Author Archives: Blair

On the “shocking” revelations in the BC Hydro IPP review and the reality that the fight against climate change is not going to be cheap

Posted on February 13, 2019

This week A Review of BC Hydro’s Purchase of Power from Independent Power Producers came out and to no one’s surprise it revealed that BC Hydro is paying too much for all that intermittent, low-carbon power purchased under the 2007 … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Fossil Fuel Free Future, Renewable Energy | 6 Comments

Questioning the PBO’s math on the value of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Posted on February 1, 2019

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), Yves Giroux, produced a report this week on the estimated value of the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMP) and the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMEP). This report has a lot of people up in arms … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

New research puts a stake into the heart of the “Bridge to Nowhere” argument against BC LNG

Posted on January 28, 2019

As someone who has followed the BC LNG debate pretty closely, I can’t count the number of times I have heard the expression “natural gas is a bridge to nowhere“. This expression derives from an infamous article by Cornell Biologist … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Environmental Absolutists are going BANANAs and it will hurt, not help, the environment

Posted on January 24, 2019

Anyone who follows the energy beat knows that the latest chant from the environmental absolutist world is “No new fossil fuel infrastructure” (NNFFI). The slogan has been attributed by most sources to Bill McKibben of 350.org. Around here you hear … Continue reading →

Posted in Fossil Fuel Free Future, Pipelines, Risk, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Sorry folks, but the plural of anecdote is data

Posted on January 21, 2019

One of the reasons I started writing this blog was for science outreach. I like to discuss how we do science. Tonight I am going to go back to my roots and discuss an oft-misunderstood concept in science. The role … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

On Wil Horter’s Gish Gallop about Alberta heavy oil and the Trans Mountain

Posted on January 14, 2019

On December 26th, 2018 the National Observer published an article Discount Frenzy: The dirt on discount oil by Wil Horter, the former Executive Director of the Dogwood Initiative. In December 28th, I prepared a reply called Fact-checking the National Observer … Continue reading →

Posted in Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Why a Pragmatic Environmentalist supports BC LNG – doing the climate math

Posted on January 10, 2019

As a pragmatic environmentalist , I am often asked how I could support the BC LNG export industry? I prepared a Twitter thread on the topic but have since been asked to show my work. This blog post builds on … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Uncategorized | 6 Comments