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Video: Rafe Mair and Economist Erik Andersen, Pt. 1 – The ‘Enronization’ of BC Hydro

Aug 8th, 2012 by

Part 1 of Rafe Mair’s July 2012 interview with economist Andersen, delving deep into BC’s troubled energy situation, including BC Hydro’s broken forecasting model, rip-off private power projects, and massive debt and Enron-style accounting practices at our public utility – all driven by the shadowy private American corporation to which we’ve unwittingly handed over our energy sovereignty.

According to Andersen, “When it comes to saying, ‘Oh, this is just a matter of bad policy or this is just a matter of being mistaken or even stupid,’ I don’t accept that. Because there is just too much information available out in the public we all have access to that makes what is going on way too questionable.” Rather, he suggests we may be witnessing “a take-over of the North American energy package. Electricity, gas, oil – the whole enchilada in one bag, by a few people…There’s not enough energy or passion about this abuse of the public trust.”

Throughout the interview, Andersen references and recommends a recent report, by John Calvert and Marc Lee, titled, “Clean Electricity, Conservation and Climate Justice in BC”, which can be seen at: http://www.behindthenumbers.ca/2012/06/20/clean-electricity-conservation-and-a-zero-carbon-future/

Stay tuned for part 2 of this interview, dealing with Liquefied Natural Gas and the proposed Site C Dam.

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 2 Comments »

Dix Should be Questioned on his Free Pass for Kinder Morgan

Aug 2nd, 2012 by

Mike Smyth of the Vancouver Province took on Adrian Dix this morning for not applying the same principles in his stance on the proposed Enbridge pipeline and consequent tanker traffic to the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline twinning.

Mike is absolutely right. Dix has shown a political wimpishness which puts him, on this issue at any rate, right there alongside Premier Christy Clark.

The proposed lines both go through wild, inaccessible areas of BC, will carry the same gunk (bitumen), with the same certainty of disaster. Bitumen is impossible to clean up at the best of times (see Kalamazoo/Enbridge) and spills will be out of reach of any spill cleanup attempted. As I say, that doesn’t much matter because they can’t be cleaned up anyway. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 2 Comments »

Enbridge Flip-Flops, LNG Pipeline, New Salmon Farm in Clayoquot Perplexing

Aug 1st, 2012 by

Today is a day of perplexity.

I’m perplexed at a notice I received asking me to join a protest against a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline near Smithers. This line is designed to transport northeast BC natural gas from a junction point at Summit Lake, north of Prince George, to Kitimat for processing into LNG so it can be shipped ship to Asian markets. It has flown largely beneath the radar, perhaps because the NDP Opposition haven’t opposed it.

What are the risks posed? Are we talking wildlife migration paths? Do spills pose a threat? Who is doing it and what sort of approvals do they require? When was the application? Were there public meetings, and if so where and what was the reaction?

I’m perplexed at the provincial government’s apparent imminent approval of a new fish farm in Clayoquot Sound. How can this possibly be done before the Cohen Commission report comes out? Has no one in that catastrophic government in Victoria read the recent and growing evidence of serious disease endemic to fish farms? It strikes me that approving a fish farm before Mr Justice Cohen issues his report is like Israel building houses on conquered land – an effort to create faits accompli on the theory that once approved, it will be difficult to dismantle them. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

Premier Clark Buys Time on Enbridge

Jul 26th, 2012 by

Premier Clark’s fight with Alberta Premier Redford over the Northern Gateway project is a very dangerous ploy. She has, by this action, said plainly that the BC environment is open to bids in exchange for the desecration of our province. We are the hooker bargaining over the price of services.

The Premier’s environmental stipulations will cause no concerns with Alberta, Ottawa or Enbridge. Of course they will agree to these terms including a clause re cost of damage – those promises are easy to make and easy to ignore. Once the bitumen starts to flow, how do you enforce any agreement?

The four salient facts remain – spills by Enbridge’s own admission are inevitable, the terrain is inaccessible, the bitumen is highly toxic and all but impossible to clean up, and once the pipeline is operative we will have serial spills, each time adding to existing spill damage.

The spat the premier has launched with Alberta Premier Redford is strictly political with the object of Clark and the Liberals getting better polling numbers. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 4 Comments »

Thank You for Calling Me ‘Alarmist’

Jul 25th, 2012 by

Faced with Northern Gateway pipeline, no siren can be sounded too loudly.

I addressed a public meeting last week to hear myself accused as a liar, an alarmist and a bad Canadian.

At least that was the gist of serial remarks made by a staunch supporter of oil pipelines and tanker traffic generally, but especially in B.C. Having been called these things before, I was neither upset not offended. Years ago in fact, a Tory cabinet minister in the Mulroney government John Crosbie called me “Canada’s most dangerous man” while prime minister Mulroney made the case more simple by just calling me a “traitor.” High praise like that is bound to turn the head of a B.C. lad trying to ply his trade as a political skeptic.

