Climate: LNG in B.C. vs Alberta tarsands

[agentaqua]

http://commonsensecanadian.ca/REPOR...er-downplays-importance-oil-canadian-economy/

As prices tank, Harper downplays importance of oil to Canadian economy
PostedJanuary 26, 2015 by Common Sense Canadian in Canada

As prices tank, Harper downplays importance of oil to Canadian economy
Photo: Twitter/@pmharper

Read this Jan. 22 story from Bill Curry in The Globe and Mail on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s surprising change of tune around the importance of oil to the Canadian economy, speaking to a manufacturing crowd in Ontario.

Stephen Harper is playing down the impact of energy on the overall Canadian economy, noting that other sectors will help keep growth strong during hard times for the oil patch.

The Prime Minister, who has previously promoted Canada abroad as an emerging energy superpower, stressed the importance of small business, manufacturing and innovation during an event in St. Catherines, one of many Southwestern Ontario communities that have lost manufacturing jobs in recent years.

“It’s obviously significant for the Canadian economy, particularly certain sectors and regions, but the oil industry isn’t remotely the entire Canadian economy,” said Mr. Harper. “There are many benefits to other parts of the economy because of these developments and although the oil industry in those regions are going to face some pretty significant adjustments, the fact of the matter is that this is a resilient industry that knows that prices go up and down.”

The Prime Minister’s comments, which followed an announcement to expand a program for small-business loans, marked his first public response since Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz shocked markets Wednesday by cutting interest rates in response to lower-than-expected growth and inflation.

Mr. Harper noted that while the bank is independent of the government, he supported the bank’s actions.

“I should say the government has complete confidence in the Bank of Canada and the actions that it has taken. They are appropriate,” he said.

“But in terms of fiscal policy, the appropriate action is to make sure that as long as the economy continues to grow, we balance our budget,” Mr. Harper added.

Opposition parties say the Bank of Canada’s rate cut is a clear sign that the Canadian economy is facing serious trouble and they lay the blame on the Conservatives for placing too much importance on Canada’s energy sector at the expense of other areas, such as manufacturing.

“The size and the importance of the oil industry varies on whether it’s doing well or not according to Conservatives,” said NDP finance critic Nathan Cullen.

READ MORE: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...f-energy-on-canadian-economy/article22583558/

 

[GLG]

B.C. cracks high temperature records with Pineapple Express
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ture-records-with-pineapple-express-1.2931608

Temperature records broken from Vancouver to Dease Lake

CBC News Posted: Jan 26, 2015 7:08 AM PT Last Updated: Jan 26, 2015 3:28 PM PT


The Pineapple Express that arrived on the West Coast on Friday helped break high temperature records across B.C. on Sunday.
Some of the records broken (and the previous highs) were:

• White Rock 15.3 C (12.6 C in 2005).
• Abbotsford 14.9 C (13.5 C in 2005).
• Pitt Meadows 14.3 C (12.8 C in 2014).
• Vancouver 14.1 C (11.8 C in 1992).
• Hope 13.9 C (11.5 in 1984).
• Lillooet 13 C (11.1 in 1931).
• Comox 12.4 C (12.2 C in 1947).
• Powell River 11.9 C (11.6 C in 2003).
• Port Alberni 12.5 C (9.8 C in 2005).
• Whistler 8.9 C (7.6 C in 2014).
• Dease Lake 3.5 C (0.7 C 2007).

The subtropical weather also crossed the Rockies, bringing record high temperatures to Alberta on Sunday, where temperatures hit 17 C in Calgary, smashing the previous record of 13. C set in 2007.
The weather system also brought heavy rain and flooding to many areas in B.C. on Friday and Saturday, dumping up to 98 millimetres on North Vancouver in about 36 hours, but did not actually break any local records for rainfall.
The warm wet weather also dumped a considerable amount of rain on B.C. ski hills, closing some of the those on Vancouver's North Shore Mountains on Friday and Saturday.
The heavy rainfall has meant a boil water advisory issued in December remains in place in the Comox Valley Regional District on Vancouver Island.
Environment Canada forecaster Greg Pearce said that so-called Pineapple Express fronts are not unusual for B.C., with about two or three reaching the province every winter.
The Pineapple Express is the unofficial name given to an atmospheric river of warm moisture-laden air moving rapidly from the open ocean around the Hawaiian Islands to the West Coast. They can hit anywhere from California to Alaska, often bringing unseasonably warm temperatures, torrential rainfalls, flooding and mudslides.

