Hungary Folds, Ready To Change Its Laws To Get European Bailout Money
Free Ethical Oil!
A regular reader, via email;
As a regulatory affairs worker in the natural resource industry, I’m heartened by the ongoing discussion on how so-called environmentalists are taking over the regulatory process.
That said, how many of your commenters have ever intervened at one of these environmental assessments or written to their respective environment ministers expressing their support for a certain project or process?
Interventions at these EA processes are taken very seriously, which is why environmental groups make a concerted effort to produce swaths of form letters in opposition to anything which might conceivably benefit resource producers.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is betting that far more Canadians favour jobs and business opportunity over economic stagnation. I encourage your readers to show his government that there are people in this country who support our major industrial projects and are in favour of a strong, free and prosperous Canada.
The Honourable Peter Kent
Minister of the Environment
10 Wellington Street, 28th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0H3
Tel.: 819-997-1441
Fax: 819-953-0279
Email: Minister@ec.gc.ca
The Honourable Joe Oliver
Minister of Natural Resources
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Tel.: 613-992-6361
Fax: 613-992-9791
EMail: Joe.Oliver@parl.gc.ca
Major Projects Management Office
155 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E4
Fax: 613 995-7555
E-mail: mpmo-bggp@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
Information on participating in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency: http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=8A52D8E4-1
It’s Sitemeter Time Again
The countdown clock ……..
That’s 5 million visits since Dec.29, 2010!
Here’s our lucky 25M visit. Congratulations, whoever you are – a Mark Steyn Christmas album is yours for the asking.
I Love The Smell Of Conservative Majority In The Morning
Members of Parliament are likely to see the generous terms of their gold-plated pensions significantly eroded as part of the Harper government’s deficit reduction budget this spring.
[…]
As the National Post has written, the government is considering moves that could phase out lucrative defined benefit pension schemes for new hires in the public service and raise the age at which Canadians qualify for OAS from 65 to 67.
However, the Prime Minister knows that he cannot ask public servants and Canadian seniors to suffer austerity measures while MPs benefit from one of the most lavish pension plans in the country. Possible reforms to the MPs’ scheme could include raising the minimum retirement age (currently 55) to lengthening the period of time it takes to qualify for a pension (currently just six years).
Senior sources said that a decision on public service pensions has not yet been made, largely because of legal and legislative barriers to unilateral changes. But the source confirmed the government could still move on MPs’ pensions, even if it holds off on reforms covering the bureaucracy. He said all three strands of pension policy are linked as part of the government’s plan to make sure there is sustainability and fairness in the system.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Mike Hulme – senior researcher in the Climatic Research Unit, founder of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in 2001.
“to reduce emissions requires more evidence than that humans are altering climate.”
Good thing that never got out.
Brad’s Bloopers
Reader Tips
In tonight’s Tippity amusement Peter Sellers plays the role of a diligent folk archivist making a field recording in a small town in Ireland. Let’s listen to the fruits of his labour, as Patrick O’Shaughnessy and his Caileigh Band play “The Rattlin’ Boy From Dublin Town”, fueled by a drop of the hard stuff.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Dennis Prager vs. Unhinged Leftists
Inspired by the recent video referenced by ‘Robert S’, I did some research to see what other interesting Prager videos are online. Here’s a trio of them which will serve as examples of the kind of nonsensical arguments you’ll hear made in 2012 by Democrat Cult Members aka Obamabots:
On the environment
On racism
On terror apologists
Finally, for those who have never seen it, here’s the most inspiring Dennis Prager video of all:
Gingrich’s Last Stand?
Newt Gingrich has been saying some peculiar things of late, that is if you’re a Republican. This ad, produced by a political action committee supporting him, could be re-purposed by the Democrats without changing one word:
Update: For those interested, wall-to-wall coverage of the New Hampshire Primary can be heard here.
It’s Probably Nothing
Chicagoan Bill Daley is stepping down as White House chief of staff …
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
White House threw secret ‘Alice in Wonderland’ bash during recession.
Unbeknownst to reporters, the State Dining Room had also been transformed into a secretive White House Wonderland.
Tim Burton decorated it “in his signature creepy-comic style. His film version was about to be released, and he had turned the room into the Mad Hatter’s tea party, with a long table set with antique-looking linens, enormous stuffed animals in chairs, and tiered serving plates with treats like bone-shaped meringue cookies,” reports the book, which The Post purchased at a Manhattan bookstore.
