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Tugs not what they used to be
July 8, 2010
Amazing modern tugs can maneuver large ships but would they be effective as escorts for Very Large Crude Carriers on the BC coast?
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Tanker moratorium disputed
July 8, 2010
Trudeau's 1972 west coast Tanker Exclusion Zone is being challenged as not enshrined in law; as merely an agreement between Canadian and US Coast Guards.
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Editorial: Not Worth The Risk
July 8, 2010
The coming-and-goings of oil on tankers and through pipelines are not rational or sensible. Truly innovative solutions might be possible but it would require government to act, rather than oil companies.
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Enbridge makes pipeline application
June 10, 2010
The application for the 1,170 km pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat has been submitted. Supertankers on the coast? The gutting of the environmental assessment process, bundled into the Budget Implementation Act now before parliament, has many worried about the thoroughness of any review of the application.
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Enronizing BC Hydro
May 13, 2010
BC Hydro's assets and regulated cash flow finance an unregulated trading business.
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Oil Spill Implications
May 13, 2010
Gulf of Mexico catastrophe points up the risks of reduced oil drilling regulation and enforcement for Canada. Tankers too?
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Coastal First Nations oppose Endbridge pipeline
April 29, 2010
Nine First Naitons join with environmental groups and prominent Canadians to oppose dual pipeline.
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Trade Sanctions for Climate Treaties
April 29, 2010
Elizabeth May looks at use of trade sanctions as a method for encouraging greenhouse gas reduction.
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Public concern grows about Raven Coal mine
April 1, 2010
A coalmine proposed for mid-east coast Vancouver Island could result in the pollution of Baynes Sound. Area-residents are organizing to defeat the proposal.
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Further delay for Bute Inlet power project
March 18, 2010
Plutonic/GE has delayed its massive run-of-river project for at least 18 months while the company finishes its environmental impact statement.
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The conundrum of Site-C
March 4, 2010
The Site-C dam is back in the picture - and the public pocket. It is needed to support power produced privately for BC Hydro. Who gains? Read the ins and outs of this convoluted situation.
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Is shipping tar sands oil from Kitimat wise?
March 4, 2010
The nightmare of tankers along BC's busy and treacherous coast looms large. Can we risk another tanker port? What are the risks of turning Kitimat into a base for both crude oil supertankers and LNG tankers?
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BC Hydro and IPPs
February 18, 2010
Two articles and an editorial examine the conflicts between BC Hydro and private power companies.
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Goodbye to dividends from BC Hydro
December 17, 2009
No dividend to the Province this year from BC Hydro. This marks the change in the purpose of the utility from providing cheap electricity to BC residents and industries to financing privately-generated power and marketing it to the United States.
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Follow the money: some ins and outs of IPP power
December 17, 2009
BC Hydro initiates discussion on several run-of-river power projects.
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Ambitious GHG target for Canada is affordable
November 19, 2009
A comprehensive new study 'Climate Leadership, Economic Prosperity' shows that Canada can set effective GHG reduction targets without undue effects on Canada's overall economy. The study invokes strong reaction.
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Exporting BC power to California is not that simple, yet
September 24, 2009
Under California's regulations BC's dam power and run-of-river are not green enough. Yet the state needs BC power; will it compromise its standards?
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Running on empty - the provincial budget
September 10, 2009
BC has become a kind of (failed) petrostate. Without natural gas royalties there is not enough money to run the province.
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Price crash repurposes Kitimat LNG port
July 16, 2009
In view of crashing natural gas prices, the Kitimat LNG plant will export instead of import natural gas.
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Salt Spring Microhydro
June 18, 2009
Wintertime run-of-creek hydro could provide a portion of Salt Spring's local renewable energy plan.
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Carbon — the state of play
May 21, 2009
Recapping the carbon tax and looking at Cap-And-Dividend.
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Multiple footprints
May 7, 2009
The squabble amongst BC environmentalists over run-of-river power and carbon reduction is a red herring. It's also a good example of wedge politics. The resolution is for the BC government to use broader assessment criteria and create a provincial master plan for clean power. Power production should not simply be left to the private sector; BC Hydro should not be dismembered.
