Category Archives: Trans Mountain

Why an over-budget Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project will still not be a financial loser for the Federal government

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Blair

Last week new details emerged about ongoing cost increases on the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) Project. If news media is to be believed, the price of the pipeline will likely exceed $17 billion. A far cry from the initial … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Pipelines, Trans Mountain | 50 Comments

Why Climate leaders sometimes build pipelines – understanding the climate implications of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project

Posted on September 21, 2021 by Blair

One of the most common refrains of the activist community during our recent federal election was the line “climate leaders don’t build pipelines“. As I will explain in this blog post, this refrain, while catchy, is wrong. I have written … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Pipelines, Trans Mountain | 2 Comments

Understanding what the PBO report says about the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Blair

Another day has passed and another report has been released about the viability of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMX). This new report titled “Trans Mountain Pipeline – Financial and Economic Considerations – Update” was produced by the Parliamentary … Continue reading →

Posted in Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Evaluating what the new Canada Energy Regulator report actually says about the viability of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Blair

This week the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) presented its Canada’s Energy Future 2020 report and almost immediately the contents were misrepresented in the media by activists and pundits alike. In the Globe and Mail Gary Mason stated that “the regulator … Continue reading →

Posted in Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Another day, another flawed CCPA report, this time about the Trans Mountain Expansion Project

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Blair

Yesterday, I was directed to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) about the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) project. As I have written previously, every time I get a notification about one of their reports, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Understanding future demand for heavy oil – Why the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project is a good bet for Canada

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Blair

In the last couple weeks the campaign against the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project has been turned up to 11. My social media feed is full of claims like: “100+ economists sent a letter to @JustinTrudeau confirming that #TMX … Continue reading →

Posted in Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Revisiting activist myths about the Trans Mountain Pipeline – or Why Climate leaders may sometimes need to build pipelines

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Blair

Activists are trying to get the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMX) back in the news. On my social media feed I first saw Dr. Tim Takaro hanging in a tree then watched him as he was replaced by YouTuber … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Pipelines, Renewable Energy, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

More chemically-uninformed fear-mongering about the Trans Mountain Pipeline – this time about the dangers of diluted bitumen

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Blair

In my last post, I presented details of how activists were misrepresenting the health risks of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project due to their lack of chemical expertise. In that post, I noted that it represented another of … Continue reading →

Posted in Oil Sands, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

A Chemist looks at a major activist study about the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project and finds a hot mess

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Blair

It is construction time again on the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) and the activists are out in force. Interestingly, I saw that Dr. Tim Takaro was back in the news. This time he is up in a tree to try … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Debunking more misinformation about the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project. Some simple facts about bitumen, heavy oil, and Asian Markets.

Posted on June 23, 2019 by Blair

As someone interested in evidence-based decision-making there are few topics as frustrating to discuss as the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project. The reason for this is that the media landscape is so completely full of misinformation and bad information … Continue reading →

Posted in Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 25 Comments