2022.04.26 Note that RBC is one the world's largest financers of fossil fuel production

Oil and gas will be around a lot longer than some think, despite climate change goals: RBC (CBC)

2022.04.25 Hunh? Making hydro power to make hydrogen to make electricity for the grid?

I had to read this bit three times to make sure I was understanding their fundamental plan.
"The proposed project would include an offsite wind farm that would pump water to an upper reservoir on Tent Mountain with the hydro-electric power that is generated used to create green hydrogen in the lower reservoir. Any excess power would be sold to the electricity grid."
I have done the math on making green hydrogen from electricity. To oversimplify, the round-trip conversion losses (from green electricity from hydro to hydrogen; from hydrogen back to electricity) end up throwing away over 75% of the original high-quality energy to the conversion losses, and having less than 25% returned back as high-quality electric energy. In today's world, it makes no economic sense to turn 75% of quality energy into low-grade waste heat.

Montem Resources exploration of renewable energy project in southwestern Alberta raises questions (CBC)

2022.04.25 China plans to boost coal production by 300 million tonnes this year

“Insurance companies actually are recognizing that fossil fuel infrastructure is much riskier and either becoming uninsurable or much more expensive … and that is the reality of our world today,” said Kung. (National Observer)

2022.04.25 Trans Mountain pipeline insurers dropping like flies

Not the happy times like 2014 when the U.S.-China agreement on climate change mitigation was a ray of sunlight where many industrial nations were in stall and deny mode. (CNN)

2022.04.21 Some light in all the climate change darkness, Katharine Hayhoe is solid

Opinion: I Helped Pen the UN Climate Report. Here’s Why It Gives Me Hope. (Undark)

2022.04.18 Punching another hole in the green hydrogen economy mirage

This headline comes from a pro-hydrogen publication:
Japan - its Hydrogen Economy Runs The Risk of Being Powered by Coal (Fuel Cell Works)

So, Japan's emissions reduction plan seems to hinge burning coal to produce electricity to run electrolysis to make hydrogen. That's not green hydrogen, or even blue hydrogen. That's black hydrogen, even if Japan can invent and industrialize an effective flue gas carbon dioxide capture and SEQUESTRATION (not mentioned in the technology plan) system.

From the article:
"By doing so, Japan's hydrogen technique is basically simply protecting coal energy alive and, and if pursued at the price of shifting to renewable power, Japan will probably be locked into the long-term use of fossil fueels and CO2 emissions."

Looks like Japan is going to join Canada, Russia, China, Brazil and India in the club of climate change mitigation rogue states.

2022.04.18 Small Modular Reactors - Still not a right answer to climate change

Part of what I do here is call out the false idol 'solutions' being foisted on us by the vested interests in fossil fuels and their government lackeys. The top three being 'new nuclear', hydrogen as fuel and carbon capture from fossil fuel combustion. Today, a couple of items on 'new nuclear'. (It is my personal opinion, based on years of research, that we should not be doing big nuclear new-builds, because they can't be constructed in time to make a positive difference, on top of their legacy of baggage.)
We should not be funding 'new nuclear' (effectively synonymous with small modular reactors - SMR) because we still don't have the fundamental technology working, and haven't had since the 1989 TGTR 300 failure, radiation release and attempted government cover-up saying the release was not from this plant but from Chernobyl. The facility had been plagued by 'incidents' sufficiently serious they had to be reported to the regulatory authority.
Fast forward to 2022, and while Canadian provincial governments and the feds keep tossing taxpayer money at SMRs, the reality check keeps showing it's a boondoggle in the making. NuScale: Not new, not needed

And even if you can stomach all that and still think SMRs have a contribution to make by 2030, consider this current complication. SMRs may not be able to get fuel.
The Nuclear Reactors of the Future Have a Russia Problem
Next-generation nuclear plants could be safer and more efficient, but first the US has to figure out how to fuel them up—without relying on Russia.

2022.04.17 shhh! Doug Ford bails on climate change, again. But it's a secret.

Province 'coasting' on federal initiatives to cut carbon emissions, says Greenpeace
Ontario quietly revises its plan for hitting climate change targets (CBC)
Information release on the Ontario government website Government of Ontario

2022.04.17 Story from U.S., but same oil industry double-dipping likely happens in Canada, too.

Process to tap inaccessible deposits employs captured carbon and was therefore eligible to generate offsets
[dead site: https://wssnews.co.uk/firms-used-carbon-credit-created-in-oil-extraction-initiatives/] Firms used carbon credits created in oil extraction initiativess (WSS News UK)

2022.04.16 Did an 'independent' Ontario Crown agency fudge the numbers to fit a government political agenda?

Clearly, Canada - being the biggest producer of the world's dirtiest 'oil' - bitumen, just can't bring itself to walk the talk. Oil money shouts; other voices are muted.
Documents raise questions about costs to retire Ontario’s natural gas power plants (Globe & Mail)

2022.04.14 Canada is a rogue super-emitter

Canadians emit 20 tCO2 per person. That's twice as much as the Germans and three times as much as the British. (National Observer)

2022.04.14 Are Canadians smart enough to reduce GHG emissions without a pandemic?

Canada's greenhouse gas emissions declined for the second year in a row in 2020.