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Bute Inlet power project will have cumulative environmental impacts
January 15, 2009
A multi-site, ‘run-of-river’ power, super-project has been proposed by Plutonic Power Ltd for creeks and rivers emptying into the upper Bute Inlet. The scale of transmission lines illustrate both problems of economies of scale and environmental effects in massive power developments.
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Stuck in the Tar Sands
July 24, 2008
In 1965, a small group of analysts at a multinational oil company were puzzled when they learned of a new enterprise, Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited (now Suncor), which appeared to be mining a small area of Alberta’s tar sands. At the time, there was plenty of conventional oil being produced, new wells were being drilled, and exploration companies were discovering new oilfields weekly.
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BC oil and gas rights sale shatters record
July 24, 2008
The July sale of oil and gas rights resulted in a record-breaking total of over $610 million in bonus bids. The July 17 sale brings the fiscal year-to-date total to a new record of over $1.3 billion, announced Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Richard Neufeld.
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Too little, too late: US re-regulation of the money markets
June 12, 2008
In the wake of soaring oil prices the US has been making moves toward re-regulating the commodity futures markets, which it has been de-regulating for the last 30 years.
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Oil prices - betting on the only sure thing
May 29, 2008
The price of crude oil is rising at an unprecedented rate, and oscilates wildly from day to day. What drives massive speculation?
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The BC approach to GHG regulation – carbon taxation plus ‘cap-&-trade’
May 1, 2008
BC’s Liberal Government is attacking greenhouse gas emissions in the province with a double-barreled strategy: a shift to a carbon tax for fossil fuel users (most of us) and a ‘cap & trade’ system for large emitters.
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One river: less endangered now?
April 3, 2008
Before BC Environment Minister Barry Penner effectively pulled the plug on a private company plan to build a series of hydro-power installations along creeks that feed into the Upper Pitt River and a transmission line through a provincial park, the BC Recreation Council had labelled the river (40 kilometres from Vancouver) BC’s most endangered river.
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Our Wattage Sold For a Mess of Pottage
January 24, 2008 | Book Review by Patrick Brown
In Liquid Gold, John Calvert’s central theme is that British Columbian’s birthright, BC Hydro’s integrated system of large hydro-electric dams, power lines, and distribution strategies, dating from the WAC Bennett era and charging some of the cheapest electricity rates in North America, is being destroyed.
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Wind energy gets green light; how to help the industry go big?
January 24, 2008 | Erik Andersen
The wind turbine generation industry is setting a blistering development pace. An annual compounding growth rate of 30% is leaving everyone standing in awe. Reports from the Pacific Northwest describe ‘land rushes’ for any and all reasonable locations for wind turbine parks.
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Halfway to an energy plan
November 29, 2007 | Patrick Brown
The BC government’s 2007 Energy Plan’s themes are: energy conservation, energy efficiency, and self-sufficiency. It is starting to have an impact on residential rates electricity; in a recent report BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) authorized the ‘rebalancing’ of electricity rates between types of power consumers.
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Status quo on climate change; nuke tar sands, says Lunn
July 26, 2007 | Peter Carter
In December, Minister Gary Lunn said nuclear power in the oil sands is a matter of ‘when, not if’, adding that it could ‘play a very significant role … I’m very, very keen.’ Which sounds like Minister Lunn wants as much oil flowing from the tar sands as possible, come global warming, climate change, Hell, and/or high water.
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Why You Should Change Your Power Consumption
April 5, 2007 | Commentary by Patti Bauer
Many of us believe that BC Hydro is one of the cleanest and greenest public utilities in the world.
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The ‘Crusade’ for Oil
March 8, 2007 | Michel Chossudovsky
Throughout history, ‘wars of religion’ have served to obscure the economic and strategic interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. ‘Wars of religion’ were invariably fought with a view to securing control over trading routes and natural resources.
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Well Beyond Kyoto
November 16, 2006 | Book Review by Patrick Brown
‘This book,’ writes Monbiot, ‘has an overtly political purpose. It aims to encourage people not only to change the way they live but also to encourage their governments to make such changes easier.’
