Tag: co2

Carbon tax, round ??? Fight!

Conservatives blast pro-carbon price economists as ‘so-called experts’ It doesn’t cause inflation, didn’t you know? Then why were my groceries yesterday 40% more than 2020?

Meanwhile, the carbon tax fight is heating up as the price is about to go up, again, on April. 1, fittingly April Fool’s. Conservative premiers are lying about carbon pricing: Trudeau, while Moe addresses Commons committee.

 

Sorry I didn’t have time to dig into this one myself. Not enough hours in the day. After all, I had to spend half an hour at Sobey’s on Wednesday pointing out to my 17-year-old son how prices of soup, meat, green onions and the like have gone up 40% in the last four years. In the end, a cart which wasn’t even full cost $300, whereas in 2020 it would have cost closer to $210 or so. I kept asking, “And who do we blame for this?”

What do you think the right answer was?

Also, for your reading pleasure:

 

Carbon tax, carbon tax, carbon tax

Leader of the Opposition Carla Beck during Question Period on March 4. Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

Guilbeault calls Saskatchewan premier ‘immoral’ for breaking carbon-price law.

Estevan MLA Lori Carr tries to show a difference between Sask Party and NDP on carbon tax in statement.

Premier Scott Moe during Question Period on March 4. Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

That statement was referenced in the exchange between Scott Moe and Carla Beck in Question Period on the federal carbon tax. The NDP thinks Saskatchewan should have negotiated a carve-out deal.

A plan to save coal, power generation, and the oil industry in SE Sask

Boundary Dam Power Station

What if there was a way to keep coal mining jobs in Saskatchewan, continue to produce low-cost electrical power, and extend the production of a substantial portion of Saskatchewan’s oilfields not by decades, but by generations? And in doing so, we could still dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and maybe save some money by reducing our nuclear rollout?

Recent developments from Whitecap Resources showing using CO2 in the Frobisher formation led to initial results of 5x improved production. Not 5%, or 50%, but 5x. That’s 500%. I’m not saying it’ll stay anywhere close to that, but we should be taking a very serious look at this development, especially since most new drilling in southeast Saskatchewan is focused on the Frobisher, part of the Mississippian. While the Bakken was a flash in the pan, the Mississippian has been the mainstay of SE Sask oil production for generations. And this is a generational opportunity, but we will let it slip through our fingers if we shut down our coal-fired power plants.

This is one of the most significant opinion pieces I’ve ever done with regards to energy. It basically puts it all together.

 

About that walk in the snow… SaskEnergy minister takes a walk in the rain

Justin Trudeau may not have taken a “walk in the snow,” like his father did 40 years ago on this day, but Dustin Duncan took a walk in rain in front of Parliament, and decides we’re not remitting carbon tax to the feds. 

This is the guy who, by a recently passed law, gets to be sacrificed on the cross for our carbon tax sins.

(The decision was clearly made before, but it makes good political theatre.)

No forecast for snow in Ottawa today, unfortunately. Maybe the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change changed the climate?

 

I’m trying. I really am. But they make it so hard sometimes…

Brian Crossman

Brian Crossman in Pipeline Online: “I am. I’m really, really trying. I had a bit of a rough year health-wise, which of course leads to over-thinking your place in the world. So, I thought I would try to be a better person. You know, be nice to strangers, try harder at all the important things, do better at being charitable. But the biggest change I wanted to make was to quit complaining about, berating and outright insulting our political leaders.”

Guilbeault takes out the trash on Clean Electricity Regulations

 

The Friday before a long weekend, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault released his updates to the proposed Clean Electricity Regulations. This is the full update, verbatim.

In Pipeline Online’s continuing mission to ensure Canadians know exactly what Guilbeault is telling them, here’s his verbatim release on the Clean Electricity Regulations.

Remember what I said the previous week about taking out the trash day? Guilbeault did exactly that. Interesting, that.

