Recent Blog Posts - Rescuing the frog

Time Turns off the Taps on Alberta’s Turn Off the Taps Legislation
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Time Turns off the Taps on Alberta’s Turn Off the Taps Legislation
This is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper. -TS Eliot, The Hollow Men 1925 By Nigel Bankes, Andrew Leach, and Martin Olszynski Alberta’s “Turn Off the Taps” legislation (see posts from Bankes here and Leach here), more formally known as Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act...
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Facts matter
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Facts matter
The Canadian Energy Centre (if you’re wondering who that is, it’s a pro-energy corporation funded by the Alberta government) apparently take their responsibility to tell Canada’s energy story very seriously. After seeing Bill McKibben’s op-ed in the Globe and Mail on Saturday, I...
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To whom is Jason Kenney selling a bill of goods on Energy East?
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To whom is Jason Kenney selling a bill of goods on Energy East?
Jason Kenney is, ahem, bending the truth, for someone on Energy East. The questions we should be asking are whether he knows that he is and, if his Energy East fantasies were to come true, to whom would he have been selling a bill of goods. The economic case for Energy East was a simple […]
Published at Rescuing the frog
Senate Testimony on Bill c-48
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Senate Testimony on Bill c-48
Bill C-48, An Act respecting the regulation of vessels that transport crude oil or persistent oil to or from ports or marine installations located along British Columbia’s north coast, has passed third reading in the House of Commons and is now at the Senate committee stage.  I’ve been invited to...
Published at Rescuing the frog
My thoughts on the UCP Climate Change Plan
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My thoughts on the UCP Climate Change Plan
Jason Kenney formalized the United Conservative Party’s climate change and energy plans on the weekend. There’s more to Kenney’s platform than the headlines about scrapping the carbon tax – the platform is a systematic walk-back of some of the most important climate change initiatives in Al...
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The price of gas and the taste of crow
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The price of gas and the taste of crow
Over the past few days, I’ve been involved in a lot of discussion on Twitter and in other fora about the distribution of transportation fuel expenditures across Canadian households.  The purpose of this post is two-fold: first, to eat a little crow for an error of my own, and then to provid...
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What can we learn from the church carbon tax fiasco?
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What can we learn from the church carbon tax fiasco?
Yesterday morning, United Conservative Party candidate for Brooks-Medicine Hat and well-known conservative activist Michaela Glasgo tweeted a claim, since debunked, that her church, Hillcrest Evangelical Missionary Church in Medicine Hat, would be facing a $50,000 bill from Alberta’s carbon...
Published at Rescuing the frog
House Standing Committee on Environment
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House Standing Committee on Environment
The following is a transcript of my remarks to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development from Monday, January 28. 2019. Please check against delivery. Thank you for inviting me to appear before your Standing Committee to make the case in favour of carbon p...
Published at Rescuing the frog
The federal output-based carbon pricing system works because it’s not an exemption
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The federal output-based carbon pricing system works because it’s not an exemption
This week, the federal government announced more details of their Output Based Pricing System (OBPS) which targets greenhouse gas emissions from large, industrial facilities. These policies are complex (although perhaps not as complex as their acronyms make them sound) and build on a long line of...
Published at Rescuing the frog
The evolution of Alberta gas prices
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The evolution of Alberta gas prices
Today was mostly a course prep day for me and, as part of that, I was updating a graph package for my students.  I decided to pull down some longer history on Alberta natural gas prices and overlay them with settlement prices for futures contracts.  These are US-dollars-denominated contracts but ...
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All credible agencies?
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All credible agencies?
My fellow economist Jack Mintz has a piece out this morning in the Financial Post on Alberta Separatism.  By Jack’s standards, this piece leaves a lot to be desired – it makes a claim that an Alberta exit from Canada would be easier (implied) and more beneficial (explicit) to Alberta ...
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My FINA remarks
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My FINA remarks
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It’s a pleasure to speak to you today to express my overall support and to provide context for the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, Section 5 of Bill C-74.  This legislation is the backbone of the federal government’s approach to climate chang...
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Bill 12 – Problematic Legislation That Should Never Be Proclaimed
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Alberta’s Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd introduced Bill 12, The Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, on Monday and stated that the province, “absolutely intends to use it if we need to,” on Tuesday. The government should never be given that chance. Bill 12 is potentially in dire...
Published at Rescuing the frog
Western Canadian oil pricing
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A lot of discussion happening about pipelines, market access and crude differentials these days.  I’ve started using this map as a means of illustrating the various levels to this debate.  First, it’s important to always note that all oil is not equal – if you’re looking a...
Published at Rescuing the frog
Back to the FrogBlog
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It’s been two and a half years (wow) since I’ve written anything on this blog site, and more than three years since I’ve updated in on any kind of a regular basis.  Over the next while, I’m going to get back to more writing so hopefully that will change.  I hope that a few...
Published at Rescuing the frog
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