Wideleft

Millions have died in oil-related wars and millions more are being displaced due to oil wars and climate migration. To suggest that humans can "get through" without other species is the height of hubris.

I am all in favour of returning to 1950's levels of taxation on the wealthy and corporations. They call it the Golden Age for a reason. As for the nonsense about penalizing ICE vehicle owners. The total cost of ownership of an EV is lower and will become much lower as the industry expands and options for lower purchase price models increases. Even though owners will save a ton on vehicle operation, you are against giving some of those savings to provide safe road infrastructure because you have an irrational fear of tax. So "costs" are fine with you as long as it doesn't filter back to society in the form of tax. I think I get you now.

When you factor in the costs of climate change induced damages, it certainly is a compelling argument. The cost of doing nothing or delaying doing something is far more in terms of financial, human and environmental damage than you can seem to wrap your head around. That is the viewpoint of someone with a lack of imagination.

Alberta pump prices increased 10-15 cents a litre the day after Kenney announced he was going to suspend the provincial gas tax. O & G will ALWAYS squeeze every penny out of you. That's yet another reason to leave them behind.

I'm aware. Also aware that he has an upcoming leadership review and a provincial election in 2023.

We should also ban any entertainment industry that consumes vast amounts of fuel unless they purchase carbon offsets or pay a pollution fee. Cruise ships Air shows Auto racing for starters. I think I posted an article on nano-reactors in the climate discussion about a year ago. The possibilities are endless.

We don't seem to have a solution (yet) to replace certain plastics and we can't yet smelt steel without coal. That doesn't mean we shouldn't start taking care of the 80-90% that can be transitioned now. We're always just one brilliant mind away from significant change. I just learned this week that Thomas Edison told his employee Nikola Tesla that the AC motor was a pipedream. Tesla figured it out. And he did it during an oil boom.

Read the Norway article. You incentivize EV purchases by waiving certain fees (VAT tax or direct rebate) and you penalize ICE ownership. The penalties pay for road maintenance. They also offered rebates to EV owners at ferries and tolls, but don't need to anymore. After all that, you own a vehicle which is much cheaper to own over it's lifetime. It would be naive to think that there wouldn't need to be a specific road maintenance tax if you reached 90% EV adoption, but a tax is still better for the environment than CO2 emissions.

The thing is, some people seem to think that you can ask the government to suspend a tax increase because we have the power to collectively vote them out. It doesn't seem to occur that we also have the power to not vote for politicians who bend their knee to their Petro Masters and let them do whatever they want to our detriment.

For the millionth time, no one has suggested that oil will not be needed at all in our lifetimes. Meanwhile, Manitoba could have done what Norway (EV adoption rate for new personal vehicles is now 90%) did. EV incentives Norway started introducing EV incentives quite early in the 1990s. Initially, the impact was small as the EV range and other features were limited and did not meet the requirements of most buyers. By 2012, the number of EVs in use in Norway reached 10,000 units and grew rapidly. The most important EV incentives are three big savings items that make the purchase price of nearly all EVs less than that of similar ICEVs. The import tax came first and amounts to thousands of dollars depending on what brand and model. EVs were exempted from the 25 percent VAT from 2001 and can save the typical EV buyer $6,000 to $10,000. Norway is also adding significant fees to ICEV for CO2 and NOx emissions, which will top $5,000 for most gasoline and diesel vehicles. There were many other usage savings such as annual road tax fees, which will end in 2022. Toll road and ferry fees had steep discounts that are also being phased out. These EV incentives have been successful in making EVs very popular in Norway, but many incentives will disappear over the next five years. To continue replacing ICEVs, the key is to retain a competitive EV purchase price versus gasoline and diesel vehicles. The biggest long–term incentive for EVs is the low fuel cost. Gasoline in Norway is in the $6 to $7 range per gallon. The average electricity price per KWh is less than 10 cents. The typical range for one KWh of battery is 3 to 4 miles, which means you can drive 30 to 40 miles for a dollar of electricity in Norway. If you have 30 MPG ICEV, you will only get five miles for a dollar of gas. That is a very powerful argument to switch to EVs — even if the EV usage cost advantages are lower than in Norway. https://www.eetimes.com/why-norway-is-leading-in-bev-adoption/#

It ain't taxation that's bankrupting us.

