There is no way a North American cap and trade system will emerge in the near future. That prospect died when the U.S. president showed at the Copenhagen climate conference that he can’t, and won’t, pursue the environmental policies the green lobby demands. Probably just as well. The continental price of natural gas, the most […]

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: […]

Another year, another disagreement on a pan-provincial approach to climate change. You can almost set your watch to what Ontario and Alberta will say at the annual premier-fest (a.k.a. Council of the Federation meeting). Ontario will talk about closing its coal-fired generating plants, Alberta about its opposition to any plan to put a price on […]

Professional climate policy wonks are watching the spectacle south of the Canada-U.S. border, where a House bill on climate change will receive its first major political test Friday. Political wrangling over what industries get covered (or hit, depending on your perspective), and how they are covered (or hit) has virtually ensured that the bill will […]

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

For the first time in nearly seven years, the prices of coal and natural gas have converged closely enough to make gas-fired power generation more attractive than coal in carbon-constrained electricity systems such as those covered by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). These are the conditions that supporters of carbon cap-and-trade schemes dream about. […]

Gasoline, diesel, and heating oil are all hydrocarbon fuels. Almost every drop of them available on the planet today comes from petroleum. But that isn’t written in stone. Each of these fuels is, at bottom, a different combination of hydrogen and carbon. You can make all of these fuels without using any petroleum. You just […]

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 […]

After weeks of speculation about how Canada and the U.S. will respond to the converging pressures on the economy and environment, last week’s Ottawa meeting between the president and prime minister produced a few hints. Stephen Harper and Barack Obama emerged from their meeting saying they would begin a “clean energy dialog.” Though they dodged […]

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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 […]