This report compares the Canada and Alberta experience of managing oil wealth to that of Norway, another major petroleum producing and exporting country. The report finds that for too long foreign and domestic petroleum interests have been appropriating a disproportionate share of the petro-wealth in Canada and blocking effective carbon reduction measures. It asserts that Canadian governments should heed the Norwegian example and reclaim control of the petroleum industry.
Environment and sustainability
For months, vested interests in government and the private sector have known that a damning report was in the offing by BC’s outgoing Auditor General, John Doyle.
Doyle’s office has been looking into the provincial government’s claims of having achieved “carbon neutrality” for the better part of two years and was inching closer to releasing the report.
It wasn’t so long ago that the British Columbia government was investing lots of political capital in striking a more productive “new relationship” with First Nations.
Which makes it all the more disturbing that in the midst of the very short upcoming legislative session the provincial government intends to introduce a bill that could result in the single largest giveaway of public forestlands in our history — a bill that would unnecessarily drive up the costs of resolving outstanding aboriginal rights and title issues to the financial detriment of all British Columbians.
Picture a savvy land developer who has just purchased 1,000 acres of forestland on a city’s outskirts. He plans to cut most of the trees down to build hundreds of new houses, but he wants to be able to market his “green” credentials. So he lights on a plan. In his last development, he left five trees standing on each lot. Now he’ll leave 10.
“Sustainable Development” - What's in a name?
Quite a lot actually, labels matter! Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship is currently conducting an online "consultation" on a proposal to replaceManitoba's Sustainable Development Act (1998) with a new Act, tentatively called the "Green Prosperity Act".
Given the short duration of the upcoming legislative session and the provincial election to follow, a government plan to introduce a scant two-paragraph bill granting it powers to fundamentally alter the course of forestry in BC is disturbing to say the least.
Momentum is building across Canada on the need to develop a sustainable national energy strategy.
On this front, Canada and Alberta, its main petro-province, has much to learn from another major petroleum producing and exporting country, Norway.
Canada and Norway are advanced industrialized countries with highly developed political, bureaucratic and economic institutions.
Norway and Alberta have similar population size, similar production profiles, and similar levels of dependence on petroleum exports and government petro-revenues.
Climate change forced its way onto the political agenda in 2012, as Hurricane Sandy ripped through the northeast United Stages just days before the election. And while action remains frustratingly slow, extreme weather disasters in the billions of dollars are making a statement that politicians can no longer ignore. The costs of our addiction to fossil fuels are starting to pile up, and we cannot afford to keep dithering.
Natural gas is not and never has been a clean fuel. Yet almost daily, industry and government alike assert that it is a vitally important “transition fuel” that must be harnessed in a global effort to lower global greenhouse gas emissions.
Premier Christy Clark and Energy Minister Rich Coleman have argued this for almost a year now. They want to export up to four trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year from BC. Our gas, they say, could help booming Asian economies lower their dependence on dirty coal.