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We’ve been evaluating pipeline projects all wrong

Etienne de Malglaive/REA/Redux Last week, I wrote a piece critiquing the use of economic impact analysis as a means of evaluating the social benefits of new infrastructure or other major projects. My...

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New language, same old story on Keystone from climate scientists

Jeff McIntosh/CP This piece, published in the Guardian by Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, takes on the Keystone XL pipeline with exaggeration rather than evidence. The...

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The NDP comes out against Harper’s ‘big lentil’ agenda

(Shutterstock) In a press release this week, Joe Cressy didn’t say this: New Democrats believe that agriculture must serve Canada’s long-term economic prosperity. We will not support short-sighted...

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Is Canada headed for a pipeline bubble?

Jimmy Jeong/Bloomberg/Getty Images The National Energy Board hearings into the Kinder-Morgan TransMountain pipeline expansion will not consider the climate change impact of oil production or oil...

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Obama’s plan to fix climate change

Ethan Miller/Getty Images To combat Canada’s reputation as a climate laggard in the United States, the Harper government likes to emphasize that the two countries are committed to the same goal for...

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A debate with Elizabeth May on Northern Gateway

Over-and-above the environmental objections voiced by many opponents to Northern Gateway and other oil sands pipelines, the question of whether we should upgrade or refine more oil sands product at...

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Refine it where you mine it? The value-adders are back.

In December, I wrote about the propensity for some to oppose pipelines on the basis that we should be refining the oil here, rather than shipping raw resources out of the country to more lucrative...

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Oil sands moratorium? You’re going to need a stronger case

Photo: Jiri Rezac / WWF / Polaris In a comment published in Nature on June 25, Wendy Palen of Simon Fraser University and a series of co-authors argue that a policy should be imposed in North America...

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A paper on Keystone’s climate impacts would fail Econ 101

Photo by shannonpatrick17 / Wikimedia Commons An article published this week in Nature Climate Change (article via Nature paywall) is making the rounds of the headlines because it makes some pretty...

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Why the debate over Keystone and emissions comes down to rail

Stephen C. Host/CP Yesterday, I wrote a long post on the basic economics of oil sands and Keystone XL in response to an article published this week in Nature Climate Change (article via Nature...

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Harper’s Copenhagen fantasy

“Just close your eyes, dream but don’t ruin it by asking any hard questions.” Those words, spoken by Prime Minister Harper, were not addressing Canada’s Copenhagen target and what measures might be...

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Un-muzzle the scientists? Not so fast.

Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press Every so often, something happens which renews calls in this country for scientists within the federal government to have more unfettered rights to speak to media....

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A modest proposal for the NDP: Unmuzzle the government economists

In a mailer sent out Thursday evening, NDP MP and science and technology critic Kennedy Stewart informed his friends that he was dismayed to see my post last week with respect to public servants being...

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Did Newfoundland taxpayers just get stuck with a costly clean-up?

This morning, it was announced that Harvest Energy, a subsidiary of the Korean National Oil Company, had sold its interest in the Come By Chance refinery in Newfoundland to SilverRange Financial...

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Why falling global oil prices aren’t hurting Alberta

(Shutterstock) Since mid-June, global oil prices have been softening, dropping from a peak value of $115 per barrel the week of June 20th to last week’s average of $97 per barrel with further decreases...

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Why building a massive oil sands refinery would be a bad idea

(Shutterstock) On Oct. 6, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) released a new report that purports to show that refining in Alberta is a viable business opportunity—more than viable, in fact—with...

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Banning crude exports would be stupid, but don’t take my word for it

Sometimes consultants say the damndest things.  When the Alberta Federation of Labour brought in consultant Ed Osterwald to justify their push for limits on exports on raw bitumen or more government...

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Should Jim Prentice be worried about oil prices?

If you ask the Jim Prentice, the premier of Alberta, what keeps him up at night, he might say pipelines, but I’m sure oil prices aren’t too far behind, especially this week. The summer saw everything...

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The loonie, oil’s crash, and why this isn’t anything like 2008

Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz, a master of the econo-metaphor, has described the relationship between the Canadian dollar and oil in many colourful ways—as oil drops, the impact on the terms of...

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The Harper government is doing more harm than good for the oil sands

(Shutterstock) Canada’s hydrocarbon energy sector and, in particular, the growing oil sands sector, has an Achilles’ heel: greenhouse-gas emissions. The energy sector is supposed to have a friend in...

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Just how much is the oil price drop hurting oil sands projects?