OBD are you starting to see a trend yet?
Could it really be the hottest year on record?
Or has NASA faked the temps just like they did the moon landings.... LOL

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v3/

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/obama-india-trip

NO DEAL IN DELHI
What Obama’s trip to India meant for the country’s plans to combat climate change.

BY BRIAN PALMER | @PALMERBRIAN | 21 hours ago
The White HousePHOTO: THE WHITE HOUSE
President Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in D.C. in September 2014
Expectations for President Obama’s trip to India were all over the map, much like the president himself. Some predicted major progress on climate change, while others said he was “going to India basically for a parade.”

We got a little bit of both. The parade got pretty heavy media coverage, since it gave the opportunity to publish lots of colorful pictures. Don’t you just love parades?

PHOTO: THE WHITE HOUSE
Sorry...we couldn't resist.
Anyway, what were we just talking about? Oh, right—climate change. President Obama and Prime Minster Narendra Modi announced enhanced “cooperation” on global warming issues, which will “expand policy dialogues and technical work on clean energy and low greenhouse gas emissions technologies.”

It’s not exactly what global warming activists were hoping for, but perhaps their expectations were unreasonable, given that an emissions agreement like the one struck between the United States and China in November takes months of talks and planning behind the scenes. Political insiders warned reporters before the India trip that Obama and Modi hadn’t been able to lay the necessary groundwork for a repeat performance.

Still, expanded partnership between the two nations is significant. Take solar power, for example. Shortly after taking office in May, Modi raised the country’s solar-power generation target from 20 gigawatts to 100 gigawatts by 2022. That’s an ambitious target. No country has ever produced that much solar power, and India currently generates only three gigawatts—about as much as California. But it also represents a major opportunity for U.S. companies like SunEdison, which recently announced plans to open up a huge solar panel factory in India.

There are many other reasons to remain optimistic about carbon reductions in India, currently the word’s third largest emitter. The politics, for example, are slightly less complicated than in the United States, where climate change has become—for reasons that continue to baffle me—a partisan wedge issue. According to Anjali Jaiswal, director of the India Initiative at NRDC (which publishes Earthwire), the country has very few climate deniers. Climate change is sort of in your face there. The swings are dramatic—going from hot and dry to cool and soggy with incredible speed—and most people admit to noticing shifts in the region’s historic climate patterns.

Many Indians also feel such climate swings more acutely than Americans. Despite rapid urbanization, approximately one in three Indians still work in agriculture, and extreme weather events like drought cause extreme hardship.

“If you spoke to a farmer, he might not use the words climate change, but he would still discuss the effects,” says Jaiswal. “He’d say, ‘I've been noticing more erratic monsoon patterns, and I really pray it's going to rain this year.’ ”

Even those Indians with livelihoods that don’t rely so directly on the land suffer the consequences of global warming more than the average American does. Heating and cooling technologies aren’t as widely available in the country, where electricity infrastructure and public services are less robust.

In smog-choked Delhi, where President Obama and Prime Minister Modi met on Sunday, air pollution is a constant visual reminder of the carbon sources that fuel climate change: cars and coal-fired power plants. The air pollution in the Indian capital is widely regarded as the worst in the world among major cities, and levels of particulate matter have quintupled in just eight years. “The sounds of Delhi are coughing, sneezing, wheezing,” says Jaiswal. Under those conditions, ignoring the amount of fossil fuel combustion the country is undertaking is difficult.

The main obstacle to India’s progress on climate change is poverty. A majority of locals still live on less than $2 per day, so it’s not surprising that the nation’s leaders prioritize development over carbon reductions. Things are a little bit easier for China, where fewer than one in five live at that poverty level. The trick will be to convince India that building a low-carbon economy will not slow its economic development.

