out immediately.

“They were waiting outside for us, so we had to hurry up and get dressed and grab whatever we could — medication that my husband is on,” Madge said, speaking by phone from a hotel in Entwistle about 20 minutes’ drive from Gainford.

Madge said that when she reached an evacuation centre in Entwistle, she and her neighbours were talking about events earlier this year in Lac-Megantic, Que., where a train derailment and explosion killed 47 people.

“It was a little scary,” Madge said, noting she felt lucky that no one appeared to have been hurt in this derailment.

At one point, Madge said officials were going to allow residents to be escorted back to their homes to pick up additional medication and pets. But she said after the second explosion they were told to turn around and go back to Entwistle.

Sara Jensen, the community development co-ordinator with Parkland County, said about half a dozen Gainford residents were being taken back to the community and were in a safe zone when the second blast was heard.

Phelan said that explosion was smaller and was actually the result of pressure venting from one of the burning cars.

“There was a little pop,” Phelan said.

Jensen said people in Entwistle got up early to open restaurants for the evacuees. A gas station was also opened early so Mounties and other emergency officials could get fuel.

“It’s a good rural environment where people support each other,” Jensen said.

“Everyone’s either in bed or being fed.”

The Transportation Safety Board was sending investigators to the scene.

Parkland County’s second oil train derailment

Carson Mills, a spokesman for Parkland County, noted that it was in Parkland County that more than 40 cars of a CN Rail train derailed in 2005, spilling 800,000 litres of bunker oil and wood preservative into Wabamun Lake.

— With files from CHED Radio

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Greenpeace activists block oil pump at Kinder Morgan terminal

Greenpeace activists block oil pump at Kinder Morgan terminal

Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers
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Greenpeace activists block oil pump at Kinder Morgan terminal

BURNABY, B.C. – Greenpeace protesters have set up a blockade at the Kinder Morgan oil pumping facility in Burnaby, B.C.

Spokesman Peter Louwe says two protesters have climbed onto the oil pumping mechanism and 14 other demonstrators are also on the scene and have unfurled a banner.

Louwe says the action began at around 7 a.m. and the protesters intend to stay until they have sent a message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that expansion of oil pipelines is not acceptable.

The Kinder Morgan facility is the west coast terminus of the Trans Mountain pipeline that carries Alberta bitumen from the Edmonton area, across southern British Columbia to port just east of Vancouver in Burrard Inlet, for shipment overseas.

Kinder Morgan has applied to expand the pipeline to nearly triple its capacity from 300,000 barrels a day to 890,000.

See Vancouver debate on Kinder Morgan’s expansion proposal.

 

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Clark, Redford getting closer on Enbridge, energy export plans?

Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Western Canada
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Clark, Redford getting closer on Enbridge, energy export plans?
B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Alberta’s Alison Redford (photo: Dan Riedhuber/Reuters)

VICTORIA – British Columbia Premier Christy Clark and Alberta’s Alison Redford have appointed a team of senior bureaucrats to develop an energy export plan, barely a year after a high-profile disagreement over the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline strained the two leaders’ relationship.

Clark and Redford are scheduled to publicly discuss the progress of the joint energy plan on Nov. 5 in Vancouver following the Alberta premier’s address to the city’s Board of Trade. A final report is due on Dec. 31.

Enbridge clash

The premiers are attempting to move past their very public clash over the Northern Gateway pipeline, which was the subject of a meeting in Calgary last October that Clark later described as “frosty.”

Clark had insisted the project must meet a series of conditions, including strict environmental standards and assurances that B.C. would receive a “fair share” the economic benefits, to win her approval, which prompted Redford to suggest Clark was attempting to pick Alberta’s pockets with demands for extra royalties.

“Frosty” relationship warming?

But a joint statement issued Tuesday was the latest sign that relations between the two premiers are warming. This past June, Clark and Redford met in Kelowna, B.C., and while they didn’t mention the Northern Gateway project, they announced the creation of a working group to focus on skills training, immigration and economic growth.

“In creating the working group, B.C. and Alberta identified the shared goals: opening new markets and expanding export opportunities for oil, gas and other resources,” and, “creating jobs and strengthening the economy of each province and Canada through the development of the oil and gas sector,” said Tuesday’s joint statement.

Clark and Redford both declined interview requests on Tuesday.

