We cannot stop fossil fuels on the supply side. #itsthedemand

‘Pipeline or rail, the oil will flow’, say Alberta oil industry and Canada’s government | Vancouver Observer: "The pressure to expand oil-by-rail is relentless. The trade in North America has grown from near nothing in 2009 to a projected movement this year of 150,000 rail wagons in Canada and some 400,000 in the U.S.[i] Now two new plans are hitting the news.
A Denver-based company, Omnitrax, wants to ship fracked oil from North Dakota and Saskatchewan across the vast stretch of northern Manitoba to the port of Churchill on Hudson’s Bay. Tankers would then move the oil through sub-Arctic waters to North American refiners.[ii]"

Supply-side environmentalism will fail, is failing, has failed. Economics is driven by demand. If we sufficiently reduce demand for fossil-fuels, then supply will stop.

B.C. First Nation takes Trans Mountain expansion to court

CBC News: "A First Nation from British Columbia's southern Interior is taking the federal government and an oil company to court over plans to almost triple the capacity of an oil pipeline that crosses its reserve."

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Oil companies try to buy off aboriginal people

Questions over oil donations | Vancouver 24 hrs: "But Squamish Nation activist Khelsilem Rivers criticized donations from Kinder Morgan to the commission and TransCanada to Reconciliation Canada. He wants the money returned.

“There's a real contradiction,” Rivers said. “What kind of reconciliation is being promoted, if these types of companies – that are currently attempting to destroy what (aboriginal) people are fighting to protect – are partnering with them? It makes it very difficult for community members to participate in a meaningful way.”"

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Elephant in room becoming more apparent

Penticton Western News: "The supposed 100 year supply is a fraud, the cost to drill the majority of these tight wells falls between three and six million dollars, they produce 80 to 100 barrels a day and have a decline rate of 40 to 60 per cent per year with some wells declining up to 90 per cent.

With those decline rates companies are forced to drill more holes thus investing bigger chunks of capital and energy into extraction. Current estimates have the supply of shale gas peaking within the decade.  Shale gas, offshore deep water drilling and the oil sands don’t disprove peak oil theory, they confirm it.  Peak oil doesn’t mean running out of oil, it means running out of cheap, easily accessible oil, the very lifeblood of growth economics.

...But here’s some things you can do: buy more local food from the farmers market, walk or bike to work more, conserve energy and water, plant a big garden, learn how to can, buy locally made goods and properly insulate your house.

These are just some of the ways you can prepare for the energy crunch. You should also lend support to any Transition Town Initiatives and the Penticton Urban Agriculture Association. The response to peak oil is going to have to come from the ground up."

I Love Transit 2013: An Interview with Brent Toderian

The Buzzer blog: "Our household went car-free in 2009, and we rarely used our car before that. Transit and walking are our primary ways of getting around–it helps that we deliberately chose a home that’s beside a SkyTrain station! For most of our daily needs, we can actually get to them by walking, which is our preference. With a compact, mixed-use neighbourhood, even transit isn’t necessarily needed every day, and that’s a very good thing. It’s what I call “the power of nearness.”"

Transportation subsidies promote unsustainable choices

Vancouver Sun - Letters: "Stephen Hume advocates for ferry subsidies because roads are subsidized. He should argue for an end to all transportation subsidies. Subsidies create unhealthy distortions in human behaviour, leading people to make economically unviable choices that will require subsidies into eternity.

Transportation subsidies ramp up carbon dioxide emissions and other environmental problems like sprawl. Some argue sprawl is a market condition, but the sprawl that demands subsidies was created by subsidies in the form of undervalued roads, bridges and municipal infrastructure.

If everyone had to pay the true cost of driving and ferrying we would have a much more efficient economy and higher density in walking-, cycling- and transit-friendly cities making public transit competitive without subsidies.

We’d all have a lot more money in our wallets and more farms and green space nearby.

RON VAN DER EERDEN, Vancouver"

Manifesto of the Vancouver Public Space Network from 2008

We envision Vancouver to be a city in which it is safe to walk and cycle for residents of all ages and abilities, including children. Public transit should be efficient and convenient, and prioritized over automobile
traffic. Where automobile traffic needs to take place it should be a “last option” and should be undertaken
in a fashion that encourages vehicle-share (such as car co-ops) and respects existing traffic and noise by-laws.

Prioritizing public transit, cycling, and pedestrianism in practical terms would enhance public space and
quality of life. Investing in this infrastructure will help facilitate a shift towards the mainstream acceptance
of sustainable transportation as a means of mobility.

Read more here

Driving Up the Cost - A new perspective on affordability in Vancouver

Spacing Vancouver: "areas that are walkable, centrally-located and have good access to transit are much more affordable than those that are car-oriented and where land uses are segregated."

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#Autosprawl is choking the economy - so let's tax it's biggest victims!

Vancouver committee debates paying for transit by taxing First Nations: "VANCOUVER - A Metro Vancouver regional district committee is floating the idea of imposing a levy on the area's aboriginals to add millions to its cash-strapped transit system, a suggestion immediately deemed "unacceptable'' by First Nations leaders."

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Gas and oil from shale is a bubble, a dangerous one

The Tyee : "Governments and financial analysts who think unconventional fossil fuels such as bitumen, shale gas and shale oil can usher in an era of prosperity and energy plenty are dangerously deluded, concludes a groundbreaking report by one of Canada's top energy analysts."'

Grassroots #publictransit on British Columbia island

Vehicles purchased for transit service project: "A grassroots committee on Gabriola Island have moved forward with a pilot transit service project they say will not only serve the transportation needs of islanders, but reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

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Most tourists really don't want to drive. #Carfree vacations are popular.

