We Have Potential Customers...

...but Obama and his Green Buddies don't care about the jobs, dependency on Middle East oil supplies, etc.

I Support Your Right To Be Green...

Goldstein: Green train wreck

...and my solution to the political mayhem is to have a box on the income tax form and property tax forms that allow you to tell the government to channel your tax $$$ to government green projects and another box that will deduct the costs of normal energy ueage from your paycheck.

TransCanada details Keystone XL’s job-creating potential

...if you are unemployed and collecting government benefits, or living on the street will you be speaking out in favour or against the pipeline?

Big Environment gets a pass on pipeline tactics, as usual
Kelly McParland: Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have been getting pummeled for suggesting Big Environment might not always employ the most scrupulous of methods when attempting to achieve its goals

This Is Awkward
Northern Gateway "interveners" signed up without their knowledge;
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” said the 53-year-old woman on Tuesday from her home.
“I have never heard of this pipeline and I did not apply to speak in Canada,” she said, in broken English.
That’s strange. On the federal government’s National Energy Board website, Gudic is one of a whopping 4,522 registrants who apparently applied online to make an oral application. Her name, mailing address, e-mail and phone number are included on the website.
Gudic’s daughter, Flavia, also has never heard of the pipeline, that, if approved, would ship raw Alberta bitumen to Kitimat, B.C., to be sent to Asia via supertankers.
“Maybe the environmental organizations we donate to signed us up,” offered Flavia, a 19-year-old art student.MayBE!
Posted by Kate at 12:19 AM Comments (14)

McGoonty Failed To Replace A White CHRISTmas with Greenbut...

...but as usual he failed and it is going to show up on your VISA!

Gore, Suzuki And ...

Dalton leads the Stupid Green Men


With apologies to Michael Moore, there’s only way to describe Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals when it comes to their absurd claims about the job- creation potential of renewable energy.

27 Full story

Read The CBC Debunking Of Similar Claims By Hannah...

Naomi Klein, natives arrested at White House

WASHINGTON - A Canadian native protester and social activist Naomi Klein were among dozens arrested Friday outside the White House near the end of a two-week civil disobedience campaign aimed at pressuring U.S. President Barack Obama to block TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline. 2 September

...is it possible the natives in attendance are not getting any of $$$.

Another Expert From Gore/Suzuki University Debunked...

Examining 5 oilsands claims by Daryl Hannah

02/09/2011 2:46:27 PM

CBC News

Actress and activist Darryl Hannah was arrested this week in Washington D.C during a protest against TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline. CBC News investigates some of the actress's claims about Canada's oilsands.
On Wednesday, Hannah appeared on CBC's Power & Politics to debate Alykhan Velshi, founder of Ethicaloil.org, a website devoted to defending Canada's oil industry.

Velshi said it wasn't fair to compare the first Keystone pipeline, which had a number of high-profile leaks, with Keystone XL. He said that was like using the bad engineering of the Ford Pinto (a car produced in the '70s) to say Fords shouldn't be built today. (Though Hannah quickly pointed out that the first pipeline was only a year old).

For the most part, Velshi stuck to his main argument - that the U.S. will continue to need oil and should be supplied from "friendly" countries like Canada, instead of "conflict regimes" like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

But Hannah made a number of claims about the oilsands, some of which CBC News investigated:

Claim 1.: "It's well-documented that the tar sands itself is one of the world's largest ecological atrocities and disasters."
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) released a 414-page report last year entitled Environmental and Health Impacts of Canada's Oil Sands Industry. It was written by scientists and academics and targeted oil companies, the federal and provincial government and environmentalists.
While the report does not examine whether the oilsands is one of the worst ecological disasters, it does address the question of whether it is "the most environmentally destructive project on earth."
The report compares the oilsands to a number of other industries. In terms of toxic emissions, for example, it says the oilsands industry ranks fifth for mercury, sixth for cadmium, eighth for lead and eighth for four carcinogenic pollutants.
The industry would have to increase its emissions by five-fold to become the first ranked industrial emitter of air pollutants and toxic emissions, the RSC said, something "no foreseeable oilsands growth scenario" would lead to.
The academic group also found that no evidence had been demonstrated that the industry is a major polluter of surface waters, although groundwater is less certain.



