Roundup: Mystified about our “clean” gas

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There has been a pervasive talking point of late, which asserts that Canadian oil and gas is “cleaner” than elsewhere—somehow—and that should be justification enough for us to increase production. There is also a pervasive myth that emission have come down in the oil sands, which is blatantly untrue—in some projects emissions intensity has decreased, meaning there are fewer emission per barrel produced, except that they increased the number of barrels produced, so emissions haven’t actually gone down. And yet Conservatives in particular pat themselves on the back about this, and keep repeating how “clean” our energy products are (when they aren’t making the risible “ethical oil” canard). So imagine my surprise when Toronto Star columnist Heather Scoffield uncritically repeated this assertion that Canadian natural gas is “cleaner” than other countries’ product, which is news to me. I grew up in Alberta—I have seen the literal mountains of sulphur that has been removed from the extracted hydrocarbons. Alberta is replete with sour gas wells, which are dangerous, and I’ve also seen the evacuation plans for areas if such a sour gas well blows. I’m not sure how this is “clean” gas. So, I reached out to an expert about the assertion. He’s mystified too. Perhaps our national columnists shouldn’t just take Conservative and industry talking points at face value.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 177:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv, and they discussed the fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and the deal around grain shipments. Meanwhile, Russians struck at Kharkiv again, while more explosions were reported at a Russian military airport in Russian-occupied Crimea, with reports that Russian air forces fired at targets near the city of Kerch in Crimea.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1560022545356791810

Good reads:

  • With his vacation over, the prime minister was back on the photo-op circuit in the Gaspé region, where he will remain today.
  • Treasury Board has rejected the notion of a blanket exemption from bilingualism requirements if one of those languages is an Indigenous one.
  • NSICOP is going to perform their own investigation into the RCMP’s use of spyware after revelations made at committee last week.
  • Here is a look at oil company profits in Canada, which are going to mean pressure from the government to turn them to reducing emissions without subsidies.
  • Enbridge won another court decision in Michigan as the governor attempts to shut down the Line 5 pipeline.
  • There are concerns that politicians—particularly those like Pierre Poilievre—are not properly vetting the organisers of rallies and marches they have attended.
  • Oh, look—at least someone is pushing back against Dean French’s “we had a breakthrough” bullshit. It wasn’t a breakthrough.
  • The Ford government released a “plan” to stabilise the province’s healthcare system, but it misses the very basics, and is deeply unserious as a result.
  • Heather Scoffield tries to make the case that Canada won’t have green energy for Europe anytime soon, but nobody is saying we will, and neither will we have LNG.

Odds and ends:

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