Alberta-B.C. working group

The Alberta-B.C. working group, jointly chaired by deputy ministers from both provinces, has been given a mandate to share information, collaborate on policy and address federal gaps on energy issues.

The terms of reference include five policy areas that mirror Clark’s five conditions.

The group has been directed to consult with First Nations; explore other resource transportation options, including rail; look at how to promote resources; and study ways to reduce the potential impact of oil spills. It is also to examine how to make sure both provinces receive a fair share of resource revenues.

“It is not about royalty sharing, but rather about receiving a fair share of the economic and fiscal benefits of a proposed heavy oil project that reflects the levels, degree and nature of the risk borne by B.C., the environment and taxpayers,” said the premiers’ statement.

[quote]Given the risk to B.C. from land-based and coastal bitumen spills, B.C. does not believe an equitable distribution exists for fiscal benefits. This imbalance must be addressed.[/quote]

First Nations remain opposed to Enbridge

Coastal First Nations spokesman Art Sterritt said northern B.C.’s aboriginals are opposed to seeing a pipeline built along their traditional territories and believe the risk of an oil tanker spill is too great to even contemplate. The Coastal First Nations group, which represents most coastal aboriginal nations from Rivers Inlet in southern B.C. to the Alaska border in the northwest, has been a staunch opponent of the pipeline.

Sterritt said his group intends to hold Clark’s Liberals to the government’s previous statements that the Northern Gateway pipeline, as it is currently proposed, fails to adequately address the potential environmental risks.

“They don’t have the technology,” Sterritt said from Terrace, B.C.

“The geography is not very friendly and there isn’t anybody in the north that wants the project. I don’t know how they are going to make it work.”

Sterritt said the possibility of transporting Alberta oil to the B.C. coast by rail, an option that will be considered by the working group, “boggles the mind.”

He warned that much of B.C.’s rain infrastructure runs over mountains and along rivers, meaning it wouldn’t change the potential risk of a spill.

Dix: Clark watering down “5 conditions”

The leader of B.C.’s Opposition New Democrats, Adrian Dix, said it appears the joint working group’s terms of reference are a watering down of Clark’s original five conditions.

Dix said the working group’s mandate appears more focused on ensuring energy projects like pipelines proceed as opposed to ensuring environmental safety and meaningful consultations with First Nations.

“It’s apparent on the B.C. side where their priorities are,” he said.

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Merkel took BMW money before putting brakes on tougher emissions cuts

Merkel took BMW money before putting brakes on EU emissions cuts

Carbon Tax - Cap and Trade, Climate Change, International, Politics
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Merkel took BMW money before putting brakes on tougher emissions cuts
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gets a tour of new BWW designs at a recent auto show

BERLIN – Germany blocked the introduction of tougher European Union emissions rules for cars shortly after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party received a large donation from three major BMW shareholders, according to newly released parliamentary records.

Opposition parties on Tuesday cited the donation as evidence of an uncomfortably close relationship between Merkel and German automakers.

Following weeks of German lobbying, the environment ministers of the EU’s 28 nations agreed Monday to seek further tweaks to the proposed emissions rules that come into force in 2020.

Just days earlier, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union had received 690,000 euros ($935,900) from Susanne Klatten, her mother Johanna Quandt and brother Stefan Quandt. The Quandt family holds almost half of the shares in the Munich-based BMW, whose luxury cars on average emit well over the proposed limit of 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre.

Merkel’s party insisted there was no link between donation and the pressure that her government put on other European countries to hold off on the emissions deal.

“The Quandt family has supported the CDU with private donations for many years, independently of whether the CDU was part of the government or in opposition,” the party said in a statement.

The opposition Left Party noted that the decision to block the new emissions rules would directly benefit German automakers such as Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW.

“The suspicion that this corporation bought itself a favourable policy is hard to dismiss,” it said.

The auto industry and its suppliers employ some 740,000 people in Germany.

The Green Party, which is one of two parties holding talks with the CDU to form a coalition government following last month’s election, also criticized the donation, saying it harmed Germany’s image abroad.

In a compromise deal in June, national EU governments and the European Parliament agreed to force carmakers to further slash their average carbon dioxide emissions from a 2015 target of 135 grams.

Germany wants to delay the introduction of the new emissions limit until 2024.

