My latest column in The StarPhoenix In the past two weeks I have written about energy and the coming oil shortage that is driving oil and gas prices higher. When you are talking about peak oil, many authors see this as the end of mechanized civilization and suggest we will head back to a pre-industrial [...]
energy
14 Ways to Create Jobs in this Economy
Few Presidents have been able to create jobs like Bill Clinton did during his eight years in office. In Newsweek (it still exists?) he outlines 14 ideas for creating more jobs. 2. CASH FOR STARTUPS If you start a business tomorrow, I can give you all the tax credits in the world, but since you [...]
The cost of not using nuclear
Angelo Persichilli has a great article in today’s Toronto Star about the future of nuclear energy in this country. While I don’t trust those who tell me that nuclear energy is completely safe, likewise I don’t trust those who say we have an alternative that can sustain our demands to run our businesses, our economy [...]
The Weir as a Power Station
Saskatoon has decided not to fund a feasibility study on turning the weir into a small hydro power project. The major question now is how much power could be produced annually, Hudson said. A B.C.-based consultant calculated in an initial report -via computer modelling -that the hydropower station could pay for construction costs in 12 [...]
BP to drill in the Arctic
I know environmental groups are upset but with BP’s recent safety record, why worry? Oh right. The Arctic is to become the "new environmental battleground", campaigners warned yesterday after BP announced plans to drill in one of the last great unspoilt wildernesses on earth. Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have vowed [...]
Tall Wind Turbine
In my regular e-mail from City Councilor Darren Hill, he mentions this Tall Wind Turbine — City Council approved a report from Administration that a consultant be hired to conduct a wind resource and environmental assessment for a tall wind turbine to be developed at the Landfill. This assessment is the next step in exploring [...]
Warren Buffett’s $26 billion gamble on the next big thing
This is huge Most investors looking for the "next big thing" seek out whiz-bang investments like alternative energy, lifesaving biotech drugs, handheld Internet devices and, for doomsayers, hard assets like gold. Railroads, which had their heyday in another era, are rarely mentioned as a must-have investment for those looking to get rich. So why is [...]
Geopolitical Peak Oil
The New York Times on how the energy giants are being squeezed out of an already tight market. Part of the reason is political. From the Caspian Sea to South America, Western oil companies are being squeezed out of resource-rich provinces. They are being forced to renegotiate contracts on less-favorable terms and are fighting losing [...]
The Church in an Age of Scarcity
A couple of weeks ago Jason Evans started to post about the recession and the church which started me thinking as I was reading Howard Kunstler’s excellent book, The Long Emergency (Wikipedia summary – Full text available on at Google Books) for about the third time. If you haven’t read it, you need to. I [...]
Lake Diefenbaker to get Candu 6 reactor?
Lake Diefenbaker has been suggested as the best site in Saskatchewan for a Candu 6 nuclear reactor. “Potentially, the Lake Diefenbaker region could be the site of a Candu 6 plant configured with two steam turbine generators instead of the standard 750-megawatt, single-steam turbine unit,” the report said. “Plant output from this option would be [...]
Heat or Eat
In the Maritimes, increasing furnace fuel costs are devastating some middle class families. My political punditry skills are pretty rusty but I would imagine a large segment of your voters being either cold or hungry would be devastating for many governments, especially in a time of record prosperity in other parts of the country. Dan [...]