Canada saw a drop in greenhouse gas emissions during the first year of the pandemic: report (CBC)

2022.04.13 Is CNOOC pulling out of Canada really a bad thing?

Or is this another piece of evidence that the world really doesn't want the garbage 'oil' called bitumen.

Fearful over sanctions amid Ukraine war, Chinese energy giant CNOOC may pull out of Canada (CBC)

Remember, CNOOC's 2015 leak from their 3-year-old, 'state-of-the-art' pipeline was not even detected by pipeline operations team (Nexen).
[dead link: https://www.worldoil.com/news/2015/7/28/cnooc-oil-sands-spill-worsens-outlook-for-canada-pipeline-plans] World Oil article
AER says 60,000 litres, and the operator did not provide a number because Nexen couldn't measure the spill from pipeline operations data.
Nexen charged in 2015 pipeline spill at Long Lake facility near Fort McMurray
"In July 2016, one year after the spill, Nexen reported that its own investigation had found the pipeline buckled and ruptured because its design was incompatible with the muskeg ground conditions."

2022.04.08 Methane is climate change enemy number 1. If only there was a solution to this problem.

Funny story, there is a solution to this problem, which will also restore the quality of the water in our rivers, lakes and oceans. But, I'm not ready to tell you about it yet. You'll have to wait.

Methane in Earth’s atmosphere rose by record amount last year, US government data shows (The Guardian)

2022.04.07 For the second year in a row, NOAA scientists observed a record annual increase in atmospheric levels of methane

Increase in atmospheric methane set another record during 2021 (NOAA)

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2022.04.07 The headline is the story: Oil industry calls Bay du Nord approval triumph, climate advocates condemn it

The Canadian federal government chose climate chaos. The oil industry got everything they wanted. It dosesn't matter what climate change mitigation this government claims it will support, the amount of money will pale in comparison to the property damage and lives ruined caused by climate change arising from this and other support for the oil and gas industry in Canada, financial and non-financial.

Oil industry calls Bay du Nord approval triumph, climate advocates condemn it (CBC)

2022.04.07 Burning natural gas generates high levels of nitrogen oxides, linked to asthma in children

And that doesn't include the climate change impacts of fugitive emssions associated with the fracking and drilling and distribution leaks of using natural gas. For the good of your health, get off gas in your homes.

After seeing how gas stoves pollute homes, these researchers are ditching theirs (CBC)

2022.04.06 Trudeau-Singh first test on climate change is a fail; Bay du Nord approved.

Federal government approves controversial Bay du Nord oil project (CBC)
Well, the test came quickly for the Trudeau-Singh alliance. Which is more important? Profits for foreign-owned oil companies or survival of species? Unsurprisingly, Trudeau and Singh chose oil industry profits and more taxpayer subsidies. We'll worry about climate change in 2030 or later, it's a political strategy that has worked so far, and leaves the oil-loving Conservatives with no policy space further to the right - all they can attack is platitdues for 8 years from now.

2022.04.06 Putin's looting, pillaging and war crimes in Ukraine have unleashed a long string of unintended consquences. Europeans may even be prepared to put up with some discomfort and really embrace non-fossil fuel solutions for their energy needs.

Russian gas exodus will lower European carbon emissions, analysis suggests (IET)
"The research from DNV Energy estimates that 34 per cent of the energy mix in Europe will come from non-fossil fuel sources in 2024, two percentage points more than the pre-war forecast." That's a big shift given the direction in 2023 was increased fossil fuel use.

2022.04.05 Canada SHOULD be facing a tough fossil fuel choice, but in reality it is punting the ball down the field of time with a climate change 'plan' which gives the Canadian fossil fuel sector a pass and ignores the contribution of Canada's big banks profiteering off taxpayer funded bitumen boondoggles.

[dead link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-warnings-bay-du-nord-1.6408649] Caught between climate warnings and economic realities, Canada and the world face tough fossil fuel choices (CBC)
Canada ponders oil project off Newfoundland as latest IPCC report warns climate goals slipping away

2022.04.04 Be careful what you believe in the headline.

This is not 'green hydrogen', it comes from cracking natural gas, so it's not a climate solution at all. The 'renewable fuels' is greenwashing taxpayer-funded carbon capture and use (which is not yet a successful technology after 30 years of funding), with some work on recovering energy from solid waste. For climate change mitigation, this is a step backwards and is doubling down on climate destruction by Suncor.

Suncor to ditch solar and wind assets, focus on hydrogen and renewable fuels (Globe & Mail - subscriber only content in March 2024)
Alternate source for this story (still accessible to the public)
Suncor shifts focus to hydrogen and renewable fuel over wind and solar (CBC)

You can find many earlier postings (going back to year 2000) related to climate change at:
Keith's List Archive and
the Sustainable Biofuel List Mail Archive.

I present a lot of information in this blog and on this website. If you need some help sorting through the noise level and getting a forward-looking, proactive approach to climate change for your business, I can do that work for you via my consulting business. Contact