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Ontario Liberals gut environmental protections for Ring of Fire

Ontario Liberals gut environmental protections for Ring of Fire

Canada, Politics
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Ontario Liberals gut environmental protections for Ring of Fire
Ontario Legislature

TORONTO – Ontario’s governing Liberals have “snuck in” changes that are dismantling environmental protections and could have “disastrous results” for the province, environmental commissioner Gord Miller said Thursday.

“Major” changes in last year’s budget give the government the power to hand over Crown land — which makes up 87 per cent of the province — and natural resources to private companies, he said.

Said Miller after releasing his annual report:

[quote]Why would they change it to allow the cabinet of Ontario, by regulation, to hand that responsibility over to an independent third party? It could be anybody. It could be any kind of corporate entity…There’s a lot of wealth, a lot at stake here.[/quote]

It’s “galling” that those changes, which should be of particular concern to northern Ontario residents, were shielded from public scrutiny, he said. They were in the 2012 budget bill, which is exempt from a requirement for the government to post environmentally significant decisions.

It’s opening the door to turning Ontario’s far north into “the Wild West,” Miller said.

450,000 square km, no environmental monitoring

There’s no formal environmental monitoring in the region covering 450,000 square kilometres, he said, despite intensive mineral exploration and development around the Ring of Fire — believed to be one of the largest chromite deposits in the world.

“Why are they changing the laws quietly, without public consultation, to allow this wide open exploitation with no rules?” Miller said. “What’s going on?”

Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti disputed the commissioner’s findings, saying the changes were posted publicly.

“It certainly wasn’t snuck in,” he said.

[quote]There was consultation with respect to those lands and those are not lands that are being turned over to private landholders. They continue to require all the environmental protection of Crown lands.[/quote]

The changes apply to the minister’s ability to delegate management of crown land to a third party, Orazietti said.

“Without these powers to delegate, we have no ability to allow a third party to help us manage Crown land. Let me be clear, in no way does this allow the government to sell off Crown land.”

Government: Changes “minor”

Orazietti said there were “minor changes” to permits that related to dredging and removing small vegetation that have “minimal environmental impacts.”

The Liberals also defended their work on the Ring of Fire, saying the government is working with companies and First Nations to address environmental concerns, infrastructure development and resource revenue-sharing.

“Realizing the full potential of the Ring of Fire region is an extremely complex undertaking,” Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle said in a statement.

“It’s one that our government takes very seriously, we need to get it right the first time.”

Budget cuts and regulatory changes

Miller’s annual report also slammed the cash-strapped Liberals for gutting the Ministry of Natural Resources through budget cuts and regulatory changes, which he says weakens important safeguards for provincial parks, at-risk species and hunting.

He warned that major industrial development could proceed almost unchecked, provincial parks are being turned into revenue streams and there’s no funding or plan to deal with invasive species like the emerald ash borer and Asian carp.

Cuts to regulations, staff and programs at the ministry are “short-sighted and regressive” and pose significant ecological risks, he said. It could have “disastrous results” for Ontario’s natural heritage and disrupt the way of life in the north.

“We’re talking about handing over this land to third parties over which we have no control,” Miller said. “So it’s profound change on the highest level.”

Ontario’s enforcement spending lower than other provinces

Ontario spends less of its total budget on natural resource management and environmental protection than five other provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba, he noted.

“When we start to treat nature and species like a bunch of widgets in a factory, we’ve completely lost sight of what’s truly important for our communities and our very identity as Ontarians,” Miller said in a statement.

Private industry benefits from these changes, said Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.

“Go to the Elections Ontario website and see who donates to political parties and you’ll see who benefits from these changes,” he added.

“Ridiculously low” extraction levies

The government should reverse cuts to the ministry by raising Ontario’s “ridiculously low” levy for extracting aggregate resources — which the industry supports, Schreiner said.

It’s 11.5 cents per tonne in Ontario, compared to 50 cents in Quebec and $2 in the United Kingdom, he said.

“The government’s failed to act and the opposition parties have failed to force them to act,” he said.

The Progressive Conservatives have promised to spur economic development by cutting red tape and repealing legislation that bans development in half of northern Ontario.

Tory critic Michael Harris said the government needs to “balance environmental protection with economic development.”

