Fusion energy breakthrough by US scientists boosts clean power hopes

ARS TECHNICA

Net energy gain indicates technology could provide an abundant zero-carbon alternative to fossil fuels. Details here.

Cambodia halts Mekong dams

SCIENCE MAGAZINE - BIODIVERSITY

Edited by Jeffrey Brainard

In a victory for conservation, the Cambodian government announced on 18 March that it is suspending for 10 years plans to build two hydropower dams on the Mekong River. The move helps preserve a freshwater ecosystem that, after the Amazon, is the world’s most biologically diverse. It also supports a vast fishing industry. Cambodia now relies on hydropower for nearly 50% of its electricity, but will turn to coal, natural gas, and solar energy to meet its future power needs. The Mekong begins on the Tibetan Plateau and flows through several countries, including Cambodia and Vietnam, before emptying into the South China Sea. It has been under increasing pressure from development, pollution, and climate change; drought and upstream dams in China have exacerbated recent low water levels in the lower Mekong. Adding to the river system’s woes, Laos opened two hydropower dams on the Mekong’s main branch in the past 6 months, and Cambodia said it may yet build dams on Mekong tributaries. Still, conservationists praised Cambodia’s decision. Maintaining the free flow of the lower Mekong is “the best decision for both people and nature,” Teak Seng, Cambodia country director for the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement.

Green Party Would Stop The Energy East Pipeline and Help Manitoba Families Save on Their Energy Bills.

Winnipeg, March 23, 2016 – Green Party of Manitoba Energy advocate for Conservation and Water Stewardship, David Nickarz, says that a Green government would reject all projects associated with construction of the proposed Energy East pipeline.

The Green Party of Manitoba (GPM) thinks that Manitoba Hydro would help Manitobans more by investing in energy retrofitting and development of solar production, rather than quietly preparing to sell hydroelectric power to the Energy East pipeline,” Nickarz said.

Rachel Notley Announces Alberta's Climate Change Plan

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced today that she is imposing a limit on oil sands emissions and phasing out all coal power usage in her province by 2030 in a major push to curb greenhouse gas emissions. STORY HERE.

Canada Election: How Stephen Harper’s Fossil Fuel Gamble May Have Backfired

theguardian

The Conservative prime minister pledged to make the country an ‘energy superpower’, but with the election ahead and many Alberta residents struggling to make ends meet, a promise has become a liability for Harper. Story here.

A First Nation in BC, Canada Rejects $1 Billion In LNG Benefit Offer

WC Native News

PORT SIMPSON, B.C. – The first of three votes on a natural gas benefit offer worth over $1 billion has been unanimously rejected by a First Nation on British Columbia’s northwest coast. Story here.

Greener Consumers Part of the Big Plan For Manitoba Hydro

Winnipeg Free Press

Utility set to ratchet up domestic conservation. Details here.

PLT photo

Advocates Take Harper to Court Over 'Pattern of Muzzling' Energy Critics

The Tyee

One of Canada's top constitutional lawyers is taking the Conservative government to court over increasing restrictions on who can speak at energy board hearings -- and what they are allowed to say. Details here.

Manitoba's Minister of Conservation Grants License For The Bipole III Transmission Project

Winnipeg Free Press.The government has issued an Environment Act for Manitoba Hydro’s Bipole III transmission line. Full story here.

Government of Manitoba. "Unprecedented Licence Conditions Exceed Clean Environment Commission Report, Address Aboriginal Concerns: Mackintosh" Details here.

Ottawa Blocks Cenovus Gas Project in Alberta: ‘The Environmental Impacts are Simply Too Great’

Financial Post.

CALGARY — The Canadian government on Friday blocked a seven-year-old plan to drill more than a thousand natural gas wells in an Alberta wildlife reserve...Details here.
  PLT. Please also read our earlier post, "So, What Will it Be, Prairie Grasslands or Pipelines?" And thanks to Nature Canada for organizing the petition. (I signed! Did you?)





Sprague's pipit, one of the many 
"species at risk" found in the reserve.

BP Pleads Guilty, Pays Record $4.5 Billion Over Gulf spill; 3 Employees Charged

Winnipeg Free Press. Details here.



PLT: You don't suppose BP will simply write this off as "the cost of doing business" and carry on as before, do you? Naaaah!

US Energy Dept. Panel Warns of Environmental Toll of Current Gas Drilling Practices

Pro Publica Nov 10 - A federal energy panel issued a blunt warning to shale gas drillers and their regulators today, saying they need to step up efforts to protect public health and the environment or risk a backlash that stifles further development. Details here.

U.S. Seen Unlikely to Hit Advanced Biofuel Goal

Manitoba Co-Operator - Oct 11 Land-use changes make emissions reductions uncertain:   report. Details here.

Wheat on ground; PLT photo

Please also read "Bursting the Ethanol Bubble."

Coal Power Plant Races Against Regulation

Shawn Mccarthy — Globe and Mail - Aug. 07 

Maxim Power Corp. is racing to beat proposed federal emission regulations that could derail its plan to build a 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant in the mountains of western Alberta. Details here.

PLT: Please sign the petition here. 

Oil Company's Lawsuit Against Greenpeace Backfires

Nick Young - Greenpeace - 6/6/11

Today an Amsterdam court judge turned the tables on Cairn Energy. Details here.

Greenpeace protesters spent four days in a survival pod attached to the the Leiv Eiriksson rig.  (Photograph: Steve Morgan/Greenpeace) 

The Harper Government Chooses Big Oil Over Our Students (Video)

Energy Independence Goes Awry: Why the Ethanol Boom May Turn US Conservation Land into Corn Fields

AlterNet / By Jill Richardson Feb '11

Given America's enthusiasm for ethanol production, one might assume ethanol is a miracle fuel, sent from heaven to lead the way to independence from oil.

Please also read: "Bursting the Ethanol Bubble" by Larry Powell

Pfffft Goes Promise of Pumping C02 Underground

By Andrew Nikiforuk, 12 Jan 2011, TheTyee.ca

Farmers say high profile carbon sequestration experiment is a bubbling, dangerous failure.

U.S. to Regulate Big Polluters, Leaving no Excuses for Canada’s Inaction

P.J. Partington — The Pembina Institute - Dec. 2'10

It would be hard to count….. 

Reuters photo

WikiLeaks Cables: Shell's Grip on Nigerian State Revealed

David Smith - guardian.co.uk - 8 De 2010

US embassy cables reveal top executive's claims that company 'knows everything' about key decisions in government ministries.