It’s a busy time for Canada.

Over a million US citizens oppose the Keystone XL proposal © 350.org

No, I am not talking about the Leafs making it to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2004. I am referring to the continued – and ramped up – lobbying efforts of the federal government to sell the Albertan oil sands abroad. Federal Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver was in Brussels last week attempting to convince the EU to relax its categorisation of oil sands crude as “dirty”. Minister of Environment Peter Kent followed in his footsteps across the pond and is in London this week to push for the same thing. Oliver has already been to D.C. four times since the beginning of this year to lobby US senators and members of Congress to support the Keystone XL pipeline proposal. Even the Prime Minister is joining in: Stephen Harper is in New York this week to pitch the oil sands first to the Council of Foreign Relations and then to Wall Street.

Hey, big spender!

Because despite claiming to be a fiscally conservative government, and despite cutting federal spending in major programmes (science and research, public broadcasting, environmental protection, pensions, employment insurance, the arts), millions of taxpayer dollars have been allocated to oil sands promotion with no end in sight. [Read more →]

“Renewables are good but they will never be able to provide 100% of the world`s energy supply.” This has been the discourse for the past years. Even a decade ago, cities, regions, and businesses aiming for 20% renewable energy were on the cutting edge. Anyone even suggesting a target of 100% renewable energy was a radical. Fast forward to today 100% renewable energy goals are becoming the new normal. And if one thinks that this transformation of the energy sector is only taking place in Europe, one will be surprised to see the developments in the US. [Read more →]

Source: Kew Management

Renewable energies (RE) have many friends around the world. Most people generally support the call to increase the share of renewables in the overall energy mix. But few actually believe that reaching a 100% RE target in the next few decades is an achievable goal. However, numerous roadmaps and studies show that it is possible to run a city, state, region and even the world on 100% RE by 2030 or 2050.

A new scientific study, by Mark Z. Jacobson from Stanford University in cooperation with scientists from Cornell University and University of California Davis again proves again the technical and economic feasibility of a 100% RE scenario – this time for New York State. Jacobson and his colleagues map out a fossil free future for New York and prove that it is possible to convert the state’s power, industry and transport infrastructure to be entirely powered by renewables by 2050.

[Read more →]