“Many leaders in India already recognize it’s in the country’s own interests to build an economy fueled by solar, wind, and improved efficiency,” says Jaiswal. “What they’re working on is how to get there.” A successful global partnership, she says, will bring in the financing, technology, and policies that can really drive a clean energy industry.

The biggest question now is whether India will make a carbon-reduction commitment before the Paris climate summit begins in late November, and what that pledge will look like. The good news, though, is that the country has taken the first step by admitting it has a problem. (And that puts them ahead of at least 40 U.S. senators.)

 

[agentaqua]

You really are one of these. So sad.

What's even sadder OBD - is that your retorts/defense depends upon some guy parodying the Peanuts comics.

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.theecoreport.com/connecting-the-dots-between-lng-climate-change-and-marine-biodiversity/
CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN LNG, CLIMATE CHANGE AND MARINE BIODIVERSITY

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...n-alberta-s-wetlands-study-suggests-1.2933709
Climate change could threaten Alberta's wetlands, study suggests
Changes would make wetlands more vulnerable to fire
The Canadian Press Posted: Jan 27, 2015 12:46 PM MT Last Updated: Jan 27, 2015 1:54 PM MT

Small changes in temperature could cause Alberta's peatlands to dry out and turn to forest, a new study in the journal Nature suggests. (Government of Alberta)

New research suggests that climate change is threatening to turn Alberta's huge northern wetlands into vast expanses of bush and shrub, altering the province's freshwater cycle and releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

"You are losing a really important landscape," said Nick Kettridge of the University of Birmingham, lead author of the paper published Tuesday in Nature.

Kettridge and his co-authors took advantage of a ready-made controlled experiment in northern Alberta's boreal forest.

In 1983, a fen -- a type of peat wetland that covers thousands of square kilometres in the province's north -- was partly drained to encourage forestry. The amount of drainage roughly corresponded to the amount of drying expected to occur as warming temperatures increase evaporation from the landscape.

Then, in 2001, a wildfire burned through the area, which affected both drained and undrained parts of the fen.

Ten years after the fire, the undrained fen was recovering nicely. Peat burned in the fire was being replaced, storing carbon and offsetting the carbon released in the fire.

The drained part of the fen, however, took a completely different path.

The amount of water-storing moss was down by 77 per cent. The water table was more than 20 centimetres lower. The entire site had been overgrown with willow and poplar bush, further restricting the growth of moss by shading the ground and covering it with shed leaves.

The two areas had less than 10 per cent of their vegetation in common.

That shift to a shrub ecosytem, spread out over a large area, would completely change how the landscape reacted to wildfire.

Healthy fens, because they store so much water, slow a fire's progress and limit its ferocity. Willows and poplars present no such inhibitions.

That creates a feedback loop likely to speed up the conversion of fen to scrub forest, releasing millions of tonnes of carbon, said Kettridge.

Wildfires are expected to increase as climate change takes increasing hold of the boreal forest. The annual area burned in the boreal doubled between 1960 and 1990 and is expected to double again by 2100.

Although his study didn't look specifically at the issue, Kettridge said the drying out of the Peace-Athabasca delta from upstream dams could be adding to the climate change effect.

"If you've got land management, climate change and wildfire on top of that, there's a potential for a triple effect."

Kettridge said the study suggests authorities should try to manage the landscape in ways that don't cause further drying. He said they could also try to limit the impact of wildfires through firefighting or using controlled burns to limit the amount of available fuel.

Wetlands are vital, not only for carbon storage, but other ecological services, Kettridge said.

They buffer and stabilize river levels and filter surface water. They prevent erosion and provide habitat and nutrients for animals. Some ecologist liken them to the earth's kidneys.
"We're investing huge amounts of money within the U.K. to reclaim and restore these systems," Kettridge said.

"This is one study, one unique opportunity to see the potential response. But it has implications for our understanding about how abroad range of these fen systems and peatland systems are likely to respond into the future."