And for something a little different, yesterday was Family Day. Not everyone gets to go sledding. While I took these photos three weeks ago, they’re pretty representative of what Family Day is to a lot of people in the oil sector – just another day.

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! The meteor is on its way, and CBC just posted a critical story on electric vehicles. Pipeline Online had to share this one. And yes, I borrowed from Ghostbusters there.

In the meanwhile, charging those cars with solar power in Alberta would have been tough on Sunday at noon.

On the topic of cars, a Edmonton-area heavy equipment rental shop took the second largest Caterpillar dozer made and crushed a car with it, just because.

On Friday, the Biden Administration took a shotgun and fired a barrel into each foot of one of the biggest success stories in the American energy industry, one which kept Europe from going dark when the Ukraine war started. And here’s the Whitehouse’s backgrounder on it, verbatim, which reads like a description of how the Biden-Harris administration has applied a knee to the neck of the American energy industry.

(I’m not sure when they started doing this, but the Whitehouse press office continually refers to the Biden-Harris administration. Are they expecting someone to perhaps fall off the ticket between now and November? Like maybe Biden’s health won’t hold out and it’ll be a Harris presidential candidacy?)

Notley takes credit for getting rid of coal power, days after the lights almost went out

After a weekend of power shortages, Notley takes credit for getting rid of coal-fired power and building wind and solar. Because of course she did. Not sure when it was filmed, but there wasn’t a hint of shame that she was largely the cause of what happened over the weekend.

 
Also: Brian Crossman: Magic Eight Ball prediction edition for 2024. “Will the current Prime Minister continue to be a dumpster fire?” “SIGNS POINT TO YES.”

Pour on a little more coal, boys!

Boundary Dam Power Station last night

The past weekend proved to be a close-run thing for the Alberta electrical grid, and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is making statements resolving he won’t allow that to happen here.

Specifically, after having nearly completely divested itself of coal-fired power production, Alberta’s dramatic buildout of wind and solar proved impossible to keep the lights on in that province when the chips were down and temperatures hit -35 C, or worse.

Alberta’s close brush with possible rolling blackouts stiffens Moe’s resolve to keep the lights on. On Monday, he announced that SaskPower has relit a shuttered coal unit near Estevan, one the feds had supposedly forced to retire Dec. 31, 2021.

Also note: Saskatchewan has about a million cars registered. So a good bet is Alberta probably has four million. What would have happened if four million EVs were all plugged in last weekend?

If you missed them, these five stories, in order, chronicle what happened in Alberta.

Most of Alberta’s wind fleet slowly shut down Thursday night, but not for lack of wind

Grid Alert 1:

Alberta goes under grid alert for just under 5 hours on Jan. 12

Grid Alert 2:

Alberta’s electrical grid stood at the brink of blackouts Jan. 13, before pulling back in the nick of time

Grid Alert 3:

Alberta goes into Round 3, with its third electrical grid alert in three days

Grid Alert 4:

Round 4: Alberta declares fourth electrical grid alert in 4 days, second in 17 hours

Alberta peered into the abyss Saturday evening

Alberta’s electrical grid stood at the brink of blackouts Jan. 13, before pulling back in the nick of time.

It was the second evening in a row Alberta saw “grid alert” issued, but this time, it was a much closer-run thing.

Alberta’s electrical grid was in such peril of falling into rotating blackouts on Saturday night, the provincial government urged people to even turn off their bathroom fans, among other things.

Also, from Western Standard:

STIRLING: When magical thinking meets a polar vortex cold, hard reality follows

Round 2 – Fight!

Hans Gruber or Steven Guilbeault? Can you see the difference?

 

Did you read that in the voice of “Mortal Kombat?”

