Andrew – Rescuing the frog

Government Contracts

June 24, 2024 by Andrew

Last week, an article about me appeared in outlets including the Western Standard. This post addresses a few of the claims made there and elsewhere. Were you awarded contracts from federal ministries between November 2015 and today? Yes. I billed two federal government ministries an average of roughly $3600 per year between November 2015 and … Read more

There’s only one climate vote in this election and it’s for the Liberals

September 16, 2021September 16, 2021 by Andrew

I’ve kept my head (mostly) down so far in this election for a simple reason: over the past two years in particular and sporadically before that, I have given a lot of advice to the Government of Canada on the implementation of national climate change policies. The Liberal plan is, in many aspects, rooted in … Read more

Facts matter

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019 by Andrew

The Canadian Energy Centre (if you’re wondering who that is, it’s a pro-energy corporation funded by the Alberta government) apparently take their responsibility to tell Canada’s energy story very seriously. After seeing Bill McKibben’s op-ed in the Globe and Mail on Saturday, I waited anxiously for the response from our vaunted war room. It finally … Read more

To whom is Jason Kenney selling a bill of goods on Energy East?

June 17, 2019 by Andrew

Jason Kenney is, ahem, bending the truth, for someone on Energy East. The questions we should be asking are whether he knows that he is and, if his Energy East fantasies were to come true, to whom would he have been selling a bill of goods.

Senate Testimony on Bill c-48

April 30, 2019April 30, 2019 by Andrew

Bill C-48, An Act respecting the regulation of vessels that transport crude oil or persistent oil to or from ports or marine installations located along British Columbia’s north coast, has passed third reading in the House of Commons and is now at the Senate committee stage. I’ve been invited to appear before Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on Tuesday, April 30th. I’ve slightly adapted my opening statement from an appearance before the House Transport committee last year. My opening statement to the committee is as follows:

Thank you for inviting me to appear today. In my remarks which follow, I will focus on those areas most relevant to my expertise – the impact of the proposed tanker ban on Canada’s ability to realize maximum value for its resources and for products derived from Canadian processing of those resources.

My thoughts on the UCP Climate Change Plan

April 2, 2019 by Andrew

Jason Kenney formalized the United Conservative Party’s climate change and energy plans on the weekend. There’s more to Kenney’s platform than the headlines about scrapping the carbon tax – the platform is a systematic walk-back of some of the most important climate change initiatives in Alberta, an effort to perpetuate myths about other initiatives and, I believe, a gift to those opposed to Alberta’s energy sector.

In case you’re not aware, I have a personal tie to many of these policies: in 2015, I chaired Premier Notley’s Climate Leadership Panel that recommended many of them. I’ve also worked on policies federally under Prime Ministers Harper and Trudeau and provincially under Premiers Stelmach, Redford, Hancock, Prentice and Notley. I’ve written on these topics since before Alberta had its first carbon price introduced in 2007. So, if you want to take this as sour grapes about an opposition party proposing to unwind a policy I recommended, go ahead. But, before you do that, I hope you’ll take time to consider the arguments below.

The price of gas and the taste of crow

February 10, 2019 by Andrew

Over the past few days, I’ve been involved in a lot of discussion on Twitter and in other fora about the distribution of transportation fuel expenditures across Canadian households. The purpose of this post is two-fold: first, to eat a little crow for an error of my own, and then to provide some additional data … Read more

What can we learn from the church carbon tax fiasco?

January 28, 2019 by Andrew

Yesterday morning, United Conservative Party candidate for Brooks-Medicine Hat and well-known conservative activist Michaela Glasgo tweeted a claim, since debunked, that her church, Hillcrest Evangelical Missionary Church in Medicine Hat, would be facing a $50,000 bill from Alberta’s carbon tax next year. The claim, and the subsequent challenges to it, were picked up by the Edmonton … Read more

House Standing Committee on Environment

January 28, 2019 by Andrew

The following is a transcript of my remarks to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development from Monday, January 28. 2019. Please check against delivery. Thank you for inviting me to appear before your Standing Committee to make the case in favour of carbon pricing. I am an Associate Professor at … Read more

The federal output-based carbon pricing system works because it’s not an exemption

December 23, 2018December 23, 2018 by Andrew

This week, the federal government announced more details of their Output Based Pricing System (OBPS) which targets greenhouse gas emissions from large, industrial facilities. These policies are complex (although perhaps not as complex as their acronyms make them sound) and build on a long line of similar policies proposed and/or implemented in Canada. In this post, I take you through the history of these policies, discuss which facilities are covered, and explain why the system implemented in Alberta and now being implemented as part of the federal backstop is far better than other systems in preserving competitiveness and providing rewards for innovation.