© The Canadian Press, 2015

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...off-promotional-tour-in-nova-scotia-1.2933622
National Energy Board kicks off promotional tour in Nova Scotia
Selling pipeline safety in election year
By Paul Withers, CBC News Posted: Jan 27, 2015 3:32 PM AT Last Updated: Jan 27, 2015 3:32 PM AT

Peter Watson, the chairman and CEO of the National Energy Board, will spend 10 days in Atlantic Canada before moving to Quebec. (CBC)

Canada's National Energy Board is embarking on a cross-country engagement tour to sell pipeline safety in an election year.

"Canadians can have confidence in the work we do," Peter Watson, the chairman and CEO of the National Energy Board, told engineering students at Dalhousie University on Monday.

The federal government has limited public participation at National Energy Board hearings and has reduced the time given to the regulator to review applications.

Halifax was the first stop in the first leg of a cross-Canada tour by the board. Watson and other board staff will spend 10 days in Atlantic Canada before moving to Quebec.

"We could probably do a better job of reaching out to Canadians outside our hearing processes and just talk to them about their on going fundamental concerns about the safety of the infrastructure in their communities," Watson told CBC News on Monday.

Declined to reveal cost

The National Energy Board declined to say how much the national road show will cost, saying it has been rolled into the overall operating budget.

At Dalhousie University's engineering school, Watson and temporary National Energy Board member Alison Scott were speaking to a friendly audience. Fourth-year chemical engineering student Khalid Hamdan welcomes energy development.

"When I think pipelines, I think career opportunities, economic benefits for Canada," he told CBC News.

Watson also met with the environmentalists at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax. The environmental group recently survived a two-year political activities audit by the Canada Revenue Agency. The agency targeted environmental groups after Stephen Harper's government set aside millions of dollars to fund a special unit to audit charities.

Tour targeted

The National Energy Board tour was met with a protest over the proposed Energy East Pipeline Project. The TransCanada Corporation wants to carry Alberta oil to Saint John Part of the plan involves converting an existing natural gas pipeline.

Alex Guest, a protester, questioned the credibility of the National Energy Board given the limits imposed by the Conservatives.

"They've stripped away environmental protections for lakes and rivers. They've changed how the process works so the scope is more limited," said Guest.

"The NEB can't meet with as many people. They aren't allowed to consider climate change."

A contrary voice emerged at the protest in favour of the Energy East pipeline. It came from Andrew Dawson, the Atlantic representative for Canada's Building Trades Unions.

"I think of bringing that resource East and having those people at home in our communities doing the same safe healthy work they do in western Canada here in Eastern Canada," he said.

As for Watson, he declined to comment directly on Energy East. He told students there was general agreement that "not having access to tidewater is a challenge for our country."

"We don't have the diversity of markets that we need," he said.

On Tuesday, Watson was scheduled to meet with the Maritimes Energy Association.

 

[triplenickel]

ya OBD - 95% of all of NASAs, NOAAs, IPCCs likely thousands of scientists, technicians, and support staff are "secretly" against big oil and are making this stuff up to ruin the economy...

CHECK YOUR MEDICATION!

I think it's contraindicated.

They do it because it protects their own jobs as it's got political favor the spin doctors live on both sides of any issue. There is absolutely something funny going on behind the scenes, I suspect social programming, jealously of success, and blind faith. It can be illustrated simply in a question I asked GLG twice before that he flat out ignored. I've asked before why is the energy sector the subject of the backlash, the cause du jour when it isn't the largest emitter? Why don't people go against the biggest emitter especially when it's something so easy to go without? Maybe you've got a thought that isn't a copy and paste to add?

 

[triplenickel]

Wait a minute.... Your team has done just that.
Wonder how that has worked out for them?

GLG whether we agree with his stance or not I'm pretty sure that's been his point all along. The science and predictions from either side have been far from accurate especially the predicted dates of doom. Just like the economic geniuses that can predict the bottom of the oil price and length of the slump but couldn't see this coming.