The “liar” epithet cannot be taken seriously coming from a staunch and uninformed oil man. But I think “alarmist” demands a response. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Tyee | 1 Comment »

BC Liberal Government Surrenders to Enbridge, Ottawa

Jul 23rd, 2012 by

The BC Liberals have just offered the sword of surrender to Enbridge and Ottawa as the organ-grinder’s monkey, Environment Minister Terry Lake, made clear in a statement today.

Separating the pepper from the fly shit, the Liberals want more money and more environmental safeguards imposed upon Enbridge, which must be severely monitored by the feds. (With the same enthusiasm the Department of Fisheries and Oceans safeguards our Pacific Salmon, no doubt.)

As I said here recently, Premier Clark has declared that BC is a whore, the only thing to be decided being how much?

Let me place matters on the table once more:

1.    There will be ruptures in this 1,100 km. pipeline by the admission of Enbridge and now conceded as the only possible inference to be drawn from Lake’s statement demanding better clean-up arrangements.

2.    This pipeline goes over two mountain ranges and through a dense wilderness and is inaccessible to any cleanup undertaking. To make this plain to this corrupt bunch, you cannot get to the spills.

3.    Such is the nature of the bitumen to be piped you can’t clean it up even if you could get to it.

4.    The pipeline becomes a permanent serial polluter with one environmental catastrophe following another.

Of course Premier Clark will have her “demands” met. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 4 Comments »

Clark has BC Behaving Like a Prostitute on Enbridge, Only Dickering Over Price

Jul 22nd, 2012 by

I wonder how many of you have come away from making a speech – perhaps the toast to the bride, being presented an award or perhaps just an after dinner speech and said to yourself, “damn … I should have said etc., etc.? I must admit that I’ve often felt that way and, even worse, I suppose, I’ve said to myself, what an idiot I was to say that!

In my recent blog on The Common Sense Canadian, I wrote about Premier Clark’s slow turnaround on the Enbridge pipeline case and in a moment I’ll tell you what I should have added.

The inadequacies of Clark’s leadership are exposed once more; she cannot bring herself to talk about the tanker traffic in the Inside Passage from Kitimat – or the close to 400 tankers a year through Vancouver harbour and the Salish Sea through the Straits of Juan de Fuca that would result from the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. Clearly the tanker issue must be dealt with at the same time as Enbridge since, as the song says, “You can’t have one without the other.” Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

Response to Liberals’ Shifting Position on Enbridge: Clark Still Missing the Mark

Jul 21st, 2012 by

I would be delighted to report that Premier Clark’s recent musings about the proposed Enbridge pipeline were a positive step but unfortunately must report that she misses the point – badly.

Her position evidently is that BC is not benefiting sufficiently from the pipeline.

The first and fatal flaw is that she doesn’t include tanker traffic, for if Enbridge goes through it must be accompanied by tanker traffic or the whole exercise is pointless.

The second and also fatal flaw is that the Premier puts the argument in monetary terms. Enbridge itself admits that it will have leaks in the same way an airplane company will have crashes. This is the critical point, for to say we’re not getting enough money from Enbridge says that we’re OK with a spill here and there as long as we’re adequately compensated. This will result in Enbridge, the government of Alberta and Ottawa coming up with a compensation package suitable to the Clark government. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

J’Accuse!… Fish Farmers and Our Governments

Jul 20th, 2012 by

In 1894 a French army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was convicted of treason and sent to Devil’s Island prison.

In 1896 a Paris journalist, Emile Zola, printed an article called “J’Accuse!”, which tore apart the case and led eventually to his pardon – which he accepted because he was dying on the vicious tropical Devil’s Island – and he was exonerated to serve, gallantly though sick and old in combat in World War I. An Alsatian Jew, Dreyfus was seen by the military establishment.

Last Monday night, along with 200 others, I listened to Alexandra Morton outline the loss of our salmon and carefully and surgically weave together the case against the fish farm industry, the provincial government and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The case goes back 12 years and mirrors the Campbell/Clark administration. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

Provincial NDP Can Reclaim Control Over Fish, Pipelines and Tankers from Harper

Jul 16th, 2012 by

Dear Adrian Dix,

You and your party have taken a strong stand against the Enbridge Pipeline and tanker issues, for which I applaud you. I think you should broaden this policy, but first some background.

Stephen Hume has a fascinating article in the Saturday July 14 Vancouver Sun in which he quotes a man from Kitimat who, with the assistance of a man with mathematical training, vetted by a Mathematics professor at Thompson Rivers University, assessed the risk of spills, ruptures, etc. from the Enbridge Pipeline and tankers out of Kitimat, using Enbridge’s own figures. The results are scary, to say the least. By all means, read the article, but the bottom line is that over 50 years there is an 87 % chance of a major spill on land or sea.

Here, Mr. Dix, are two other major factors – we know that getting any sort of cleanup on land is virtually non-existent due to the terrain and all but impossible at sea, AND, as Kalamazoo teaches us, there’s very little that can be done to clean up these spills. Very quickly after a spill on water, the bitumen is freed from the condensate which permits it to be piped, and it sinks like a rock. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

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