They did note the substantial impact of open pit surface mining and a need for more rapid reclamation of disturbed areas. But they said "the claim by some critics of the oil sands industry that it is the most environmentally destructive project on earth is not supported by the evidence."



Claim 2.: "The contribution to the carbon in the atmosphere is unprecedented."
The report acknowledges reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands poses a challenge to Canada and that the industry is the country's fastest growing source.
But it said the oilsands makes up about five per cent of the country's total emissions, compared with 16 per cent for fossil fuel-fired power generation and 27 per cent for transportation, based on 2008 data.
In terms of global emissions, the oilsands contributes .08 per cent. the report found.

Claim 3: "I've been hearing about how many people have cancer that live downstream from the tar sands project."
Hannah is referring to the residents of Fort Chipewyan who live downstream from the oilsands. Concerns were first raised in 2006 by a local doctor about supposed elevated cancer rates in the town. In 2009, the Alberta Cancer Board said cancer rates were 30 per cent higher than expected.
But the RSC report noted that the doctor was later criticized by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta for making "a number of inaccurate and untruthful claims."
International experts who looked at the Alberta Cancer Board study also found that the increase in cancer incidence was not evidence that an environmental exposure was the cause.
"There is currently no credible evidence of environmental contaminant exposures from oilsands reaching Fort Chipewyan at levels expected to cause human cancer rates."
However, the Alberta government has said it will further study the issue.

Claim 4: "It has poisoned every one who's lived downstream from it."
The report found that "environmental contaminants at current levels of exposure are unlikely to cause major health impact for the general population." It added that projected emissions from expanded operations are not likely to change that expectation.

Claim 5. "TransCanada, who's building this pipeline has told people in [the U.S.] that they're going to be taking their land through eminent domain if they don't agree to the terms."
Hannah is referring to TransCanada's threat to go to court to expropriate parts of U.S. land from landowners who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline on their property.
While the company has said it's trying to work out agreements with the landowners, it has admitted it would go to court as a "last resort" to force a deal.
TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha told The Associated Press in April that landowners who agree to easements with TransCanada will receive payment when they sign the agreement, and Cunha said landowners would keep the money even if the project isn't approved. Plus, the ranchers and farmers retain ownership of the land.
With files from The Associated Press

And Suzuki Is Keeping Hime Company...

Earth to Al Gore!

Goldstein: Rolling Stone rant out of this world. Judging from his latest 7,000-word rant in Rolling Stone titled, "Climate of Denial: Can science and the truth withstand the merchants of poison?" Al Gore lives on another planet.

MORE...

Jack Layton's Next Star Candidate


He better hurry up though, or the David Suzuki Foundation is sure to hire her.

Posted by Robert at 4:21 PM
Comments (43)

The Greening By Red Mayor...

The latest leftover bull from David Miller

By SUE-ANN LEVY, City Hall Columnist

Let’s call it the latest bit of bull left over from the Days of David Miller.

Bullfrog Power facts

Reviewing the green wave

A Birthday Gift From Diver Suscooky...

Going For Gore/Suzuki Support And Approval?

Hamas crushes green initiatives....

They want to keep Gaza as primitive as possible....easier to then blame Israel...In the small central Gaza town of Deir el Belah, one family has made a cottage industry out of green innovation."There was a period in Gaza when there was no gas or you had to wait for hours in line to get gas. So we made the oven according to our needs," said Maher Youssef Abou Tawahina, who, along with his fath...

GayandRight |

Green Holy Grail...

David Frum: Two countries, one carbon tax

David Frum  July 31, 2010 – 9:00 am

 

A loophole Canada once demanded in the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement now threatens to bite the Canadian energy industry.
The loophole allows either country to impose tariffs on the other for health and environmental reasons. Now, that loophole creates an opportunity for the United States to impose sanctions on oil from Canada’s oil sands.
Here’s how. Read More »

...talking about elephants:

Margaret Wente

Taming my elephant – and yours

Just when you think you’ve got the beast of irrationality under control, he goes on the rampage again

Sadly There Are Still A Lot Of Closet McGoontyites...

