Energy

“Right now it’s clear in the pandemic that the policies of the Green Party are the policies everyone’s talking about," said Elizabeth May.

Across Canada, governments have suspended, delayed and cancelled environmental protection measures as the country grapples with COVID-19. Here’s everything we know.

Trans Mountain says it has reached another "key milestone" in the project to triple capacity of a pipeline moving oil from the Edmonton area to port in Burnaby, B.C.

As Canada continues to battle COVID-19, calls for a green recovery are growing. "We can use this moment to start building an innovative, sustainable, inclusive and resilient national economy," said Jim Balsillie, chair and co-founder of the Council of Canadian Innovators.

Environment Minister Jeff Yurek lacked the legal authority to cancel the Nation Rise wind farm and either ignored or misunderstood key evidence, the Ontario Superior Court ruled. “This decision does not meet the requirements of transparency, justification and intelligibility," the decision said.

Clear-cutting old-growth forests to produce wood pellets to replace fossil fuels in electricity generation would release more carbon into the atmosphere than it would save “for many decades,” according to a new scientific study.

"You’re taking a population that’s been suffering this year, and then you don’t want to put that population more at risk," says a biology professor who organized initiative.

Critics and green advocates say Ontario Power Generation's purchase of three natural gas assets from TC Energy will not only make it difficult for Ontario to meet its climate targets, it will also hurt ratepayers' wallets.

Coldwater Chief Lee Spahan has asked the federal government to intervene with an aquifer study, saying Trans Mountain was moving ahead despite the reserve being on lockdown due to COVID-19.

Flooding in Fort McMurray has raised concerns that the rising waters could breach toxic waste reservoirs in Alberta's oilsands, which could have devastating consequences for local Indigenous people and the environment. The Alberta Energy Regulator says all dams are intact and teams are monitoring the situation.

Two environmental groups say that’s a disturbing change from how the provincial government has portrayed the wood pellet industry in the past.

The legal counsel for Coldwater, part of the Nlaka'pamux Nation in British Columbia, is taking issue with a key shift in the federal energy regulator's approach to Trans Mountain pipeline hearings that abandons oral cross-examination in favour of written questions.

Every US$15 per barrel drop in the price of oil translates to a dent of roughly $3.5 billion in federal deficit, said Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux. And with a flood of unwanted oil hitting the market at the same time as a drop in demand caused by the pandemic, prices for the commodity are spiralling, with U.S. oil hitting negative Monday.

Environmental advocates who spoke with National Observer on Friday said they were relieved Trudeau — at least for now — has avoided a much larger bailout of the industry.

Canada’s oil and gas sector was responsible for the largest portion of the country's carbon pollution in 2018, at 193 megatonnes (Mt), or 26 per cent.