Day: February 18, 2013

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

WASHINGTON, OTTAWA AND CALGARY — Thousands rallied on the Mall in Washington, D.C., demanding President Barack Obama say “no” to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and keep his promises to take action against climate change caused by man-made greenhouse-gas emissions.

Organizers officially said 35,000 or more braved a cold, windy February afternoon for the protest, but turnout seemed significantly smaller. Even some of the protesters who had journeyed cross-country for the widely promoted Forward on Climate rally, voiced disappointment at the numbers.

No matter the size of the rally, Sunday’s protest clearly established that potent political forces are in play on both sides of the Keystone decision. For environmentalists especially, Keystone has become a symbol; it’s not just another “old” energy project, it’s a test of the President’s promises to take serious steps on climate change.

“I wouldn’t read too much into the numbers,” at the rally, said David Biette, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a leading think tank. But he sees little room for compromise. “The environmentalists have drawn a line in the sand,” on Keystone, the pipeline that will funnel carbon-laden Alberta oil sands across the United States to Gulf oil refineries.

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The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is very capable and impressive, but Britain has no lack of financial experts meeting that description. What differentiates him – and what drove the British government’s determination to recruit him as the next head of the Bank of England – is that he presided over the central bank of the economy that weathered the financial crisis better than other developed countries.

The most often cited reasons for Canada’s performance include sound home mortgage practices and prudent federal fiscal management. While those factors were crucial in the early days of the financial crisis, they don’t explain the country’s continuing strong performance even as our closest neighbour and dominant trading partner suffers through protracted economic doldrums.

So what is it that has made Canada and, by association Mr. Carney, such a star performer? The pivotal factor is that Canada is one of the world’s largest resource exporters.

Natural Resources Canada estimates that in 2010, the energy, mining and forestry sectors generated new capital investment of $95-billion and total exports of $200-billion. The degree to which natural resources underpin Canada’s economic prosperity is illustrated by balance of trade data showing an $84-billion net balance resource trade surplus, while manufacturing incurred a trade deficit of more than $60-billion.

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The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

 WASHINGTON — It will be a lively President’s Day long weekend for the folks here at the Canadian embassy.

As many as 20,000 environmental activists are expected to march on the White House on Sunday to demand the death of Keystone XL, and embassy staff plan to be on the sidelines to hear what’s said up the street on Pennsylvania Avenue and do their own count of the protesters.

It’s part of their focus on the facts on the consuming issue that has risen to the top of their priorities. In the first major anti-Keystone XL march in August 2011, headlined by celebrities like Daryl Hannah, environmentalists claimed a throng of 10,000 showed up, embassy staff counted 4,000. In another rally last November, protesters claimed 5,000 followers, the embassy counted 3,000.

The exaggeration is typical of the theatre surrounding the Canadian heavy oil pipeline project, targeted by the U.S. environmental movement to make a point about the need to get off fossil fuels — particularly those from the oil sands — and accelerate the adoption of green energy to reduce climate change.

But for many Canadians here who have been defending the pipeline from Alberta to Texas, the oil sands industry and Canada’s environmental record, the really important development is still to come, and they hope that’s where the facts will prevail.

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The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Canada’s oil sands are besieged with two myths: That a “clean” coal technology exists and that the oil sands imperil the planet as the world’s dirtiest fuel.

Meanwhile, they are not swarming around America’s biggest carbon dioxide emissions culprit – Southern Company’s Scherer Plant. In 2007, the plant was the single largest source of carbon dioxide in the U.S. and 20th biggest worldwide, spewing out 27 million tons annually.

And while the environmental industry attacked Keystone during the 2012 election campaign with large protests and media noise, there were no dramatic sit-ins or mass arrests in Georgia or other dirty coal plants. In fact, that year the Scherer Plant in Georgia hired KBR Haliburton to build yet-another gigantic smoke stack, increasing emissions.

Comparing a single plant with the oil sands sector may sound unfair, but consider the numbers. The Scherer Plant’s emissions alone are equivalent to 75% of the carbon dioxide produced by Canada’s oil sands and yet the Georgia utility gets a pass while the oil sands are dubbed the pariah of polluters.

Digging deeper, the Georgia emissions are far worse using the “wheel to wheel” measure that environmentalists like to apply to the oil sands.

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