The New Democrats, who helped the minority Liberals pass the 2012 budget said it was “very sneaky” of the Liberals to put those changes in the bill.

“We were very concerned about the deregulation in that bill and we did as much as we could,” said NDP critic Jonah Schein. “We worked very hard and we still have massive concerns about what’s happening.”

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Water Contamination from Fracking- Jessica Ernst Releases Groundbreaking Report

Alberta court protects regulator from Ernst’s fracking lawsuit

Energy and Resources, Fracking
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Water Contamination from Fracking- Jessica Ernst Releases Groundbreaking Report
Environmental consultant Jessica Ernst on her land in Alberta (Colin Smith photo)

ROSEBUD, Alta. – An Alberta woman has lost a round in her legal battle against the contentious process of hydraulic fracturing.

Jessica Ernst launched a $33-million lawsuit against the Alberta government, the province’s energy regulator and energy company Encana (TSX:ECA).

She claims gas wells fracked around her property in southern Alberta unleashed hazardous amounts of methane and ethane gas and other chemicals into her water well.

An Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench judge has ruled Ernst can’t sue the regulator because under provincial law it is immune from private legal claims.

Ernst says she plans to appeal the ruling, and says the lawsuit against Encana and the provincial government will proceed.

In its statement of defence, Encana denies all of Ernst’s allegations.

“It is worrying that citizens are unable to hold the energy regulator accountable for failing to protect citizens from the harmful impacts of fracking,” Cory Wanless, a lawyer for Ersnt said in a release Wednesday.

Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping water, nitrogen, sand and chemicals at high pressure to fracture rock and allow natural gas or oil to flow through wells to the surface.

In his ruling, Chief Justice Neil Wittmann dismissed an application by the Alberta government to remove some other parts of Ernst’s lawsuit that involve the province.

Wanless says the Alberta government has not filed a statement of defence in the case.

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'Alarming' sea star die-off on West Coast

‘Alarming’ sea star die-off on West Coast

Ocean Health, Oceans, Species At Risk
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'Alarming' sea star die-off on West Coast
A dead morning sun star (photo courtesy of Jonathan Martin)

VANCOUVER – Last month, a diver alerted Vancouver Aquarium staff that he had found a number of dead and decaying sunflower sea stars in the cold Pacific waters of a popular dive spot just off the shore of West Vancouver.

Within weeks, the tentacled orange sea stars had all but disappeared in Howe Sound and Vancouver Harbour, disintegrating where they sat on the ocean floor.

And aquarium staff don’t know just how far-reaching the “alarming” epidemic has been, and whether this and other sea star species will recover.

“They’re gone. It’s amazing,” said Donna Gibbs, a research diver and taxonomist on the aquarium’s Howe Sound Research and Conservation group.

“Whatever hit them, it was like wildfire and just wiped them out.”

Population explosion preceded sea star die-off

The sunflower sea star population had inexplicably exploded in recent years. In some areas they were stacked several stars deep, and those conditions may have been ripe for disease, she said.

“We are seeing some babies, so we’re wondering if they will survive,” Gibbs said. “We’re hoping we get the natural abundance back without this overabundance.”

Other species of sea star — commonly called starfish — are also affected.

Jeff Marliave, the aquarium’s vice-president of marine science, said the collapse has been confirmed around the Defence Islands, north of Vancouver, and off the south shore of Bowen Island, where there is no longer any evidence of what was a huge overpopulation of the voracious cousins of the sea urchin.

“Where the population density had been highest in summer of 2012, on the western shore of Hutt Island, all the sunflower sea stars are gone from that area, with rivers of ossicles (a hard body part) filling ledges and crevices,” Marliave wrote in his blog.

Sea Star Wasting Syndrome

The aquarium has dubbed the epidemic Sea Star Wasting Syndrome.

Aquarium staff don’t know the cause because they have had trouble gathering specimens for testing, as starfish that looked healthy in the ocean turned up as goo at the lab.

The sea star die-off has killed thousands of the marine invertebrates, which can weigh up to five kilograms and live from three to five years.

The Howe Sound research team has heard from veterinarians and other marine experts that similar die-offs have taken place in Florida and California.

“We’re just not sure yet if it’s all the same thing,” Gibbs said. “They’re dying so fast.”