...and his new cap and trade con job isn't going to make that many friends and looking at the initiative in the USA it is obvious someone like Al Gore, possibly David Suski, will make mega bucks.

The Messiah Of Cap And Trade... 

Al Gore grilled by Portland cops in sex assault case

Another Example Of Municipal Politicians Out Of Tough...

Waste diversion makes for a greener, cleaner Ontario

By Peter Hume

Mon Jul 19 2010

So-called "eco fees" are a small price to pay for a less toxic environment. (73)

Liberals send eco-fee scheme back to the drawing board

Bowing to growing pressure from consumers and Canadian Tire over its eco-fee scheme, the Ontario government will send the plan back to the drawing board

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR

 

By Rob Ferguson

Mon Jul 19 2010

Leading retailer scraps controversial eco fee program and increases pressure to revamp it.

Related:

• Few retailers charge eco fee

• Transparency urged

• Numerous complaints

• Editorial: Sneaky 'eco fee'

 

Welcome To McGoontyland...

Sorry Christie But Being "Conscious" Of The Facts Don't Make Them Pallitable...

...if this program is so beneficial why didn't we hear more from the government and McGinty? 

Christie Blatchford

From the shock of 'eco fees' comes eco consciousness

Blasted by some as a tax grab (wrong), it’s actually a pretty smart program 

Christie Blatchford

From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Jul. 09, 2010 9:59PM EDT Last updated on Friday, Jul. 09, 2010 10:27PM EDT

 

In a couple of ways, my environmental consciousness has been raised several notches of late, entirely by accident.
In the first and happiest instance, upon the advice of one of the new cadre of experts (fireplace guy, architect, contractor, with more to come) I have assembled for my forthcoming stint in renovation hell, I had an energy auditor inspect my aged house.
The idea was to discover what would improve the energy efficiency of the skinny up-and-down Victorian dame, and thus perhaps qualify me for government rebates.
The inspector said that probably the single best improvement I could make would be to properly insulate the attic, which was leaking heat and/or drawing in cold air at entirely the wrong times of year. It was a daunting prospect (I had more visible improvements in mind), and while I nodded politely throughout, I confess I had no intention of following through.
However, I was planning to install a simple bath on the third floor, and in the process of starting that, the contractor had to tear down the plaster-and-lathe walls, and low, acoustic-tiled ceiling to replace with waterproof board.
Joe the Magnificent (this man works harder, and more neatly, than anyone I have ever known) called me upstairs early that first day, and though at first I could hardly see for the black dust, let alone take in what I was seeing, what was revealed was an absolutely soaring, 16-foot cathedral ceiling.
Hidden in my house, on the formerly stuffy and long-neglected third floor, was a veritable Muskoka-style cottage: I have an aerie in the making.
Suddenly, the inspector’s advice seems brilliant, and once the space is insulated to the max, Joe et al will construct the aerie, and I will relocate my quarters to that floor once the gut of the ground floor is under way.
This is actually quite useful, as it will entirely ensure I remain deeply in debt, which is my natural state.
Plus, once they start on the kitchen, my godson John, who now lives in the basement where other young relatives have camped out before him, and I will be tragically forced to eat out virtually every meal, which we do as a matter of course anyway, but sometimes feel badly about.
Despite the bliss engendered by the discovery of the aerie, I managed to spend much of the week in a state of righteous indignation, as word spread about “eco fees” variously described in the news as a new hidden tax or tax grab and engineered by a mysterious “government body” or “government agency” called Stewardship Ontario.
New tax! Shock and horror! Damn government! Fight the power!
I went on the Stewardship website, but found my eyes glazing over, the corporate-speak therein utterly defeating me. So I phoned and spoke to an actual person, one Amanda Harper Sevonty, who is the marketing director.
And guess what?
Stewardship Ontario is not a government agency of any description, though it was created by provincial legislation (the Waste Diversion Act, 2002).
Rather, it’s a non-profit Industry Funding Organization, or IFO, one of four established by that legislation to set up and operate waste diversion programs in the province.
As the name suggests, the money for Stewardship Ontario comes from the industry players (that is, the stewards) who manufacture the products which heretofore have ended up in landfill sites. Not a penny of taxpayer dough goes to run Stewardship Ontario; not a penny of eco fees goes back to government to squander.
The reason for the hullabaloo is that as of July 1, the very day the wretched and much-disliked harmonized sales tax also took effect in Ontario, 22 new material categories, with thousands of new products, were added to the list governed by waste diversion regulations.
These are household products – such as paints, antifreeze, corrosives, irritants, fluorescent bulbs, petroleum derivatives, windshield washers, camping fuels, etc., etc. – which require special handling to be made environmentally safe or friendly.
For instance, Stewardship Ontario charges manufacturers 13 cents for every kilogram of corrosive materials they put into the marketplace, or 76 cents for every kilo of non-rechargeable batteries found in TV remotes.
The miracle to my simple mind is how many of these hazardous-to-the-environment products can be reprocessed and reused or at the least neutralized and rendered benign for a landfill.
Though the first manufacturer charges on nine categories of materials were introduced two years ago to little fanfare, it was this second phase – incorporating as it does so many more products that people use every day – which caused the outcry. As manufacturers passed on their increased costs to their retailers, some absorbed the costs, and some began charging the “eco fees” that showed up on cash-register receipts.
Stewardship Ontario is involved only in charging stewards fees for what it costs to recover, recycle or render safe these hazardous products; it’s the retailers who decide how or if they will recover the additional cost with a consumer eco fee.
So, no new tax; no money flowing back to government to spend; no vast new bureaucracy springing up to burden the taxpayer (Stewardship Ontario was, until about a year ago, a virtual organization, and now has all of 20 staff), and really, a pretty smart program that is the first of its kind in Canada.
It’s all part of what in Europe is called extended producer responsibility; the citizen’s end is to participate in what’s called the Orange Drop program, and take their hazardous products to recycling depots and not toss them in the garbage – and ultimately, the landfill.
I am off now to the aerie-in-progress, to ponder further on all this.

