In this government

That's what he is.

'A grossly overpaid oil patch lobbyist.'

What else would you expect from this facile excuse for a prime minister?

Nonsense

Once again we see radicalist prose, without balance and one dimensional thinking from this author.

The reality is that Canada and other nations will be using petroleum products for some time to come. Alternatives like nuclear energy will take a considerable time to construct, and solar or wind generation is basically a bust. The only other option is to try geo thermal or increase water based hydro generation.

Power has to come from somewhere so far the alternatives are not yet ready for prime time.

Nuke the tar sands.

All Candu builds in the last twenty years have been done in 4 years on time and on budget at $2B/Gw . Clean green energy cheaper than any alternative.

With 8 of the new model ACR-1000's replacing natural gas in the tar sands, tar sands crude would be a clean as Saudi light. Payback would be under 5 years on that investment.

Unfortunately Big Oil is also terrified that folks will find out that it is feasible to replace their sickening pollution spewing economy wrecking product with mass produced nuclear power with a payback period on the investment of only three years.

They've hired Stevey "Brimstone's" Harper's fascist government to sell off AECL and sell out our country for campaign donations and promises of lucrative Jim Prentice type post political job offers. Canada's energy and industrial future depends on giving them the boot.

The Fiberals believe in nuclear power and a clean energy future for Canada. They deserve your vote.

was the peter principle

was the peter principle named for kent?

past time to dump harper and all of his propaganda spouting, lying, incompetent appointees.

So Typical

I'm sure when Peter Kent was appointed he was told how to act and what was expected of him by Harper. I really believe that when Jim Prentice turned down the application for Fish Lake that he knew he was defying his own government. It was his parting gift to Canada before he accepted his new job. It is obvious that the Federal Government and the Oil and Gas industry are a very powerful team. We will have to do everything we can to save this country from them.

Argue about Semantics

That's fine. That's what academics love to do. Enjoy yourself and sanitize or demonize as you wish. Meanwhile, just up the road, business is booming.

"CALGARY - Investment in Alberta's oilsands is set to reach a whopping $180 billion over the next decade, peaking at 20 per cent more than was spent during the height of the last boom, according to Peters & Co.

Strong and sustained oil prices in the $75 to $90 US per barrel range and increased interest from deep-pocketed foreign investors such as state-owned PetroChina and France's Total are leading the charge in renewed interest in the resource, the Calgary-based investment house said. ...

Other analysts anticipate even larger investments, with BMO Capital Markets forecasting $20-billion worth of investment in the oilsands this year.

The financial house estimates investment in Alberta's oilsands will peak at $29.9 billion by 2015.

"The peak keeps getting pushing out, but there could be a new peak, assuming we get the continued strength in oil prices," analyst Mike Mazar said. ..."

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Report+predicts+180B+oilsands+spending/4073630/story.html#ixzz1ASZK0s55

That's what some people call Peak Oil.

The Natural Energy of the Universe

Great article, Andrew. But in order to not be labeled a hypocrite, you need to support viable alternatives to the Tar Sands.

Here is your opportunity to hit the Oilies hard, right where it hurts the most, by embracing the ONLY viable alternative to Oil - Nuclear Energy. Do it Andrew. Join James Cameron and James Lovelock. DO THE RIGHT THING.

James Lovelock, the World's Foremost Environmentalist, calls Nuclear Energy "The Natural Energy of the Universe":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOaDY13bI84&feature=player_embedded

Natural Energy

Don't forget to include Stewart Brand, one of the original environmentalists. Recently he gave a presentation at the new Woodwards theatre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Discipline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Brand

Geothermal, catch the wave of the future.

Canada has the world's largest tar sands deposits, Venezuela is second. These two countries and the extraction methods they allow will dictate the size of the human carbon foot print upon the planet in the future. Canada, because of its oil industry friendly laws, is ahead of Venezuela on the tar sands extraction curve and far ahead of the yanks who come #3 in the bitumen blessing lottery.

