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US State Department says Keystone XL won’t impact global warming
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on March 2nd, 2013
Globe and Mail: TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL pipeline has cleared a significant political hurdle in the United States after a State Department assessment concluded the project would not contribute to the warming of the planet.
Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones cautioned that the department's report, released late Friday, does not provide a recommendation on the project. But activists who oppose the pipeline condemned the work as a "botch job" that unduly minimizes the environmental impacts,...
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Obama speech provides no clues on Keystone pipeline
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on February 13th, 2013
Globe and Mail: U.S. President Barack Obama urged Congress to pass sweeping "market-based" climate legislation - code for a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax - and threatened to regulate aggressively if it did not.
In his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Mr. Obama said the United States must step up its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that he blamed for extreme weather that plagued the country last year.
"For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate...
Keystone’s path grows rougher
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on November 16th, 2012
Globe and Mail: Environmentalists are reviving their noisy 2011 anti-pipeline campaign, with a demonstration scheduled for Sunday outside the White House, and they have pointed to the decision on the Keystone pipeline as a key test of the President's resolve to battle climate change during his second term. Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore this week urged Mr. Obama to kill the Keystone XL project.
"Hurricane Sandy definitely served as a strong reminder that this administration has to look at climate as a top...
Maine Becomes New Front in Battle Over Canadian Oil Sands
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on October 11th, 2012
Globe and Mail: The latest flashpoint is in Maine, where activists held a news conference on Wednesday to denounce an allegedly secret plan by Portland Pipe Line Corp. to open a new route to carry western crude by way of Ontario and Quebec through northern New England to the Atlantic coast.
That prospect highlights the mismatch between abundant, low-cost western crude and the reliance of eastern refineries on premium-priced offshore imports. As the oil industry looks to spread eastward, governments in Quebec...
France, Netherlands key to EU oil sands decision
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on February 24th, 2012
Globe and Mail: Ottawa has been lobbying the Europeans for two years for fundamental changes to an EU proposal to label oil sands as being more carbon-intensive than other crude sources -- a tag that would effectively ban oil sands crude, and threaten to snowball to other regions. Britain had clearly indicated it was in Canada's camp, but on Thursday, France and the Netherlands helped derail the proposed regulation by abstaining on the vote, which needed a majority of total votes to pass.
All three countries...