Is your assumption that all our oil goes through Keystone XL? If so, how do we get it back from China?

I liked this idea 20 years ago. I think we just need to start investing directly into renewable energy and energy efficiency in a very real way.

One other thing. Even if you could clear all the barriers/hurdles on both sides of the border to complete the Hardisty to Steele City leg (which won't happen) you wouldn't see a drop of crude in Houston for at least 2 years. This is another non-starter.

It's not always about what's in the ground (well it is, if you're talking about underground pipelines). Some good background here as well. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60131520

Paris (AFP) – The Russian head of delegation at a major UN climate conference apologised for his country's invasion of Ukraine on Sunday, which he said lacked justification, according to several sources who heard him speak at the virtual meeting. .......... The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provided simultaneous translation of his comments into English. AFP did not have access to the original statement in Russian. Ukraine’s Krakovska, who has tried to continue working despite the assault on her country, addressed the conference on Sunday morning. "We will not surrender in Ukraine, and we hope the world will not surrender in building a climate resilient future," she said in English, according to multiple sources. "Human-induced climate change and the war on Ukraine have the same roots -- fossil fuels -- and our dependence on them," she added. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220227-russian-official-apologises-for-war-in-ukraine-at-un-climate-meet

It will change when we have the will to say "screw you and your oil" and get on with with our belated transition to renewable energy. Any expansion of oil and gas or concessions to the Petroleum industry is a step backwards that we cannot afford. There are 2 horrifying certainties if we continue our over-reliance on oil: More wars over oil Climate disaster which will lead to wars over water and arable land, 10% of our species becoming extinct and a whole bunch of bad things we haven't even considered. If oil is so precious, it should be heavily regulated and controlled from the time someone gets an idea to access it to the time it leaves a vent or exhaust pipe. Treat it like a utility and take the profit out of the equation. As it is right now, most of our O & G profits leave the country anyway.

Oil & Gas will use ANY excuse to gouge consumers, so don't fall for this. You know how every year we pay more for gas because of refinery "turnarounds"? The turnarounds are entirely predictable and regular and yet the companies don't build these costs into their cost of production and choose to pass it on to you and I. Meanwhile BP has reported their highest profits in 8 years. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/08/bp-earnings-q4-2021.html Exxon earns 23 billion and immediately initiates a $10 billion share buyback. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exxonmobil-earns-23-billion-2021-123000970.html

I think you just explained why many trans people feel isolated enough to commit suicide without knowing you've explained it. In other words, your cause and effects are ass-backwards. "Suicidal behaviour is a complex phenomenon that is a result of many individual (age, male sex assigned at birth, previous suicide attempts, mental health history, substance abuse) as well as more distant environmental factors. A recent literature review clearly demonstrates the specific risk factors for suicide in sexual minority youth, which includes negative social environments, inadequate support within the closest social network, and an absence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements in communities (29). In our cohort, both trans women and trans men show a three‐ to four‐fold elevated risk of suicide compared with the population rate in the Netherlands and can therefore be considered a high‐risk group. Although the Netherlands is known for its tolerance toward sexual minority groups in comparison to most countries in the world (30), the societal position of trans people is generally less favorable compared with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and cis‐gender population. Furthermore, compared with trans men, the societal position of trans women is lower (31, 32." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7317390/

These elements have always been part of Conservative politics. The difference now is they are the loudest voices whereas Conservative leaders used to spend a lot of effort on keeping these kinds of people in line.

No political party gives a crap about people who don't vote. If you want change, use your vote. Not voting is a an abdication of your right to uphold democracy. You don't have to like the government in power, but you can't not like the idea of "government" - especially in a country as free as Canada.

This guy is one of those charged. He sure has scrubbed his facebook page in the last day.

And receipt:

Snowboard cross is about as good as it gets - my new fave Olympic sport (used to be short track speedskating).