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150123140943.htm
3-D view of Greenland Ice Sheet opens window on ice history
Date: January 23, 2015
Source: University of Texas at Austin
Summary: Scientists using ice-penetrating radar have created 3-D maps of the age of the ice within the Greenland Ice Sheet. The new maps will aid future research to understand the impact of climate change on the ice sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second largest mass of ice on Earth, containing enough water to raise ocean levels by about 20 feet.

Journal Reference: Joseph A. MacGregor, Mark A. Fahnestock, Ginny A. Catania, John D. Paden, S. Prasad Gogineni, S. Keith Young, Susan C. Rybarski, Alexandria N. Mabrey, Benjamin M. Wagman, Mathieu Morlighem. Radiostratigraphy and age structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 2015; DOI: 10.1002/2014JF003215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014JF003215

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150128082243.htm

Ocean acidification changes balance of biofouling communities
Date: January 28, 2015
Source: British Antarctic Survey
Summary: A new study of marine organisms that make up the 'biofouling community' -- tiny creatures that attach themselves to ships' hulls and rocks in the ocean around the world -- shows how they adapt to changing ocean acidification. Authors examine how these communities may respond to future change.

Journal Reference: Lloyd S. Peck, Melody S. Clark, Deborah Power, João Reis, Frederico M. Batista, Elizabeth M. Harper. Acidification effects on biofouling communities: winners and losers. Global Change Biology, 2015; DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12841 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12841

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150127140820.htm
Early Mesoamericans affected by climate change
Date: January 27, 2015
Source: DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Summary: Scientists have reconstructed the past climate for the region around Cantona, a large fortified city in highland Mexico, and found the population drastically declined in the past, at least in part because of climate change.

Journal Reference: Tripti Bhattacharya, Roger Byrne, Harald Böhnel, Kurt Wogau, Ulrike Kienel, B. Lynn Ingram, Susan Zimmerman. Cultural implications of late Holocene climate change in the Cuenca Oriental, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015; 201405653 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1405653112 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1405653112

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150126124735.htm

Winters in Siberian permafrost regions have warmed since millenia
Date: January 26, 2015
Source: Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Summary: For the first time, researchers have successfully decoded climate data from old permafrost ground ice and reconstructed the development of winter temperatures in Russia's Lena River Delta. Their conclusions: over the past 7,000 years, winter temperatures in the Siberian permafrost regions have gradually risen.

Journal Reference: Hanno Meyer, Thomas Opel, Thomas Laepple, Alexander Yu Dereviagin, Kirstin Hoffmann, Martin Werner. Long-term winter warming trend in the Siberian Arctic during the mid- to late Holocene. Nature Geoscience, 2015; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2349 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2349

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150126124723.htm

Global warming doubles risk of extreme La Niña event, research shows
Date: January 26, 2015
Source: University of Exeter
Summary: The risk of extreme La Niña events in the Pacific Ocean could double due to global warming, new research has shown. El Niño and La Niña events are opposite phases of the natural climate phenomenon, the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Extreme La Niña events occur when cold sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean contrast with the warming land areas of Maritime Southeast Asia in the west and create a strong temperature gradient.

Journal Reference: Wenju Cai, Guojian Wang, Agus Santoso, Michael J. McPhaden, Lixin Wu, Fei-Fei Jin, Axel Timmermann, Mat Collins, Gabriel Vecchi, Matthieu Lengaigne, Matthew H. England, Dietmar Dommenget, Ken Takahashi, Eric Guilyardi. Increased frequency of extreme La Niña events under greenhouse warming. Nature Climate Change, 2015; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2492

 

[agentaqua]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150126112346.htm
Climate models disagree on why temperature 'wiggles' occur
Date: January 26, 2015
Source: Duke University
Summary: Most climate models likely underestimate the degree of decade-to-decade variability occurring in mean surface temperatures as Earth's atmosphere warms. They also provide inconsistent explanations of why these wiggles occur in the first place, a new study finds. These inconsistencies may undermine the models' reliability for projecting the short-term pace and extent of future warming, and indicate that we shouldn't over-interpret recent temperature trends. The study analyzed 34 models used in the most recent IPCC assessment report.

