Category Archives: Aldyen Donnelly

On the global environmental front, a major problem is that the Kyoto Protocol rules say that we get carbon credits if we invest in/build a wind farm in China even if China continues to build a new coal-fired generation unit every week.  But when we build the same wind generation capacity in Canada, there is no reportable GHG reduction unless/until we also shut-down and equivalent amount of fossil-fired power generation capacity. 

Canadians do not understand this bias in the Kyoto Protocol yet, but when they do they will not be supportive.

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Oilsands operations have very different GHG profiles. The over-simple analysis that Berkeley’s Energy Group has done, to date, does not tell the whole story.  The analysis suggests (more or less accurately) that if we use oilsands feedstocks to make gasoline, the full fuel cycle GHGs are high relative to conventional sweet crude. 
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In summary, US cap and trade will oblige US producers AND IMPORTERS of petroleum products, liquids from coal, natural gas and biofuels to surrender US GHG allowances covering the US GHGs arising from the US end-use of those products. Then, there is a free allocation of US GHG allowances to US refineries and US natural gas distributors. The gas LDCs are obliged to sell their free allowances to raise cash to mitigate the impact of cap and trade on residential and commercial customer prices.

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In a recent article, Dow Chemical spokesman Jonathan Moser said intensity targets are incompatible with a national cap-and-trade plan, particularly given the desire to make it compatible with a proposed regulatory system in the United States.

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Many supporters in the reduction of greenhouse gases say that the most effective way to do so would be to NOT license further capacity without retiring existing capacity. Nor should capacity to support fossil fuel-based transport be expanded. One way to keep cars off the road is to stop building roads—forcing consumers and businesses to make do with existing infrastructure of that sort and facilitate shift to other modes

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The BC government’s Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT) pays private entities $25/TCO2e for greenhouse gas "credits" that are acquired to offset provincial government GHG emissions.

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The data appearing under "key findings" heading for the RWI study, “Economic impacts from the promotion of renewable energies: The German Experience,” study look generally correct to me, but I do not completely agree with the study’s conclusions.  After looking at Germany, the authors have pretty much written off renewable energy mandates altogether. 

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I am not sure where Janet Peace, Vice President of Markets and Business Strategy at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, gets her estimate that only 10% to 20% of Canadian exports are vulnerable to US trans-border charges under US climate change legislation.
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Tim Flannery, a famous Australian environmentalist was recently interviewed by a number of Canadian media outlets, including the CBC and CPAC. I found his appearance most bizarre. 

His home country of Australia is one of roughly a dozen nations worldwide that have (1) higher per capita GHGs than Canada and (2) have exhibited a higher rate of GHG growth since 1990 than Canada. I found it bizarre to see his disapproval of Canada aired on CBC, yesterday, given the performance of his home nation. 
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Extracting cash from the resource sector

Since the mid-1980s, Norwegian law made it illegal for any corporate entity to extract oil or gas from Norway’s continental shelf other than in partnership with a government-controlled entity. StatHydro owns control of over 66% of Norwegian production capacity. 
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