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Thirty-three local governments want say in independent power projects
October 19, 2006
Thirty-three BC regional districts and municipalities, representing approximately 1,000,000 residents, are fighting amendments to the Utilities Commission Act contained in the provincial government’s Bill 30 legislation.
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Supermarkets and Service Stations Competing for Grain
August 24, 2006 | Lester R. Brown
Cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption this year.
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VITR decision appealed
August 24, 2006
The TRAHVOL appeal takes issue with BCUC’s apparent definition of the ‘public interest’ as being the most cost-effective option for BCTC. The group argues that the BCUC panel gave little or no weight to health concerns regarding electromagnetic field (EMF) effects associated with overhead lines through the Tsawwassen residential area.
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Electricity Across the Border
August 24, 2006
Many years ago, British Columbia’s WAC Bennett government built an electrical monopoly for BC, generating power primarily from massive hydro-electric projects.
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BCSEA has mixed reaction to new hydro projects
August 10, 2006
The BC Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA) welcomes the prospect of BC’s first commercial wind projects, but vows ‘P-4’ (prolonged and persistent public protest) against the two coalfired power projects announced as winners in the Call for Power to supply the BC Hydro grid.
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BCUC rules VITR will be overhead
July 27, 2006
The proposal is to replace the forty-year-old high voltage DC lines, which run through Tsawwassen and across Galiano, Parker, and Salt Spring Islands, with a new overhead AC line by October 2008.
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Water or Oil? Troubling Trends
June 15, 2006 | Wendy R. Holm
The oil industry’s thirst for Canada’s water is old news...What is news is Pembina Institute’s careful documentation of the extent of current water withdrawals, and the implications for rising energy prices on future water demand.
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The Carbon Credit Myth
June 15, 2006 | Patrick Brown
It’s clear by now that there’s no way Canada can meet its Kyoto commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) production to 6% less than 1990 levels by 2012
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Paradox: peak oil is driving fossil fuel development
May 18, 2006 | Peter D. Carter
The draft scientific report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been leaked by the US government...
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Sharing, NAFTA Style
May 4, 2006 | Patrick Brown
Under NAFTA, the US has the right to share equally with Canadian users in any increase in Canadian oil production. The figure often quoted is that some 62% of Canadian oil production is exported to the US.
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Overcoming US Oil Addiction
April 20, 2006 | Dan Woynillowicz
‘America is addicted to oil,’ American President George Bush said in a recent State of the Union address.
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Powerline Battle Continues
March 23, 2006
The battle between the BC Transmission Corporation and SeaBreeze to transmit power to Vancouver Island continues at both the BC Utilities Commission hearings and in preliminary skirmishes...
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Sea Breeze Sideswiped at BCUC Hearing
March 9, 2006
Sea Breeze Victoria Converter Corporation has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for its Vancouver Island Cable (VIC) project.
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Power Waiting
March 9, 2006 | Wendy Hacking
There are the short ones and then there are the long ones. You never really know when one is going to happen. Of course, there can be signs. Wind, not surprisingly.
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Limited Comment for Toba River Hydro Scheme
February 9, 2006 | Patrick Brown
Despite an environmental review period that could stretch as long as 180 days, public comment on two run-of-river hydroelectricity generation proposals near the head of Toba Inlet is to be limited to one month.
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Salt Spring Town Hall Meeting Seeks Power Line Alternatives
January 19, 2006
A lively ‘town hall’ meeting on Salt Spring Island on Saturday, January 7, saw opponents of the construction of a new high voltage power line across the Island out in force.
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More Alaska Oil Could Pass Gulf Island Shores
December 15, 2005 | Patrick Brown
The continuing increase in the demand for gasoline in the United States has led to an oil industry push to develop potential oilfields under the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR).
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Too Valuable to Burn
September 8, 2005 | Peter Carter
I’m a real odd ball. I’m the only one I know who feels good when the price of gas goes up. I see it as good news for our health and the future of our families.