Journal Reference: Patrick T. Brown, Wenhong Li, Shang-Ping Xie. Regions of significant influence on unforced global mean surface air temperature variability in climate models. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2015; DOI: 10.1002/2014JD022576 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022576

 

[agentaqua]

http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/01/27/S...ce=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=280115
Sinking Oil Prices Could Push Ottawa into Deficit: Report
Study didn't look at fallout of continued price slide.
By Jeremy J. Nuttall, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca

Oilfield
Oil's fall could create deficit. Rig photo via Shutterstock.

A report http://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/files/files/LowOilPrices_EN.pdf from Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer says the country's fiscal situation can stabilize in the face of plunging oil prices if the government uses up its $3-billion contingency fund, sells assets or "tweaks" other expenditures.

If it manages those feats, it can get away with little more than a $400-million deficit in the next budget.

But that's only if oil prices stay at $48 per barrel, or if they rise. The budget watchdog did not examine the worst-case scenario of oil prices dropping further.

The Conservatives have promised to deliver a balanced budget later this spring.

The PBO is an independent body with a mandate to examine Canada's public finances. Liberal MP John McKay requested the report on how slumping oil prices could affect the promised federal government surplus, and the effect it could have on financing federal services.

The Conservatives have delayed releasing their budget until April, creating a suspicion that they don't know how to balance the books with reduced oil revenues.



The PBO responded to questions about the fiscal hit oil prices could deliver in an eight-page report using two hypothetical scenarios.

In the first, the PBO said if oil prices stabilize at $48 per barrel, the government would lose $7.6 billion annually over the next five years due to decreased revenues on sales and income tax.

The second scenario puts oil at $51 per barrel this year, representing a loss of $4.2 billion into 2016 with that number going down as oil prices go up before peaking at $81 per barrel in 2019.

But the money to help ease the burden must come from somewhere, and the budget watchdog said Canada's $3-billion contingency reserve will have to be used if the government is to keep the deficit at $400 million.

"The government's budget balance for planning purposes included a $3 billion annual 'set‐aside for contingencies' which if not required would be used to reduce the federal debt," the report said. "Notably, the potential for further declines in oil prices was cited as a candidate for such contingencies."

During Question Period on Tuesday, Finance Minister Joe Oliver insisted the budget would be balanced, pointing to the PBO report as proof it can be done.

Liberal finance critic Scott Brison said if the budget can be balanced, then presenting it now should be easy.

Brison said economists have already predicted that Canada is going back into deficit, and said releasing the budget could "clear up" any confusion.

But he said the real problem is the Conservatives handling of the country's finances.

"You don't build your budgetary framework assuming oil is going to stay at $100 a barrel," Brison said. "The reality is they have spent us right up to the edge assuming oil prices would stay at $100 for good."

'No breathing room'

David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said as long as oil balances out at $50 per barrel Canada will be able to get away with a small deficit of under $1 billion.

He said that government initiatives like income splitting and the promise to balance the budget have made it a delicate task.

"There's no breathing room here at all; we're right on the wire," Macdonald said. "From an economic perspective, running a deficit at this point would be actually a fairly positive phenomenon."

Due to the political promise to balance the budget, Macdonald said he doesn't expect the government to take on a deficit.

Unifor economist Jim Stanford said layoffs of government workers to tighten the budget has affected the delivery of government services. He added that tax breaks in the form of income splitting add to the government's fiscal strain.

"They counted their chickens before they hatched and started doling out billions in these very politicized tax cuts," Stanford said. "That is not a legacy of prudent stewardship; that is a legacy of fiscal recklessness."

Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Frechette said the government has other options to reduce the deficit, including selling government assets, cancelling capital projects, and moves such as changing government benefit packages for employees.

Frechette's office would not comment on the fiscal prudence of such measures.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, Frechette and assistant budget officer Mostafa Askari didn't go into detail about why the report did not examine the possibility of oil dropping even further below $48 per barrel, saying they had to choose hypothetical scenarios.

