Energy policy

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In 2009, British Gas, a leader in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, submitted a voluminous environmental assessment report for a massive new gas processing plant and export terminal in Australia’s Queensland state. The plant, now under construction and scheduled to open in 2014, will produce just slightly more gas than two proposed LNG projects that have passed environmental reviews and been granted approvals to export processed gas from the Kitimat area on British Columbia’s central north coast.
Premier Clark's recent decision to cap the BC Hydro rate increases next year may have ratepayers breathing a sigh of relief. But it’s a short term fix that will only delay addressing the major financial challenges now facing our Crown utility. Once the 2013 election is over, whoever forms BC's new government will inherit an enormous problem.
As of mid-June 2012, only 2 nuclear reactors in all of Japan were operational. The remaining 52 nuclear reactors in the world’s third largest economy were shut down. In fact, for a six week period that began on May 5, 2012, Japan functioned without electricity from a single nuclear power plant. What has happened to date is unprecedented, since two years ago nuclear power accounted for 30% of Japan’s electricity supply. If the majority of Japan’s nuclear power stations remain closed, it will represent the biggest and fastest denuclearization anywhere in the world."
(Vancouver) A new study warns that mining, oil and gas corporations are putting increasingly large demands on BC’s hydroelectricity system – essentially using clean energy to power industries that pollute the environment and release large amounts of greenhouse gases. While the study sounds an alarm, it also presents a positive alternative vision.
Update, July 18, 2012: The day after we released this study, the provincial government made two announcements that relate closely to our findings. Please download Clean Electricity — UPDATE via the link below. Right now, BC households and small businesses will pay more and more for electricity as the demand from mining, oil and gas companies continues to grow. But this study presents a positive alternative vision, and argues that BC is capable of meeting future energy needs and reducing GHGs at the same time. 
Halifax, NS – Nova Scotia Power Inc. has many people angry and galvanized, looking for alternatives. Their anger is fuelled by the seeming contradiction of a private company owning a public resource, making windfall profits, boosting its salaries to top executives into seven figures, and then asking Nova Scotians to pay even more for electricity. A new publication released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) delves into this debate asking should power be returned to the people and what would this alternative mean for Nova Scotians.
"A million workers working for nothing, you better give ‘em what they really own. Power to the people, power to the people, right on." – John Lennon
The post-2000 petroleum-led resource boom is substantially reshaping the Canadian economy. It has driven up the dollar exchange rate from 62 cents to parity with the U.S. dollar, squeezing out other export sectors: traded services, tourism, forestry, and most notably manufacturing, where it has dramatically reduced output and employment.  
Don’t believe the hype. British Columbia’s natural gas is far from the “clean,” “green,” “transitional” fuel that the energy industry and provincial government claim it is. In fact, the shale gas increasingly extracted from northeast BC by means of hydraulic fracturing - more commonly known as  “fracking” - is beginning to look a lot like the natural gas equivalent to Alberta’s tar sands oil.  And here’s why.
In northeastern BC, gas companies are racing to extract natural gas from deeply buried shale formations, using a process called "fracking." Check out this short video to find out more about fracking, and why it's the natural gas equivalent to Alberta's tar sands. And for more information, read the study: Fracking Up Our Water, Hydro Power and Climate: BC's Reckless Pursuit of Shale Gas.