Vancouver: how to enjoy a world-class city without a world-class budget | Cheapflights.co.uk: "One of the great things about Vancouver is you don’t need to spend a fortune to enjoy its charms. In this article, we’ve chatted with our local guides to create a list of great things to do in and around Vancouver on the cheap, and all accessible by public transport."

British Columbia writer calls for free public transit

https://twitter.com/derrickokeefe

Earth Day should help to focus B.C. election debate on key climate issues | rabble.ca: "If we actually taxed the rich at higher levels, we could afford comprehensive, free public transit systems in all major urban centres. Redirecting the billions of direct and indirect subsidies to fossil fuel industries towards transit and green technologies would also help."

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Build roads to reduce congestion, hasn't worked, doesn't work, won't work.

The Sidewalk Ballet: "Second only to the Island Highway, Bowen Road is another destructive, dangerous, neighbourhood-killing arterial stroad. This latest project brings to something approaching $20 million spent or to be spent on Bowen Road to address "congestion" at two intersections. Nanaimo seems to think it can be the one city in the world that can road-build its way out the problems created by the car. You may not be surprised to learn that this approach has produced no evidence of its efficacy."

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Time for a bold green jobs plan for B.C.

Vancouver Sun: "The single-largest source of B.C. greenhouse gas emissions is the transportation sector, and they are still increasing. Traffic congestion costs Metro Vancouver between $400 million and $628 million a year in lost productivity, wasted fuel and increased GHG emissions, not to mention the negative health and quality-of-life impacts associated with traffic congestion and long commutes.

To reduce congestion and emissions, B.C. must expand and revitalize its public transit, highway bus and passenger rail systems. We need to create incentives and build infrastructure to move goods by rail and other efficient, low-carbon methods of transportation. Some of this infrastructure already exists, but much will have to be built, including from carbon tax dollars. Backed by our province’s clean hydroelectricity system, almost every mode of transportation will benefit from some form of electrification.

Economic modelling shows that transport has the second biggest jobs potential of all green-economy sectors. Investments in public transit and railways in North America create between nine and 22 jobs per $1 million invested. The economic benefits arising from reduced congestion, increased community development and urban density are harder to quantify, but are at least as valuable."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/2035/Time+bold+green+jobs+plan/8197396/story.html#ixzz2PYRPhbQ0

One dollar spent operating a car imposes $2.55 on society

Manufacturing outrage over Vancouver's new bicycle pumps | Georgia Straight: "One VTPI study revealed that each dollar spent on a vehicle's operating expenses imposes $2.55 in costs on society."

Victoria Transport Policy Institute

In a hurry to show how safe oil tankers are, recovery vessel runs aground

Oil recovery vessel ran aground en route to federal tanker announcement - British Columbia - CBC News: "An oil spill recovery vessel ran aground en route to a federal announcement on oil tanker safety in Vancouver on Monday, officials have confirmed."

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New city plan aims to reduce how much we rely on use of our vehicles

New city plan aims to reduce how much we rely on use of our vehicles: "As it currently stands, 88 per cent of travel within the city is done by car. Walking makes up 8.3 per cent of travel and public transit and biking make up 2.5 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.
Anderson, who chairs the city's transportation advisory committee, said the plan needs to address those figures by making alternate forms of transport more available."

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Burrard Inlet First Nation calls for renewables

Burrard Inlet First Nation calls for renewables: "Faced with a six-fold increase in oil tanker traffic in their Burrard Inlet home if Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion project goes ahead, the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation says it's time for Metro Vancouver and British Columbia to get serious about alternative energy."

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Enbridge Northern Gateway a threat to First Nations food sources - Sarah Klain

CHANS Lab Views: Clam Gardens and Clean Energy, Sarah Klain Oral Statement to Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel: "An oil spill would have disastrous consequences on the type of clams I studied and so many other food sources in this region. Although the chance of a catastrophic spill is disputed, I am certain that approving this pipeline will destroy or at least damage government-to-government relationships with Coastal First Nations. When I spent time in Bella Bella, the Heiltsuk’s vehement protest of the Enbridge pipeline and associated tanker traffic was highly prominent throughout their community. If this pipeline goes through, I fear violent protest is inevitable. This pipeline threatens to ruin decades of fraught negotiations and relationship building between First Nations and various levels of Canadian government."

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'Fractured Land' depicts First Nations' fight to save land from oil and gas industry | The Vancouver Observer

'Fractured Land' depicts First Nations' fight to save land from oil and gas industry | The Vancouver Observer: "On the outside, northern British Columbia is a beautiful place. Look closer, though, and a different world appears. A much darker world. One of drilling, mercury-infested water and cancer. A place where people and land suffer the same. A place that disintegrates with each fire explosion in the starless night sky. A place they call Fractured Land."

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Thousands jeer Northern Gateway hearings in Vancouver - British Columbia - CBC News

The closed hearings drew protesters by the thousands in Vancouver Monday. (CBC)

Thousands jeer Northern Gateway hearings in Vancouver - British Columbia - CBC News: "Thousands of people gathered during a rare Vancouver snowfall to mark the start of community hearings on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

Opponents of the project were bolstered on Monday by the nationwide Idle No More campaign, which brought First Nations from as far as the Haisla Nation on the North Coast, near the would-be tanker port of Kitimat, B.C."

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Pipeline pain. Things that go away with #freetransit

New Oil Sands Pipeline Plan Would Dramatically Increase Carbon Emissions | The Energy Collective: "The annual flow of carbon through the proposed twinning project and the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project (presuming full operation) would dwarf greenhouse gas emissions from British Columbia, an issue presented here in the past."

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