Fact-checking supporting arguments for the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion

Elizabeth May Madam Speaker, the debate so far today has been contaminated by so many claims that are contrafactual. In other words, the facts are clear, but the conversation in this place is ignoring them. For instance, the claim was made that shipping bitumen is safer in a pipeline. The opposite is true. When the ...

Recommended Viewing: Dr Robert Davies – The Great Big Context of Climate Disruption

Human-driven climate disruption poses extreme risks in the coming decades. Indeed some people, societies, species, and ecosystems have already experienced significant, even catastrophic consequences. Recognition of the scale and immediacy of this malady is now driving a new era of mitigation strategies. Climate disruption, however, is not a single ailment that can be treated in ...

Recommended Viewing: Tony Seba – Clean Disruption – Why Energy & Transportation will be Obsolete by 2030

Tony Seba’s Clean Disruption Keynote presentation at the Swedbank Nordic Energy Summit in Oslo, Norway, March 17th, 2016. The keynote, based on the book ‘Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation’ assert that four technology categories will disrupt energy and transportation by: 1- Batteries / Energy Storage 2- Electric Vehicles 3- Self-Driving Vehicles 4- Solar Energy ...

Keystone and the tipping point away from fossil fuels

Last spring when the U.S. State Department Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Keystone XL was released, it was heralded by project boosters as the green light to approval. It was actually more of a flashing yellow. The EIS was dense and lengthy. It was a policy wonkish document. When the NEB report on Enbridge ...

Canada’s economic priority must be innovation

Green economic principles are pragmatic. Thanks to the influence of Green parties around the world, these core principles have been tested. They work. Central to our policies is understanding that there is no conflict between environment and economy. A smart economy is one that is resilient. A smart economy is diversified, less vulnerable to global ...

Letter to the Editor: Give Capital Region a Say on Pipeline

To the Editor, I couldn’t agree more with Mayor Fortin that citizens of southern Vancouver Island must have a say, and a definitive say, about the proposal to dramatically increase bitumen-loaded tankers through our waters. I am also an intervenor in the Kinder-Morgan National Energy Board hearing process. By reducing the process to largely a ...

Why Canada needs an Energy Policy

It is clear that debates dealing with energy choices dominate the news: Pipelines – Keystone, Enbridge, Kinder-Morgan, Energy East; oil sands versus tar sands; climate policy and the lack thereof; coal plants and so on. For the most part, these debates are treated as isolated, zero-sum games. You can either have a healthy economy or ...

Bill S-15 Would Allow Oil and Gas Activities inside Sable Island National Park Reserve

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands, today expressed her opposition to Bill S-15, designed to convert Sable Island into a national park. “Quite simply, this Bill will allow oil and gas exploration inside a National Park and drilling, including fracking, underneath Sable Island itself, said May. “I’m disappointed that this has already passed ...

Question Period – Northern Gateway Pipeline and Provincial Rights

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, in 2001, the Prime Minister wrote a famous letter to the former premier of Alberta, which he urged him to act to “limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach on legitimate provincial jurisdiction”. Six days ago, the provincial government of British Columbia said no to ...

400 ppm

We have now crossed a dangerous line in the global build up of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gas concentrations have moved from the pre-Industrial Revolution level that never exceeded 280 parts per million (ppm) to a new daily average of 400ppm, reached last week. Over a period of the last million years, CO2 never exceeded 280 ...