Most casual observers hear sound bites and web clips talking about coal jobs coming back to the United States and think that it must be happening, but it just isn’t. The Trump EPA and other regulatory bodies have notably deregulated the coal business, but you can’t sell what people don’t want. In this case ‘people’ are the companies that produce electricity, and they don’t want coal. Power companies have turned toward a much more stable form of energy input that…
Donald Trump and friends have been banging on this border wall idea for years and their supporters are energized by it. Our editorial staff have spent days thinking about how Trump supporters could be so insistent that a border wall is needed when it so obviously is not (let’s not argue the pro’s and con’s here, just follow the big picture logic below)… and we think we came up with the answer. In short, Trump / Wall supporters don’t know…
It is empirically a fact that we are living in the best time in human history. Poverty, sickness, insecurity are following their long term trend lines downward. However this short snippet from a Fareed Zakaria GPS interview explains that does not mean these trends will continue. There was yesterday, is today and will be tomorrow, the possibility of global catastrophe. Our modern connected world has virtually guaranteed that some crisis will affect you or your family in the coming years.…
Huawei is the massive Chinese telecom company that has mysterious financing and ownership. Their murky connections to the Chinese Government and military are of such great concern that some Western nations and companies have severed ties with Huawei. This is our third report in our series on the largest telecom company in the world. Our other two are: 10 Short Answers To Why Huawei is so Scary To Western Countries Who Owns Huawei? A Fascinating Story Which Countries Have Banned…
We spent many hours pouring over old records, press releases and news articles to generate this complete time line of all things Trans Mountain. Many of the entries are linked to specific websites as references. Entries without link were mostly taken from THIS file sourced from the now defunct BCWaters.org site. We also have picture gallery of both old and new Trans Mountain images HERE. 1947 Feb Oil discovered near Leduc (near Edmonton) Alberta 1951 Mar Trans Mountain Pipeline Company Company…
Most pundits say that by the end of 2019 the market would clear itself but the Alberta Government wants to clear the over supply and reduce the current massive oil inventories from about 35M barrels to somewhere near it norm of 20M barrels. So in an ideal world, both the 190,000 barrels per day that is being added to current inventory AND 15M extra barrels of oil in storage would all be gone by December 2019. If we drop 1.25M…
There is a fair amount of misinformation floating around the oil sector about the oil production cuts that Premier Rachel Notley announced on Dec 2nd 2018. Here are the facts in a simple FAQ format: 1 – Where did the number 325,000 barrels per day come from? Alberta estimates that there is about 35 million barrels in storage in December 2018 and that we are adding 190,000 barrels to that every day so they calculated that cutting 325,000 barrels per…
How many times can politician cry wolf before the electorate stand up and say, that is not “our way”: Conservatives believe in small government and limited regulation Liberals believe in larger government and substantial regulation or at least they used to: Alberta: United Conservative Party (UCP) Leader Jason Kenny is calling for the Provincial Government to actually step into the private sector and demand oil production cuts. The “right” would say the solution is to increase the royalty rates temporarily…
On Wednesday October 31st, The City of Calgary shaved less than 4% off the proposed Calgary 2026 Olympic Winter Games bid math by claiming saving in security and venue changes. While this is an improvement, the numbers just don’t add up because: Many of the numbers presented are in 2026 dollars but there is an ugly force called inflation that changes the values. Put simply 2026 dollars are worth much less than 2018 dollars, so you need more of them.…
This short clip from the author of “Prius or Pickup?” Jonathan Weiler, explains that political parties on the left and the right have stopped defining themselves by the size of government and instead focused in emotional responses to identity politics. The discussion uses the US system of Democrat vs Republican but it applies to nearly all parties globally. Political parties now energize there voters by vilifying the other side based on their identity: immigrant vs multi-generation citizen rural vs urban…
Today the former leader of the Alberta Wild Rose party Brian Jean published an op-ed in the Edmonton Journal explaining his view that Canadian courts have now seized too much power: Something is fundamentally wrong. Our courts, motivated by virtue-signalling and triggered by legal actions funded by foreign interests, routinely override the explicit wishes of our legislatures and have now claimed the powers to overrule the executive decision-making powers of cabinet. Mr. Jean does not point out that the courts are one…
In a word, yes. While conventional oil production in Alberta has been at the same level for years, Alberta’s oil sands have hit yet another production record and the oil will move one way or another. As you can see in the chart below, Canada is out of pipeline capacity so that leaves, truck and rail. On October 18, 2018 the CEO of CP Rail said he expects to “match or exceed its record 2014 pace of 110,000 crude carloads…
There is much hype on the so-called “non-market” clause in the USMCA (aka. NAFTA 2.0): ‘Astonishing’ clause in new deal suggests Trump wants leverage over Canada-China trade talks: experts SOURCE Chinese embassy in Canada condemns ‘US veto’ clause in North America trade deal SOURCE Beijing attacks USMCA clause seen as blocking efforts to expand trade with Canada, Mexico SOURCE Alarm bells ring over non-market economy clause SOURCE and it many political opponents wrote things like: Conservative MP Michael Chong accused…
We have two versions (full and highlights) of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s speech to the Alberta Teachers Association conference in Edmonton in which she explains that the Trans Mountain Pipeline will not cause increased carbon emissions because: The demand for oil will increase through 2045 and that demand will be met by the environmentally disastrous Russia’s, Nigerian’s or Venezuelan’s if Canada does not produce it Unlike nearly every other oil producing jurisdiction on the globe, Alberta has set carbon emissions limits…
This question of support for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project by Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals has been bandied around for a few years now. The answer is obvious. Trudeau’s liberals bought the pipeline for $4.5 Billion dollars and Notley’s NDP said they want to buy in. Further, both of them have spent more political capital on this one issue than any other. Do the math! For those that still believe that Trudeau and Notley are secretly…
The recent Federal Court decision holding up the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project makes for great political debate and emotional exaggeration but is not nearly as onerous as many people are make out. Put simply the decision said just two things: Consultation that has already been COMPLETED needs to respond to concerns, not just acknowledge them There needs to be a short study of the impacts of Tanker traffic in the Vancouver area Neither of these are hugely difficult or…