McGoonty Hoping To Acheive The Riches Of Al Gore...

Kelly McParland: Ontario pays the price of environmental posturing

Kelly McParland  July 10, 2010 – 9:54 am

 

Here’s a great story about the absurdity that ensues when a government tries to force-feed an impractical policy to the population for the sake of environmental posturing.
If you don’t want to read the original, here’s a capsule version:
Ontario sponsors a program to encourage small users of solar power by giving them subsidies. Except it has proved so popular, especially in rural areas, the province quietly slashed the subsidy late last Friday. (You remember Friday, right — quiet sleepy day between Canada Day and the weekend? If you really really wanted to release something at a time no one would notice, you couldn’t pick a better day. Not that the McGuinty government would deliberately try to hide what it was doing, of course. Oh no).  The result is that people who bought into the program won’t get nearly the amount they expected. Now they’re upset — having discovered the ruse despite the government’s effort to hide it — and are bombarding MPPs with complaints. Read More »

Rex Murphy: This is a Green column. It must be good for you

Rex Murphy  July 10, 2010 – 9:00 am

REUTERS/Toby Melville

This column is like this photo: Pure, clean and self-generated

We’re ages away from times when magic and wizardry, mumbling of spells and incantations held minds captive and populated the world with invisible, unknowable phantoms and forces. The only serious incantation I can recall from literature is over 400 years old. It comes in a late work of Shakespeare’s great rival, Christopher Marlowe. Faustus is desperate to make contact with Lucifer, and knows just how to go about it: Read More »

To Hell With Green Advocates...

Look To The DON Of The Green Mafia For Answers...

The shady side of the green building industry

Mike Preston's company installed geothermal systems that many of his customers say don't work.

RICHARD LAUTENS/TORONTO STAR

 

By Diana Zlomislic

Sat May 15 2010

 

There are few quality-control standards to protect consumers from incompetent “eco experts” looking to cash in on the booming green building and renovation industry. 