In July, researchers at the University of Rhode Island reported that sea stars were dying in a similar way from New Jersey to Maine, and the university was working with colleagues at Brown and Roger Williams universities to figure out the cause.

The collaboration came about after a graduate student collected starfish for a research project and then watched as they “appeared to melt” in her tank.

Like Howe Sound, the Narragansett Bay area where those starfish were collected had seen an explosion in the population in the previous few years.

“Often when you have a population explosion of any species you end up with a disease outbreak,” Rhode Island Prof. Marta Gomez-Chiarri said in a statement at the time.

“When there’s not enough food for them all it causes stress, and the density of the animals leads to increase disease transmission.

Unfortunately, once that disease is in the environment, it can be difficult to get the population back, she said.”

[quote]Diseases don’t just completely disappear after a massive die-off.[/quote]

Vancouver Aquarium staff are asking divers and other members of the public to help monitor the spread of the disease, and report any similar sun star deaths to fishlab@vanaqua.org.

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Note to Malaysian PM: $36 Billion LNG investment is risky business

Malaysian PM pledges $36 Billion for Petronas’ BC LNG plant

Energy and Resources, LNG
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Note to Malaysian PM: $36 Billion LNG investment is risky business
Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (photo: Mike Bell)

by Bruce Cheadle – Canadian Press

NUSA DUA, INDONESIA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Bali for an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit Sunday bearing what could be called a $36-billion vote of confidence from Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak sprung the “gargantuan” investment figure during a joint availability with Harper in Putrajaya, saying Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petronas has committed to construction of a liquid natural gas plant in British Columbia and the pipeline to feed it.

“I’m told that this is the largest direct foreign investment in Canada by any country,” Najib said, flanked by Harper following a formal welcoming ceremony at a sprawling new government precinct outside the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

Najib called it a “significant landmark decision” by Petronas, which last year spent more than $5 billion buying Alberta-based Progress Energy Inc.

Malaysian takeover of Canadian company prompted tougher rules

The Petronas takeover, and a bigger oil patch buyout by China’s state-owned CNOOC, prompted months of hand-wringing by the Harper government. It approved the deals late last year but at the same time introduced new rules that permit majority takeovers of Canadian companies by state-owned enterprises only in the most exceptional circumstances.

The policy change put a major chill on direct foreign investment in Canada by so-called SOEs, and analysts have recently begun questioning whether the Conservative policy shift is scaring off much-needed foreign capital.

Najib rode to Harper’s defence Sunday, calling the promised Petronas infrastructure investment a testament “to the level of confidence we have in the policies of the Canadian government.”

Harper’s reaction to the news was almost muted, by contrast.

“Look, we view the Petronas investments very positively and all the indications I have is that Petronas is looking at further investment,” said the prime minister.

“The government of Canada is very excited about that possibility, as are all those I’ve talked to in the energy sector.”

Confusion over Petronas’ whopping, new numbers

However the Prime Minister’s Office declined to provide any details of the promised $36-billion investment, referring reporters to Petronas for details. Provincial officials in B.C. had spoken in June of a $19-billion LNG plant and pipeline investment by Petronas, and it wasn’t clear Sunday where the whopping new total comes from.

Both Najib and Harper flew their separate delegations to Indonesia following the Sunday morning meeting in Malaysia.

Regardless, the announcement provides Harper a much-needed shot in the arm as he brings Canada’s trade and investment message to Bali.

Harper faces challenges on fossil fuel exports

Harper has been involved in an increasingly acrimonious and very public tussle with U.S. President Barack Obama over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to take Alberta bitumen south, and is meeting stiff resistance within Canada to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the B.C. coast.

The Conservatives have also failed to seal the major trade pacts they’ve been negotiating, and Najib appeared to confirm Sunday that the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, involving 12 Pacific Rim counties including Canada, won’t meet its year-end target for completing a framework agreement.

So Harper, who has prorogued parliament and will deliver a throne speech Oct. 16 setting out a new government agenda, needs some good economic news to bolster his case.

Najib was asked by a Malaysian reporter what guarantees Petronas had been given on its multi-billion-dollar Canadian investment “over 30 years.”

The investment has a long horizon, Najib agreed, adding he is confident that not only the current Conservative government would support Petronas’s Canadian involvement, but so would future governments.