Wayne Rooney Mortal Kombat GIF - Wayne Rooney Mortal Kombat Finish Him GIFs

Steven Guilbeault accuses Danielle Smith of “trying to tear Canada down

Ask Pipeline Online readers are aware, whenever this minister speaks of such issues, it is useful to provide his entire discourse, verbatim and unedited. Especially the part about the evils of methane from cows. So here it is, as posted on X the evening of Jan. 11, in all 10 parts.

And on a different note, people in the Saskatchewan oilpatch might recognize some names here: Del Mondor, Brad Wall and Myron Stadnyk to be honored at Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in June.

Shell doubles down on Canadian LNG supply

Shell is betting heavily on Canadian LNG. Not only is it the lead partner in LNG Canada, it just agreed to buy 1/6 of the offtake from its competitor up the coast.

Shell signs offtake agreement to buy LNG from second BC project

And for a REAL deep dive into carbon tax analysis, a Prince Albert, SK, based economist allowed Pipeline Online to reprint this in-depth report on how the carbon tax affects his SaskPower and SaskEnergy power and natural gas bills. It was originally posted on LinkedIn.

Op-Ed: Kaase Gbakon: My Carbon Tax and I

Wind power zeros out on Jan. 2 in Saskatchewan. As in nothing. Zip. Nada.

Final assembly of a wind turbine near Assiniboia, Sask., on Jan. 7, 2021. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Wind power flatlined in Saskatchewan on Jan. 2, after days of strong winds. Flatlined, as in zero power, at night, so no solar, either.

Zero reliability, this wind thing. And I had to start wearing my parka this week, too.

Put our trust in wind, and we’ll all freeze. In the dark.

Also, switching to third person:

Pipeline Online editor and owner Brian Zinchuk is back on the air with CJME/CKOM’s Evan Bray Show. He was on the air for a full hour on Wednesday, Jan. 3. Here’s the podcast of that appearance, including responses to several calls. One was on whether or not the Trans Mountain Expansion will ever be finished. (With the ads and news breaks removed, it’s only 35 minutes).

So long carbon tax!

So long, carbon tax on home heating in Saskatchewan!

And that’s what my dad, an 80-year-old retired farmer pensioner,  paid in carbon tax last January, when it was still $50/tonne. And April 1, it will be $80 per tonne. How the hell is he supposed to make those payments on the carbon tax? Just not eat? Thankfully, we removed the shop heating, so that will make a huge difference. Now the neighbour gets to deal with that.

Saskatchewan’s Year in Energy: Premier Scott Moe, 2023: Part 1, Fighting the Feds

Scott Moe.

Energy, and the “energy transition” being forced upon Canadians by the federal government, is becoming the dominant story, affecting all our lives and everything we do. In his year-end interview with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Pipeline Online dives deep into the biggest energy issues of the past year.

This is Part 1: Fighting the Feds.

Part 2 will focus on addressing low oil drilling activity, despite decent oil prices.

Part 3 discusses the Clean Electricity Regulations and their impact, and widespread adoption of nuclear power.

Part 4 talks about lithium and helium development, and ends with Christmas greetings.

Guilbeault thinks he’s getting his wish. Is he?

Steven Guilbeault. X/@s_guilbeault

 

“We reached a historic consensus to move away from fossil fuels in energy systems,” Guilbeault’s statement on the conclusion of COP28, verbatim.

And the Canadian Press version:

Guilbeault hails ‘monumental’ COP28 deal, others warn of ‘dangerous distractions’

Also:

COP28 Agreement Signals “Beginning of the End” of the Fossil Fuel Era: the verbatim press release

And the conclusion from yesterday’s op-ed:

Op-Ed: Deidra Garyk: The Impact of ESG on the Energy Sector, Part 2

 

Hans Gruber or Steven Guilbeault? Can you see the difference?

And since it’s the Christmas season, and Die Hard IS a Christmas movie, here’s a little Hans Gruber. Notice any resemblance to anyone? And if you don’t think Die Hard is a Christmas movie, fight me! Yippee Kai Yay, …

 

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