By Patrick Moore

              When I helped found Greenpeace in Vancouver in the 1970s, my colleagues and I were firmly opposed to nuclear energy. But times have changed. I now realize nuclear energy is the only non-greenhouse gas-emitting power source that can effectively replace fossil fuels and satisfy Canada’s growing demand for energy.

              Nuclear power plants are a practical option for producing clean, cost-effective, reliable and safe baseload power in Alberta’s oilsands.

              Nuclear energy is affordable. According to the Canadian Energy Research Institute, nuclear is one of the most cost-effective energy sources available. At less than five cents per kilowatt-hour, nuclear…

              Investing in Sustainability/Conservation, Efficiency & Productivity: March 3-4, Lethbridge. FMI visit http://www.aipa.org/conference_2008.html

              4^th Annual Banff Conference on Agriculture, Food and the Environment: March 4-6, Banff. FMI visit http://www.aiabanffconference.com/banffconference/

              2008 Wildland Urban Interface/New Fire Frontiers: March 4-5, Reno, Nevada. FMI visit http://www.iafc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=100

              Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008: March 4-6, Washington, D.C. FMI visit http://www.wirec2008.gov/wps/portal/wirec2008

              B.C. Clean Air Forum 2008: March 5, Penticton. FMI visit https://www.eplyevents.com/Event.aspx?l=1&evt=eb1f7190-19a3-4d52-993d-ad14c5f86220

              Smart Grid Initiatives for Utilities Conference: March 5-6, Atlanta, Georgia. FMI visit http://www.marcusevans.com/html/eventdetail.asp
?EventID=13337&ad=smartgrid2008&SectorID=

              9^th Annual International Pipeline Congress and Exhibition: March 5-7, Tabasco, Mexico. FMI visit http://www.alberta-canada.com/events/eventDisplay.cfm?id=1840

              Canadian Energy Research Institute Training Courses:

. Introduction to the Natural…

» Continue reading People & Companies

              RBC is contributing $50 million over 10 years to charitable groups working on water-related initiatives, prompted by the banking group’s view that water will be the defining environmental issue of this century.

              “Our stakeholders frankly are asking for more” in terms of the corporation’s commitment to the environment, RBC spokesman Nelson Switzer said in an interview. “We thought, ‘How can we best communicate that?’ . . . and we thought by coming up with an environmental issue . . . that everybody could understand (and) would really resonate . . ..”

              Although Canada is a water-rich nation, the country ranks…

              The global “techno-industrial society” will collapse because the human species is genetically and culturally programmed to act in ways that are unsustainable, says the expert who coined the term “environmental footprint.”

              The world’s population is too large to support the current lifestyles of individuals who live on the planet, William Rees, a professor of population ecology at the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning, said in a keynote talk to the Trudeau Foundation’s 2007 conference.

              “Degradation and depletion (are) really a measure of humanity’s evolutionary success,” he said. Humanity’s “biological predispositions are being…

              People worried about global warming should invest in new strategies and technologies in response to climate change rather than focus only on reducing carbon emissions, says political scientist and author Bjorn Lomborg.

              The “doomsday” climate change scenario predicted by Nobel Prize winner Al Gore and others has led to an erroneous, cost-inefficient approach focused mainly on cutting carbon dioxide emissions, said Lomborg, author of Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming, and The Skeptical Environmentalist. The world needs a new conversation with a “sense of proportion” about the effects of climate change, not just “a one-way dialogue…

              Pressure and actions elsewhere to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will spur companies in Alberta and the federal government to cut emissions faster than planned, climate change experts say.

              Alberta intends to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in half by 2050, under a long-term climate change plan that includes carbon capture and storage technology, consumer incentives and ‘greener’ energy production, the provincial government announced in January.

              But action by other provinces, countries and stakeholders – including companies’ employees – will compel companies operating in Alberta to do more, experts told Insight Information’s 5^th Annual Canadian Oil Sands Summit in…

It is an anomaly – one that doesn’t serve the public interest – that the now-reconfigured Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) persists in regulating oil and gas development through a laissez faire regime of best regulatory practices.