Harper, who has never shied from throwing partisan jabs while representing Canada abroad, took the opportunity to take a swipe at both the Liberals and the NDP. He said Liberals have always approved any foreign investment “no matter what,” and that New Democrats “are ideologically opposed to investment.”

Tough balancing act on foreign takeovers

Harper said his government judges each foreign investment “on its merits” and called it a policy of “discretion.”

It’s a fine balance for a Conservative government that says it is courting Asian markets and wants to make Canada an “emerging energy super power” but has faced a backlash from its political base over foreign — especially Communist Chinese — state-owned enterprise takeovers.

The policy shift has not been welcomed in China, noted analyst Yuen Pau Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Malaysia, which has few state-owned enterprises, won’t much mind, Woo said in an interview — “they’re in the barn already” — but China has a host of state-owned companies looking to expand and Canada is not sending welcoming signals.

Harper said all western governments have some tough choices to make but that Canada is well positioned.

“Look, it’s no international secret that the rise of China and of Asia in the minds of all of us is likely to be one of the dominant realities of the coming century,” Harper said Sunday.

“Western countries certainly will have their place in the world — provided that we make good decisions.”

He said Canada must “avoid some of the pitfalls of other western countries,” without citing any foreign examples.

Budgetary and political gridlock in Washington has shut down the U.S. government and will prevent President Obama from attending the APEC summit here.

Najib graciously offered that Asia’s rise will be a global boon “and we believe that we should prosper together.”

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Billionaire Tom Steyer blames Harper's agressive Keystone lobbying for US govt shutdown

Billionaire Tom Steyer blasts Harper’s agressive Keystone lobbying

Energy and Resources, International, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics
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Billionaire Tom Steyer blames Harper's agressive Keystone lobbying for US govt shutdown
Billionaire Keystone XL pipeline opponent Tom Steyer (photo: Getty Images)

OTTAWA – An anti-Keystone XL pipeline crusader has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, suggesting Canada’s aggressive lobbying for the project played a part in the ongoing government shutdown south of the border.

Tom Steyer, a San Francisco billionaire who’s also a major Democratic party fundraiser, chastises Harper for saying he would not “take ‘no’ for an answer” from U.S. President Barack Obama on TransCanada’s Keystone XL.

In a question-and-answer session with the Canadian American Business Council last week in New York, Harper took a hard line on how Canada would respond if the Keystone XL project is rejected by the White House.

“My view is you don’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Harper said. “This won’t be final until it’s approved and we will keep pushing forward.”

Steyer took issue with those comments in his letter to the prime minister Friday, asking:

[quote]Have your government, your government’s lobbyist and/or agents representing TransCanada communicated with House Republicans about including Keystone in the original litany of demands put to President Obama?[/quote]

Steyer says in the dispatch that TransCanada is launching a new advertising campaign aimed at stakeholders in Washington, D.C.

“News of this advertising campaign comes in the context of House Republicans having closed down the U.S. government as well as threatening to oppose the extension of the country’s debt limit unless certain demands were met,” Steyer writes.

“Included in the original list of House Republican demands was that the Obama administration grant approval for the building of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The combination of the advertising campaign and Harper’s comments last week “raises the question of whether your office is working hand-in-hand with TransCanada to try to exploit the current situation in Washington, D.C., at the expense of the American people,” Steyer wrote.

The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond to queries about Steyer’s letter. Harper is currently in Southeast Asia for an economic summit with Pacific Rim countries.

Harper’s strong-arm tactics counter-productive?

The majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives, and some Democrats, have long been staunch supporters of Keystone XL and have tried in the past to insert pipeline provisions into bigger pieces of legislation.

Privately, however, some TransCanada officials have bemoaned the strong-arm tactics of some of their Republican cheerleaders.

Just this week, TransCanada’s director of the pipeline said a legislative effort by Republicans in 2012 to push Obama into approving Keystone XL unnecessarily delayed the project.

“As you recall, 2012 was an election year and politics began to weigh heavily into that process and some political manoeuvring occurred,” Les Cherwenuk said in Houston at an energy roundtable.

The president “couldn’t (approve the project) fundamentally, since the work had not been completed and he had no choice but to deny the permit.”

