The evolution of Alberta gas prices
Today was mostly a course prep day for me and, as part of that, I was updating a graph package for my students. I decided to pull down some longer history on Alberta natural gas prices and overlay them with settlement prices for futures contracts. These are US-dollars-denominated contracts but for gas at the Nova […]
All credible agencies?
My fellow economist Jack Mintz has a piece out this morning in the Financial Post on Alberta Separatism. By Jack’s standards, this piece leaves a lot to be desired – it makes a claim that an Alberta exit from Canada would be easier (implied) and more beneficial (explicit) to Alberta than Brexit has been for […]
My FINA remarks
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It’s a pleasure to speak to you today to express my overall support and to provide context for the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, Section 5 of Bill C-74. This legislation is the backbone of the federal government’s approach to climate change and will complement the measures already taken by […]
Bill 12 – Problematic Legislation That Should Never Be Proclaimed
Alberta’s Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd introduced Bill 12, The Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, on Monday and stated that the province, “absolutely intends to use it if we need to,” on Tuesday. The government should never be given that chance. Bill 12 is potentially in direct violation of the limits of provincial powers which are […]
Western Canadian oil pricing
A lot of discussion happening about pipelines, market access and crude differentials these days. I’ve started using this map as a means of illustrating the various levels to this debate. First, it’s important to always note that all oil is not equal – if you’re looking at a WTI-WCS differential and getting really upset about […]
Back to the FrogBlog
It’s been two and a half years (wow) since I’ve written anything on this blog site, and more than three years since I’ve updated in on any kind of a regular basis. Over the next while, I’m going to get back to more writing so hopefully that will change. I hope that a few of […]
The Mill Creek and the Valley Line – An opportunity we shouldn’t pass up
Up until 1970, the Mill Creek flowed through the ravine as we know it today, under what is now Connors Road, between 98th Avenue and the current site of the Muttart Conservatory, and finally under 98th Avenue to empty into the North Saskatchewan River. You can still see the delta today – just walk east […]
Updates
I don’t update this blog much now, as most of my writing goes to Maclean’s – please check here for the latest – as well as occasional posts at the Globe and Mail here. I hope to post move back to posting more technical analysis here in the near future. Thanks for checking-in.
Do Oil Spills Boost the Economy?
This week, Press Progress and the Vancouver Sun’s Peter O’Neil reported that Kinder Morgan had quantified the economic benefits of oil spills in its application to expand the Trans-Mountain Pipeline from Edmonton, Alta. to Burnaby, B.C. Yes, the benefits of oil spills—they create jobs in the communities where the spills occur. Beyond being a public relations disaster for the […]
How Canada’s incoherence on climate is killing Keystone
There’s no shortage of blame being passed around in the wake of another delay in the U.S. regulatory approval process with respect to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline which, it was announced last Friday, will now drag on for at least another six months. Among other reasons cited for the decision, the Calgary Herald’s Deborah Yedlin […]