“It’s the drinking water for 2 million people across Canada” — Alberta ranchers take Kenney government to court – RealAgriculture

Photo by Georgialh —
A train heads west into the Crowsnest Pass from Coleman, Alberta (CC BY-SA 4.0)

“What the coal policy did was it said that if there was to be coal development throughout the eastern slopes, it was to all be done underground, because of the sensitivity of those watersheds,” says Laing. “With that policy removed, that removes that protection.”

The area of land that is subject to harm through this change in policy is 1,000 square kilometres — that’s about 247, 100 acres. A recent sale also puts parts of Kananaskis area at risk.

Moving forward, Smith and Laing have joined a group that will launch a judicial challenge against the government, along with Rocking P Ranch owners Mac and Renie Blades. Four First Nations are also filing judicial challenges similar to the ranchers’, on similar grounds, which have been stricken by the government.

A lawyer involved in the challenge firmly believes that the Kenney government has broken the law. It impacts more than just ranchers, it will affect all of southern Alberta and the users of water from this watershed. The best case scenario for the challenge is that the Coal Policy will be reinstated and open-pit mountain top removal coal mining stopped.

RealAgriculture has reached out to the Ministry of Energy for comment, with no response.

Source: “It’s the drinking water for 2 million people across Canada” — Alberta ranchers take Kenney government to court – RealAgriculture

This entry was posted in General and tagged alberta, coal, Crowsnest pass, environment, healthcare, water on December 23, 2020 by Steve.

Link

The Rise of SWB: Seba Says Solar, Wind, Batteries Can Deliver 100% RE by 2030, Make New Fossil Investment Irrational – The Energy Mix

An all-renewable electricity system is “both physically possible and economically affordable by 2030,” according to a new report from the RethinkX think tank, write co-founder Tony Seba and research fellow Adam Dorr in an early November post for Utility Dive.

“We are on the cusp of the most profound disruption of the energy sector since the advent of electricity itself over a century ago,” Seba and Dorr state. “The costs of solar photovoltaic power, onshore wind, and lithium-ion battery energy storage (SWB) have plummeted over the last two decades, and they will fall another 70%, 40%, and 80% respectively during the 2020s as their adoption continues to grow exponentially worldwide. The convergence of SWB now offers an electricity solution that coal, gas, nuclear, and other conventional energy technologies can no longer compete with.”

The new report, using a tool RethinkX calls a “clean energy U-curve”, looks for the best cost trade-offs between solar and wind generation, on one hand, and storage batteries, on the other, across different U.S. regions. “When we optimize the balance between the two, we find that the least expensive 100% SWB system will have three to five times more total generating capacity than today’s grid but require only 35 to 90 hours’ worth of batteries, depending on geography,” the two authors state.

December 23, 2020

Leave a reply

Link

Canada Boosts Fossil Subsidies to $14.3B Per Year, Joins Saudi Arabia as G20’s Top Two Oil and Gas Funders – The Energy Mix

Canada averaged US$14.3 billion per year in fossil fuel
subsidies between 2017 and 2019, earning it top ranking alongside Saudi
Arabia as the two G20 countries with the most generous subsidies for oil
and gas production, according a scorecard issued last week by three
international think tanks.

A separate study found that Canada produces more
greenhouse gas emissions per capita than 27 of the 54 Commonwealth
countries combined.

December 23, 2020

Leave a reply

Link

UNDRIP Bill C-15 is an attack on Indigenous sovereignty: Diabo

If passed, Bill C-15 will be used by the government of Canada to
reinforce the status quo because the Bill makes it clear that existing
national laws—many of which violate Indigenous rights—will prevail over
UNDRIP;

The main sections of Bill C-15, particularly section 2, maintain the
common law interpretation of section 35(1) and section 35(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982, which is heavily based on the colonial Doctrine of Discovery, which strips Indigenous people of their land ownership and land rights;

The primacy of the Doctrine of Discovery means Canadian courts will
continue to adjudicate using existing case law based on section 35 of
the Constitution Act, 1982, and these rulings have caused major harm to the daily life for Indigenous Peoples and Nations including:

The imposition of Crown sovereignty over Indigenous peoples, including self-government rights;

Disregarding Indigenous laws and legal traditions;

Establishing that the Crown has “ultimate title” to land;

The burden of proof imposed on Indigenous Peoples and Nations to establish their rights in Canadian courts;

The ability for the Crown to infringe Aboriginal rights based on the
“Sparrow test” that allows infringement of Aboriginal rights under all
sorts of circumstances;

The erosion of the duty to consult and accommodate to nothing more
than a procedural right that is reviewable based on administrative law
principles.

December 22, 2020

Leave a reply

2020 Shale & Public Health Conference – The Straight Scoop on Shale

Leave a reply

The Straight Scoop on Shale

A project of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Citizen Education Fund

2020 Shale & Public Health Conference

The eighth annual Shale & Public Health Conference was held as an online conference over two days

Tuesday, November 17 & Wednesday, November 18

Featuring new research presented by national experts on shale and public health impacts, and practical applications.

The video recordings of the 8th Annual Shale & Public Health Conference are now available on YouTube. Select individual videos below or see the entire Playlist on YouTube.