In early 2012, Republicans pushed a mandate through Congress demanding Obama approve the $5.3-billion pipeline within a strict deadline. But the State Department was still assessing the project amid concerns from the state of Nebraska that Keystone XL posed risks to a crucial drinking water aquifer.

The president invited TransCanada to submit another application, one that would reroute the pipeline around the aquifer.

The pipeline has become a flashpoint for U.S. environmentalists who hold it up as a symbol of America’s over-reliance on carbon-intensive fossil fuels. They argue that approving Keystone XL will encourage oilsands crude production, which emits more carbon into the atmosphere than conventional oil production.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager who hosted Obama in his home for a Democratic fundraiser in the spring, left his firm to devote himself entirely to climate change issues. He’s emerged a major thorn in the side of pipeline proponents, and recently launched a series of TV commercials maligning Keystone XL.

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BC's Fiscal Mess: Hydro, LNG Numbers Don't Add Up

BC to study air pollution impacts from proposed LNG plants

Energy and Resources, Health and Environment, LNG
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BC's Fiscal Mess: Hydro, LNG Numbers Don't Add Up
Proposed LNG plant in Kitimat – artist’s rendering

VICTORIA – The B.C. government will spend $650,000 to study potential air pollution impacts of proposed industrial developments — including liquefied natural gas plants — in the Kitimat area, a decision opposition politicians and scientists are calling better-late-than-never.

The Liberals said Thursday the Kitimat Air Shed Impact Assessment Project aims to examine the cumulative air pollution effects of existing and proposed industrial air emissions in the so-called Kitimat air shed area, a long, thin, tunnel-like valley with mountains on either side.

The study will forecast the ability of Kitimat’s air shed — which is smaller, but similar in shape to the air shed that runs from Vancouver to Chilliwack in the Fraser Valley — to handle emissions from the existing Rio Tinto Alcan aluminum smelter, three proposed liquefied natural gas terminals, a proposed oil refinery and a crude-oil export facility.

The study will also consider the impact of emissions from gas-turbine powered electrical generation facilities used to create LNG and focus on the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from these facilities.

UBC prof: study too rushed

LNG plants require huge amounts of electricity and the companies appear to be looking to generate power by burning natural gas.

Prof. Douw Steyn at the University of B.C.’s earth, oceans and atmospheric sciences department, said the decision to study the ability of Kitimat’s air shed to handle potential air pollution from industrial development makes sense from business, social and environmental perspectives.

Steyn said earlier this year that business, government and the community all need to have a better idea of the area’s environmental capabilities before massive development occurs.

He said the study is much needed, but he is concerned the March 2014 deadline is too short.

“I think six months is screamingly fast for that,” Steyn said Thursday.

[quote]I can understand why they want it. The big question is: ‘Is that timeline being driven by the cause of industry or by prudent science.'[/quote]

The government said conclusions from the study will be used to inform environmental assessment work and regulatory decisions in the Kitimat area. A government-hired contractor is set to start collecting surface water and soil samples next week for analysis.

Kitimat prone to air pollution issues

Steyn said light winds and the long, narrow shape of the surrounding Kitimat area makes it prone to holding air for long periods, which could create pollution problems.

“It is trapped both by the topography, the valley that it’s in, all the way up from Kitimat to Terrace, down through the Douglas Channel,” he said. “It’s very restrictive, very tall, with flowing light winds.”

Opposition New Democrat natural gas critic Robin Austin, who represents the Kitimat-Terrace area, said the government air shed study should have been undertaken long ago, but at least it’s happening now. He said area residents want a better understanding of potential environmental impacts associated with the projects.

“Clearly, they need to examine our air shed and come up with what is the best solution,” he said. “How much can the air shed hold? So, I’m glad they are doing this ahead of any of the companies coming to a final investment decision.”

BC LNG could be far dirtier than other jurisdictions

Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver, who is also a climate scientist, said the government is taking a responsible approach by conducting the assessment before any major development occurs.

“Doing this all at once is a really wise idea,” he said.

Premier Christy Clark has pledged to develop the world’s cleanest LNG, an industry that she has touted will represent a trillion-dollar economic opportunity and will create 100,000 jobs for British Columbians.

Last month, Clean Energy Canada, an affiliate of Tides Canada, issued a report that warned natural gas-fuelled LNG operations in B.C. could emit more than three-times the carbon emissions produced at other plants around the world.

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