Carbon Tax Fraud - Al Gore, Hillary Clinton ... 2 min 50 sec - 29 Oct 2007 video.google.com Roseman: Don’t fall victim to energy fraud at the door Sat May 15 2010 Ontario’s new law to curb energy sales abuses doesn’t come in until next year, so you have to guard against deception at the door.  Preston Manning: Proselytizer of science From right-wing, populist politician to coach for the science c

Al Gore Receives Honorary Doctorate

May 15, 2010 07:45 AM by Doug Powers
21 Comments | 1 Trackback

“This award for promoting sustainable lifestyles will look great hanging on a wall in the cavernous, climate-controlled living room in one of my mansions!”

Mon May. 10 2010 4:53:55 PM

Ontario e-waste recycling scheme works despite failing to meet targets: minister

The Canadian Press

In this file photo, John Gerretsen speaks to the media after being sworn in at Queen's Park on Thursday Oct. 23, 2003. (Tobin Grimshaw/ THE CANADIAN PRESS)

TORONTO — Ontario's $40-million electronic recycling program isn't a failure even though it has fallen far short of provincial targets to divert tonnes of discarded TVs and computers from landfills, Environment Minister John Gerretsen said Monday.
Ontario Electronic Stewardship, an industry-led corporation that's supposed to collect the waste, isn't living up to its commitments to the province, he acknowledged.
The agency promised to recycle about 33,000 tonnes of electronic junk in the first year of the program, but collected only 17,000 tonnes, he said.
"It is absolutely not a failure: 17,000 tonnes are being diverted from landfill sites that otherwise would have ended up there," Gerretsen told the legislature.
Critics say the original target was actually 42,000 tonnes, but that was reduced to 33,000 tonnes partway through last year.

Most of the province's e-waste is going to landfills or being illegally exported, said NDP critic Peter Tabuns. And Gerretsen's "Pollyanna perspective" doesn't cut it when consumers are paying an extra $2 to $26 on new electronic gadgets to help fund a program that isn't working.

"If you throw electronic waste in (to landfills) that's got mercury and other toxic substances, you're talking about potential threats to ground water, you're talking about the well-being of people in this province," Tabuns said.

"He should have been acting very aggressively to recycle the material. Obviously he's shown he can't do it."

OES, which counts executives from Best Buy, Sony and Sears among its directors, "is proud of the progress" it's made in establishing the recycling program, said executive director Carol Hochu.
It recently expanded the program to include cellphone, digital cameras and music players, she said.
"We recognize that there are areas for improvement in the electronic waste recycling program's operation, and that is why we are in the midst of consultations with our processor partners and other service providers," Hochu said in a release.
"We will soon put forward proposals for new incentives and other improvements to the system, so that we can collect and recycle even more electronic waste and ensure that it doesn't end up being dumped here in Ontario or anywhere else."
It's clear that the program, which has collected an estimated $40 million from consumers since it started last year, shouldn't be left in the hands of electronics manufacturers and sellers, Tabuns said.
"We have a lot of experience with public agencies running waste collection," he said.
"We have experience with collection of materials that (Gerretsen) should have been able to draw on and put in place."
Gerretsen said the government will hold OES responsible for falling short of its targets, but isn't about to scrap its partnership with the industry.
"I don't think that we should make too much of this at this stage," he said. "It is one year into the program."
There are improvements, including higher fees for collecting, transporting and recycling the junk, he added. For example, collectors are paid about $235 per tonne of waste, up from $165 per tonne.
The government is trying to toughen Ontario's waste diversion laws and may ban electronic waste from landfills to overcome some of the challenges the recycling program faces, he said. It also wants stiffer penalties to make sure provincial targets are met.
"We want to make sure that this stuff stays out of our landfill sites, and we also want to make sure that it isn't being shipped to Third World countries," Gerretsen said.

HMM! Another Ontario Success Story...

E-waste diverted, but where exactly?

Ontario’s high-profile electronic waste disposal program is failing to recycle millions of computers and televisions it promised to keep out of landfills. 10 May 05:00 MORE