“Fruit punch was served in blood vials at the bar. Burton’s own Mad Hatter, the actor Johnny Depp, presided over the scene in full costume, standing up on a table to welcome everyone in character.”
Related!
More here.
Ethical Oil
“We have to have processes in Canada that come to a decision in a reasonable amount of time and processes that cannot be hijacked,” [PM Stephen Harper] said on Friday.
“In particular, growing concern has been expressed to me about the use of foreign money to really overload the public consultation phase of regulatory hearings just for the purpose of slowing down the process. This is something that is not good for the Canadian economy, and the government of Canada will be taking a close look at how we can ensure that our regulatory processes are effective and deliver decisions in a reasonable amount of time.”
Bumped for update;
Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade. Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth. No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydro-electric dams.
These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects. They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest. They attract jet-setting celebrities with some of the largest personal carbon footprints in the world to lecture Canadians not to develop our natural resources. Finally, if all other avenues have failed, they will take a quintessential American approach: sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further. They do this because they know it can work. It works because it helps them to achieve their ultimate objective: delay a project to the point it becomes economically unviable.
Defense Spending Throughout U.S. History
Christie Vs Romney
Not showing up to rumble is a failed conservative policy;
When he was interrupted during his remarks by Occupy protesters shouting, “Christie kills jobs! Christie kill jobs!” Christie deadpanned, “Really?”
“Somebody’s going down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart,” Christie rejoined from the stage as the chanting continued from a cluster in the audience. “There’s this confusion that’s out there because if she was in New Jersey . . . she would know that we created 60,000 new private-sector jobs.”
Saying that the female protester was “blinded” by her enthusiasm for Obama, Christie continued, “And if she wasn’t so disoriented by the loss of hope and change, she’d understand that . . . Mitt Romney is the hope for America’s future.”
He went on to blast Obama to the clapping and cheering attendees as a “Chicago ward politician.”
It was in marked contrast to how Romney had handled the protesters who interrupted him earlier at the event.
I hope he was taking note. (Video)
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
Europe’s focus on wind power is crippling British energy users with additional costs as it is not a cost-effective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a report has found.
The EU has directed governments to generate 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020, leading many to focus on wind.
But wind power is unreliable and requires back-up gas power stations to maintain a consistent electricity supply, the Civitas think-tank study found.
It means energy users pay twice – once for the ‘window-dressing’ of renewables and again for fossil fuels the energy sector continues to rely on.
h/t Maz2
Y2Kyoto: We’re Winning
As you’ll know by now, I’m not usually Mister Optimist. So what the hell am I doing crowing about victory in the climate wars when clearly there remains so much work to be done? We-e-ll….
The Religion of Submission
As Kate reported a year ago, the governor of the Pakistani Punjab province was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. That murderer has now become a hero of sorts to many in Pakistan (audio version).
What’s often left out of reporting on this case is what precisely lead to the murder. From the aforementioned article is this interesting snippet:
So why did his bodyguard kill him?
Taseer – who had a record of protecting minority communities in Pakistan – was campaigning on a blasphemy case, that of a Christian woman called Asia Bibi.
Some Muslim women in her Punjab village accused her of defiling their well by drinking out of it and they demanded that she convert.
She refused and they accused her of blasphemy.
When he heard about the case Taseer decided he would try to get her a presidential pardon. He called a few journalists and visited her in prison and there he criticised the blasphemy law.
Remember this the next time you read a story involving Radical Islamists petitioning for more special privileges in Western countries.
Y2Kyoto: I’ll Miss The Polar Ice Caps
Jan. 6, 2012: The Coast Guard Cutter Healy breaks ice around the Russian-flagged tanker Renda 250 miles south of Nome. The Healy is the Coast Guard’s only currently operating polar icebreaker. The vessels are transiting through ice up to five-feet thick in this area. The 370-foot tanker Renda will have to go through more than 300 miles of sea ice to get to Nome, a city of about 3,500 people on the western Alaska coastline that did not get its last pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm.
The Suzuki Foundation could not be reached for comment. (h/t manversgwtw)
Reader Tips
In tonight’s Tips video an emotional display of resistance and national pride breaks out at Rick’s Café Américain.
Bonus: The Liberation of Paris in Color.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
One Volcano & The Massive Carbon Scheme Fraud
Greenbot’s, are you sitting down?
Okay, here’s the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland, since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet, all of you.
Of course you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow, and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans, and all animal life.
I know, it’s very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid’s “The Green Revolution” science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cents light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs…well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.
The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere in just four days – yes – FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud any one time – EVERY DAY.