The Canadian hydrogen-highway industry is at a crossroads. Compared with the rest in the world Canada is a fading champion in the hydrogen arena. Though the famous Ballard Power started here in Canada, the public funding that kept the venture alive and in the headlines has all but dried up. But there’s still hope for a […]

Mention the phrase “hydrogen economy” these days, and most people will laugh at you. That’s because the phrase reminds most people of the endlessly unfulfilled promises of fuel cell–powered cars and hydrogen refueling stations. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his famous hydrogen powered Hummers, has dropped talk of the Hydrogen Highway in favour of something a bit more practical: […]

A note attached to documents left behind at the CTV studio in Ottawa may hint at the dollar figure the federal government will pitch, or has already pitched, to Ontario to sweeten the province’s incentive to buy Canadian in its nuclear reactor competition. The figure: roughly  $538 million. i.e., the same amount that former prime […]

In their decades-long efforts to develop effective and affordable climate change policy, most western governments have put a lot of money and effort in two areas: (1) hydrogen, and (2) carbon capture and sequestration. They are on the right track, but they’re going about it in a roundabout way. That could set back progress by decades

Are oil company–sponsored windmill ads about to disappear from our TV screens? Oil giant Shell has decided to abandon investments into renewable energy like wind and solar. A Shell executive told the Guardian that the company will no longer put money into investments that don’t compete with Shell’s core business, which is producing and marketing […]

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Section 526 of the 2007 U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act prohibits U.S. federal agencies from buying fuels whose lifecycle emissions are higher than those of conventional petroleum. This means U.S. agencies cannot buy Alberta oilsands petroleum the way it is produced today. Which is […]

Fighting the climate change war in Alberta is a two-front proposition. There’s power generation and there’s the oilsands. Both are the biggest emitters of their kind in Canada (see article). And unless there is progress in both, or at least a credible plan for progress, customers for the province’s major export, petroleum, will become increasingly […]

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) has been touted as a way to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants. In North America, coal plants emit around 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Storing 2 billion tonnes of CO2 every year will be a bit tricky, to put it mildly. But what if there were a way to […]