Historical events like the Great Depression, followed by Keynesian state interference in the economies of Western democracies, have largely debunked Scottish philosopher-economist Adam Smith’s theory that an ‘invisible hand’ juggles the competing interests of stakeholders in our free-market, capitalist economy. Today’s political economists increasingly lament globalization’s failure to equitably distribute wealth among individuals and business enterprises.

Why, then, does Alberta’s energy regulator persist…

By David Schindler and Marlo Raynolds

              Several prominent environmental scientists are grudgingly contemplating a role for nuclear power in the Alberta electricity system, a testament to just how catastrophic and certain the implications of accelerating global warming are. As the recent G-8 Summit revealed, virtually everyone has started taking climate change seriously.

              Unfortunately, that is not yet true of the Alberta government. Our federal government is also still falling short on most counts.

              The federal and provincial governments’ failure to rein in the growth of Canada’s emissions has fed the notion we need to search more widely for technologies that might…

              A Seattle-based firm says its new “Clean Smokestack Solution” promises to revolutionize control of industrial greenhouse gases and other smokestack emissions – providing the technology is economic at a commercial scale.

              WI Environmental says independent, bench-scale engineering evaluation tests show its new technology can eliminate the release of carbon dioxide emissions – in addition to heavy metals, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide – from coal-fired electrical, cement and wood pulp plants.

              “Before applying the Clean Smokestack Solution to existing and new coal-fired power plants, feasibility, economic and preliminary engineering design analyses will need to be performed to…

              A “report card” by two environmental groups on Alberta’s existing and planned oilsands mining operations is either confusing or misleading, some industry and government representatives say.

              But the Pembina Institute and World Wildlife Fund-Canada, defend the results in the jointly produced the report card, Under-Mining the Environment: The Oil Sands Report Card, (available at www.wwf.ca/oilsandsreport). The environmental groups evaluated the environmental performance of 10 of Alberta’s operating, approved or applied-for oilsands mines. The average score among all oilsands projects surveyed was 33 per cent.

              Given plans to exploit the oilsands on some 140,000 square kilometres, “There is growing concern in Alberta, in…

              Developers of “clean coal” technologies will soon start providing performance guarantees to spur the building of commercial-scale, clean coal-fired power plants, says an industry expert on gasification.

              But when it comes to predicting how soon clean coal would be a reality, the answer is: “How long is a piece of string?” Paul Clark, an engineer and president of Ripley Canyon Resources Ltd., told the Canadian Energy Research Institute’s 2007 Electricity Conference. Clark founded his company, which is focused on coal/carbon gasification technology, after retiring as director of fuel supply for TransAlta Utilities Corp.

              There are about 10 companies providing…

              Former premiers Brian Tobin and Ralph Klein have teamed up to write a discussion paper detailing the “cornerstones” of a continental energy strategy.

              “(We) hope to encourage all bold policy makers and the Canadian public to think carefully about the opportunities presented by the energy sector, and how we can best use these resources to build a long-term, more sustainable, prosperous nation,” Tobin told a Fraser Institute dinner in Calgary. The former premier of Newfoundland is now a business advisor with the conservative think tank.

              Tobin said his and Klein’s “non-partisan” paper will focus on seven cornerstones of a continental energy strategy:…

              The oil and gas industry’s greenhouse gas emissions rose by 4.5 million tonnes last year, while emissions from gas flaring also increased after years of significant reductions, says the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).

              On the positive side, the industry has made “vast improvements” in sulphur recovery and in emissions of sulphur dioxide and benzene, CAPP said in its 2007 Stewardship Report (http://stewardship.capp.ca). The number of injuries for industry workers is also at the lowest level since Stewardship reporting began in 1999.

              CAPP also announced the recipients of the 2007 Stewards of Excellence awards. They are:

.   ConocoPhillips Canada for Environmental Performance. ConocoPhillips’s…

              Alberta’s new land-use system will impose strict rules on oil and gas development on the Rocky Mountains’ eastern slopes, curb urban sprawl and offer land-conservation incentives to landowners, says Alberta Sustainable Development Minister Ted Morton.

              Alberta has reached a “tipping point” where the old way of doing things in the province won’t work anymore, Morton said in a talk to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. “There are more and more people doing more and more activities on the same piece of land.”

              Morton predicted that “almost no one will be completely happy” with the new land-use framework, which…