Canadians are some world's best at advanced exploration and drilling technologies, members of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA) also produce more than 20 per cent of the world's geothermal energy. They just don't do it in Canada...yet. Canada can and must lead the way by investing public money in geothermal energy production in Alberta's tar sands. If they do, the Orinoco in Venezuela will follow, so to will Utah.

Real wealth, real social justice requires ecological sustainability to better our and our family's well being into the future, and isn't that our only real job, bettering the world for those from whom we are borrowing it. Geothermal's got the right stuff, its energy is constantly and evenly available 24/7/365, it's power can just as easily converted to electricity as steam heat, it can crack the water molecule to provide hydrogen for future trains, buses and trucks. Geothermal, catch the wave of the future.

Simple stuff really.

Canada needs to stop exporing oil. Husband our own resources for our own needs and to encourage a self-sufficient market here at home.

For the good of the country and to sustain the future of the planet.

Turning thousands of hectares of land into garbage, rivers and lakes into sewers and cesspools does the 'world' NO GOOD.

All for the profit of a tiny elite.

Give your heads a shake - the Tar Sands and the way they are being exploited is an ethical and moral black hole in the center of the country.

Let's face it.

You've a better chance of bumping into Elvis at the Thrifty Foods you shop in than for Canada to stop exporting oil. Even Iggy is nowhere near that bonkers. Bounce it off Tommy Chong, you might get a taker there.

Our Governments behave like

Our Governments behave like a Banana Republic, just without the bananas. They've got their noses so far up corporations asses they'll need a surgeon to be removed. People should be reminded on how Mr. Kent behaved (like an American puppet) over the military coup in Honduras.

Geothermal

Current geothermal plant are the low hanging fruit like Geysers in Ca. that have been working for years or remote locations where a hot spring exists and diesel is the only alternative. Also super expensive but common is geothermal enhanced heat pumps (powered with nuclear).

Mass large scale gigawatt level geothermal energy requires drilling deep into the earth injecting water and pumping supercritical steam to the surface with not yet invented high temperature/pressure pumps driving generators. Injecting water into superheated rock causes fracturing which seems to cause earthquakes. The cost to date is enormous many times that of nuclear, hydro, solar, or wind. In fact BCHydro (google again) has a list of only only 8 sites that may eventually produce some geothermal power, this in an area with lots of volcanoes. They tried one them and the costs were enormous.

The big geothermal boom will come at enormous cost sometime too late way in the future when they can drill fracture and pump and without causing earthquakes.

Your car will be powered by a Mr. Fusion device long before large scale geothermal becomes viable.

Another double-talking politician ....

serving his Party masters command, believing all the propaganda we are all feed? Oh, no, say it isn't true!

G West actually makes the point very well:

Canada needs to stop exporing oil. Husband our own resources for our own needs and to encourage a self-sufficient market here at home.

For the good of the country and to sustain the future of the planet.

Turning thousands of hectares of land into garbage, rivers and lakes into sewers and cesspools does the 'world' NO GOOD.

All for the profit of a tiny elite. (emphasis added)

Give your heads a shake - the Tar Sands and the way they are being exploited is an ethical and moral black hole in the center of the country.

I said it before..........

.......and I'll say it again:

If we are exporting the oil from the tar sands, we should also be exporting the tailing ponds.

But seriously G. West, do you think our "best friends, trading partners, neighbours, etc, yada, yada, yada" would LET US turn off the tap?

Also, merely as an observation, our beloved PM doesn't give a rat's ass about Canada's export industry, preferring to see it ground into the dirt due to a rising petro dollar, rather than contain the price of oil - which is (contrary to the rightista "free marketeers" insistence) immune to market forces.

Kent

"Oddly enough, the former newscaster mostly avoided any mention of his ministerial mandate including water conservation or enhancing "the quality of the natural environment."...
Good God, Andrew! There isn't the slightest thing odd about the fact Kent, 'avoided', mention of his mandate. He's there to do precisely that - avoid mention, discussion, debate, responsibility. Kent is a poster droid whose job is to regurgitate Harperisms.