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Speculation and the Price of Oil
August 25, 2005 | Patrick Brown
Since the oil monopoly of the ‘seven sisters’ was broken in the seventies, the price of crude oil has been set by trading in futures on markets in New York, London, and Singapore. As I write this, the price of oil for September 2005 delivery has topped $66US a barrel (42 US gallons) and is continuing to rise.
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Will the Third World Show the Way with Renewables?
July 14, 2005 | Andrew Simms
For years the superpower politics of the Cold War blocked efforts to end global poverty. Today it is the hot war of energy economics and global warming tht present an impossible obstacle.
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Islanders Fear Power Plant Cancellation May Accelerate Transmission Line Replacement
July 14, 2005
Many Salt Spring and Galiano Island residents now fear that cancellation of Duke Point will increase pressure for a quick approval of new souped-up overhead transmission lines which would cross both islands.
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Salvaging Meaning from the Duke Point Fiasco
June 30, 2005 | Patrick Brown
Was the real reason from Hydro<’>s sudden retreat that neither Hydro nor the provincial goverment wanted the Appeal Court judges enquiring whether <‘>commerical confidentiality<’> could be maintained when government functions were privitized?
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Hydro Abandons Duke Point Proposal
June 30, 2005
The Duke Point gas-fired generating plant proposal is no more.
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Duke Point Approval will be Appealed
February 24, 2005 | Patrick Brown
An appeal of BCUC’s February 17 approval of BC Hydro’s Duke Point plans for fossil-fuel generated energy for Vancouver Island is underway.
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Shenanigans at BCUC Hearings
February 10, 2005 | Patrick Brown
A motion by GSXCCC and other intervenors to disqualify members of the BC Utilities Commission Panel from hearing the application for approval of the Duke Point Power project was rejected...
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Duking It Out Over Vancouver Island’s Power Supply
January 27, 2005 | Patrick Brown
Hearings by the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) into the proposed Duke Point Power (DPP) gas-fired electricity generation plant got underway...
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January Hearings on Duke Point Electricity Generation
December 16, 2004 | Patrick Brown
The BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) will hold oral hearings and town hall sessions in Nanaimo...
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BCUC Will Consider Latest BC ‘Privatization’
December 2, 2004 | Patrick Brown
In order to revive the Duke Point gas-fired generation project, BC Hydro is entering into a cost plus contract with the Duke Point Power Limited Partnership (DPP)...
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Figuring Out the Hydro Bill
December 2, 2004
Subject to acceptance by the Commission, the proposed final rate increase will be 4.85%...
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GS-X-The Beat Goes On
September 23, 2004
Williams Pipelines, BC Hydro’s partner in the proposed construction of the Georgia Strait Crossing natural gas pipeline, continues to pursue permits for the pipeline on the US side of the border. And BC Hydro continues to entertain bids for natural gas turbine-generated power on Vancouver Island.
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GS-X Pipeline Possibility Fading
July 29, 2004 | Patrick Brown
Although BC Hydro is still receiving tenders (until August 13) for the provision of additional electricity to Vancouver Island and most plans of BC Hydro’s qualified bidders are predicated on using natural gas as fuel, it seems increasing unlikely that any gas will be delivered by the Georgia Strait Crossing (GS-X) pipeline...
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The Gas Price 'Crisis'
July 1, 2004 | Peter D. Carter
The recent 25¢-per-litre increase in the price of gasoline resulted in a furor from Joe and Joanne Public....
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Hydro Rate Increase Would Be More, Sooner
April 22, 2004
BC Hydro has filed a revision to its original revenue requirements application with the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) that includes a request for a revised rate increase of 8.9% in 2005...
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What's Gardening Got to Do with It?
March 11, 2004 | Derek Masselink
We used to live on the UBC Farm, which we often bragged with some irony is the last remaining farm in the city...
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Hydro’s Flawed Call for Tenders and Other Electric News
February 26, 2004 | Patrick Brown
The BC Utilities Commission rejected Hydro’s proposal for a gas turbine generation plant at Duke Point because BCUC thought that it was not the most economic way to obtain additional electricity for Vancouver Island...