Over the past few weeks the price of crude has dropped significantly, and with it we’ve seen significant discussion of the continued viability of oil sands projects.  Much of this discussion was...

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Is it time to panic in the oil sands?

Since early June, the price of Western Canadian Select, the benchmark price for heavy crude in western Canada, has dropped from $94 per barrel to barely over $55 per barrel on Friday. The decline in...

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Oil sands cost inflation coming back to bite us now

In June, 2006, Canada’s National Energy Board published their outlook for Opportunities and Challenges in the oil sands through to 2015. Today, with the oil sands industry watching the ever-falling oil...

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Are oil sands incompatible with action on climate change?

Jason Franson/CP This week, a new peer-reviewed letter in top scientific journal Nature by Christophe McGlade and Paul Ekins drew a ton of media attention. This is, in part, due to the letter’s...

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Why this oil crash could be worse for Alberta than the one in 2008

Jeff McIntosh/CP In hindsight, I wish I’d have made use of the word yet when I claimed, in an article not so long ago, that the current oil price crash wasn’t anything like 2008, or in two others that...

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The oil price crash and the oil sands

Jason Franson/CP In preparation for testimony before the House of Commons finance committee in Ottawa on March 10, I pulled together some thoughts on three aspects of the impact of the oil-price crash...

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No, it’s not ‘crazy’ to regulate emissions in the oil sands

As oil prices tumbled in the latter half of 2014, the Prime Minister and other Conservative Party MPs and cabinet ministers became fond of saying that, in these tough times, it would be crazy to...

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Alberta’s resource revenue picture is downright bleak

It’s the day after budget day in Alberta, and we’re still slowly absorbing the details of some large changes in the province we knew. The province is expected to post a large deficit, and depending on...

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What would an Alberta NDP government do with energy policy?

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley. (Jeff McIntosh/CP) With the Alberta NDP running high in the polls, and after leader Rachel Notley’s excellent performance in the only televised leaders’ debate,...

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Four questions for the Alberta NDP about its approach to energy

(Tyler McKay/Shutterstock) With the Alberta NDP enjoying a strong showing in election polls, Andrew Leach, professor of energy policy at the University of Alberta, asked the party to shed light on its...

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What would energy look like under a Wildrose government?

Alberta Wildrose Leader Brian Jean wlaks past cowboy boots during a campaign stop in Calgary—THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh The Alberta election is creating some strange and unexpected storylines....

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Four questions for the Wildrose Party about its approach to energy

Written off as good-as-dead by many after their leader, Danielle Smith, along with 10 MLAs, crossed the floor to the governing PC party in the Fall, Alberta’s Wildrose Party has staged a stunning...

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Should we trust the Alberta PCs on energy policy?

Alberta PC leader Jim Prentice speaks during a campaign stop in Calgary, Alta. — THE CANADIAN PRESS/Larry MacDougal In the leadup to Alberta’s election, I’ve been compiling pieces on the parties’...

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An inside look at Alberta’s new climate change rules

With last month’s election of Rachel Notley’s NDP in Alberta, it was clear that many things would be changing, in particular with respect to resource and environmental policy.  As I wrote during the...

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The economic cost of carbon policy

Premier Rachel Notley, right, and Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips after unveiling Alberta’s climate strategy in Edmonton, Alberta, on Sunday, November 22, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber...

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Making sense of the legal fight over Alberta’s power agreements

 (Jonathan Hayward/CP) The Government of Alberta recently launched a legal case that may “be one of the more complex and high profile judicial review proceedings ever heard in the province.” The...

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Why Petronas cancelled its plans for an LNG project on B.C.’s coast

(iStock) This week, Petronas finally announced that it would not proceed with its Pacific Northwest LNG project—part of a proposed $36 billion investment in B.C. natural gas production, processing and...

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Alberta’s strong carbon policy is key to getting pipelines built

Protesters hold up signs as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a public town hall in Nanaimo, B.C., on Friday, February 2, 2018.(Jonathan Hayward/CP) The only reason Alberta has any hope of...

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The B.C.-Alberta pipeline fight could undo our national climate plan

Rachel Notley (left) and John Horgan. (Jason Franson/CP and Darryl Dyck/CP) Andrew Leach is a professor of energy and environmental economics at the University of Alberta. In 2015 he served as chair of...

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Don’t count on Jason Kenney’s pipeline promise

Andrew Leach is an associate professor at the University of Alberta School of Business. In 2015, he chaired Alberta’s Climate Advisory Panel which recommended some of the policies now in place in...

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