"We can do an update and do another scenario later on," Frechette said when pressed on the two scenarios chosen.

 

[agentaqua]

3x5: thank you (and possibly OBD) for giving us the mantra resonating in the oil and gas sector and the climate denier camp. If nothing - It's interesting - even bizarre at times what you tell yourselves about what you perceive to be science. It is unfortunate that in the denier camp - science literacy is at such a low functioning level. That has been proven again and again over the past 199 pages or so. Your climate denier "saviours" occasionally present a valid critique over a particular study - but globally - the vast majority of the actual science (verses the news releases from CNN and the right-wing think tanks and PR firms supporting the oil and gas industry) all concur that climate change is real, exasperated by largely human induced increases in greenhouse gas emissions - has serious consequences for the future - and is something that we really need to work in reducing - even if to extend our limited supply of hydrocarbons. The ones resisting this simple and logical argument are those in the denier camp who see every scientist as having some sort of "secret agenda" to promote what they believe is a "climate hoax". That is the bizarre part of their argument. I would instead recommend to read the large body of available science (verses CNN and "Lord" Monckton's flashy PR machine) - and get more literate and personal with science rather than cut and pasting from some wingnut's blog.

 

[triplenickel]

All of us concerned citizens, environmentalists and unhappy people can do all the marches, write all the letters, and hate on the resource sector as much as we want it will continue to be a waste of time having the same minuscule effect as always. The only way to make it go away is to address the markets they supply. That means looking at ourselves, our families and our neighbors. Trying to shut projects down by confronting them in the traditional way is pointless, if we succeed at one another will take it's place to fill the void.

 

[triplenickel]

3x5: thank you (and possibly OBD) for giving us the mantra resonating in the oil and gas sector and the climate denier camp. If nothing - It's interesting - even bizarre at times what you tell yourselves about what you perceive to be science. It is unfortunate that in the denier camp - science literacy is at such a low functioning level. That has been proven again and again over the past 199 pages or so. Your climate denier "saviours" occasionally present a valid critique over a particular study - but globally - the vast majority of the actual science (verses the news releases from CNN and the right-wing think tanks and PR firms supporting the oil and gas industry) all concur that climate change is real, exasperated by largely human induced increases in greenhouse gas emissions - has serious consequences for the future - and is something that we really need to work in reducing - even if to extend our limited supply of hydrocarbons. The ones resisting this simple and logical argument are those in the denier camp who see every scientist as having some sort of "secret agenda" to promote what they believe is a "climate hoax". That is the bizarre part of their argument. I would instead recommend to read the large body of available science (verses CNN and "Lord" Monckton's flashy PR machine) - and get more literate and personal with science rather than cut and pasting from some wingnut's blog.

Ummm not sure what to take away from that but I think you're saying that I don't believe in climate change? Clearly you have a terrible memory or zero reading comprehension as I've stated my position numerous times in here. And you're gonna call me very stupid, I thought there was no personal attacks here?

OK I'll state my position one last time just for you, pretty sure it's the second or third time I've replied to you in the same way. Climate change is real, it doesn't take NASA or NOAA, just look at the changes in our own lifetimes. The only debate in my mind is how much of it is caused by you. I say you because if it wasn't for you the energy industry or the actual biggest culprits that people seem to turn a blind eye to would have nothing to sell.

In case you missed it I asked a question in post 1968 that I was generally looking for your opinion (not a repetitive cut and paste) on. I won't ask anything else in the future as having a conversation with you is futile, there's only really 6 of us in this thread and you can't keep it straight.

 

[triplenickel]

The ones resisting this simple and logical argument are those in the denier camp

This is so false and such a narrow scope it's ridiculous, you as the consumer are the one who's resisting the argument. Picking the righteous side doesn't change the fact that the industry only exists because you feed it dollars.

CNN and the right-wing think tanks and PR firms supporting the oil and gas industry

Just like the other side these ding dongs can spew whatever propaganda they want, the industry only succeeds for one reason, the same one mentioned above. You're going about this all wrong, that's why it hasn't worked in the past and won't in the future.