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Petrotyranny—The Present Day
December 18, 2003 | Peter D. Carter
Because of the history of the oil industry, ‘big oil’ today is all ‘Anglo-American.’ For example, Esso began life in 1888 as the Anglo-American Oil Company.
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Vancouver Island Power—la plus ça change…
December 4, 2003 | Patrick Brown
On September 8, the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) rejected BC Hydro’s Vancouver Island Generation Plan (VIGP) for Duke Point at Nanaimo...
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Oil and Gas—A Mess of It in Canada
October 23, 2003 | Peter D. Carter
At first sight, Canadian policy on our oil and gas reserves is resulting in an increase in oil and gas exploration; in exports to the United States; in depletion of Canadian oil and gas reserves...
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Blood for Oil—A Long History
October 9, 2003 | Peter D. Carter
A little history may cast some light on the eagerness of the US and UK to invade Iraq earlier this year.
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Fossil Fuels: Feast or Famine?
September 25, 2003 | John Carlton
‘Thank heavens there is lots of oil.’ After all, we even put out forest fires with it...
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The GSX Report—Half a Job
August 14, 2003 | Patrick Brown
A 229-page report on the gas pipeline proposed to cross the Georgia Strait was produced by the National Energy Board/Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency Joint Review Panel...
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New Tenders to Compete with GSX/VIGP
July 17, 2003 | Patrick Brown
At the conclusion of the BC Utilities Commission hearings in Nanaimo on July 3, BC Hydro proposed to call for firm tenders for alternative ways to provide for Vancouver Island’s future electricity needs.
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NorskeCanada Introduces New Power Plan for Vancouver Island; Claims Hydro Tried to Suppress It
April 24, 2003
Pulp mill operator NorskeCanada, the largest consumer of electricity on Vancouver Island, has proposed a plan to generate power at its plants, and save power it presently uses.
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Green Power Proposals Swamp Hydro
April 10, 2003
BC Hydro has agreed to consider 30, out of an original 70, proposals from independent power producers for its 2002/03 Green Power Generation (GPG) procurement process.
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GSX Hearing Begins
January 30, 2003
After several months’ delay waiting for the completion of consultations with local First Nations, the National Energy Board/ Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency hearings on the proposed Georgia Strait Crossing (GSX) gas pipeline are to resume...
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Backdrop to the Looming War
December 19, 2002 | Patrick Cummins
Another war is looming in the Middle East and Canada may be involved. Why is this happening now and what is driving the conflict?
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Subsidizing the Oil Economy
September 12, 2002 | Peter D. Carter
There is much hot-air being written about global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. Some fresh air is provided by Guy Dauncey in his book Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change...
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GSX Questioned in Whatcom County
February 28, 2002
According to a report in the Bellingham Herald, the Bellingham environmental group RE Sources wants the proposed natural gas pipeline across Whatcom County (Washington State) to be put on hold...
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GSX Panel Revises List of Issues
February 14, 2002
The NEB/CEAA Joint Review Panel for the proposed Georgia Strait gas pipeline has clarified its original List of Issues to include many of the environmental issues raised during a series of public meetings in January.
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BC Hydro Zeros in on Nanaimo
February 14, 2002
BC Hydro and Calpine Canada Power Holdings Ltd, still looking for a friendly host-municipality for its proposed second gas-fired generating station, has now set its sights on the Duke Point area of Nanaimo.
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The GSX Files
January 31, 2002
BC Hydro’s dependence on Vancouver Island gas-fired electricity generation plans is confirmed in the Interim Report published by the province’s Energy Policy Task Force...
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Caspian Basin Pipelines and World Oil Reserves
November 8, 2001 | Patrick Brown
Oil from the Caspian Basin is of strategic importance to future US, European, and Asian energy strategies. Transporting it to these markets depends on building pipelines to tidewater or to connect with existing pipeline systems...
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A War of Convenience
November 8, 2001 | Patrick Brown
Fundamentalist Islam threatens the current regimes of the mostly undemocratic governments of the Middle East and Central Asia. But these governments control some 20% of the oil consumed by the US...
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