SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH
Alberta's UCP government 'pleased' with federal budget's carbon capture tax credit

Lisa Johnson - Yesterday 

© Chris Schwarz/Government of AlbertaFinance Minister Travis Toews.

Alberta’s UCP government says it’s encouraged by Ottawa’s offer to cover half the cost of new carbon capture technology to cut down greenhouse gas emissions.

Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced the 2022 budget Thursday , which includes a proposed $2.6 billion tax credit over five years for companies that invest in carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), representing the single biggest new climate change initiative in the budget.

It will cover 50 per cent of the cost of equipment to capture and store carbon dioxide beginning this year, but enhanced oil recovery projects that use pressurized carbon dioxide to extract more oil or gas won’t be eligible.

The credit is aimed at getting investors to act quickly, with rates set to be cut in half starting in 2031.

Alberta’s Finance Minister Travis Toews said in an interview with Postmedia Thursday the government is “pleased” to see the measure, but disappointed enhanced oil recovery projects weren’t included.

“That’s very, very expensive technology, and the federal government has come forward with very, very aggressive timelines and emission reduction targets, and we really believe this (tax credit) needed to be calibrated appropriately and accordingly,” said Toews, adding the provincial government needs to do more analysis to understand how well proposed credits, varying from 37.5 per cent to 60 per cent, will work for different types of equipment costs.

Alberta has leaned heavily into investing in CCUS technology to tackle its emissions, and federal credits of up to 75 per cent have been called for by some industry proponents. In late March , Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals announced a goal of reducing emissions more than 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 — a target that would need to see the oil and gas sector cut its emissions by 42 per cent.

Kendall Dilling, interim director of the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero initiative, an alliance of six major oil producers, welcomed the CCUS credit in a statement Thursday.

“The federal government has recognized the importance of developing new technologies to help Canada fight climate change, as well as the importance of the oilsands to our country’s energy security,” said Dilling.

However, environmentalist groups said the move undermines climate investments and delays Trudeau’s commitment to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.

“Today’s budget includes positive investments in climate action, but there’s an inherent contradiction in offering a giant tax credit to the very companies fuelling the climate crisis,” David Suzuki Foundation climate director Sabaa Khan said in a Thursday news release.

Eddy Pérez at Climate Action Network Canada said it’s clear Canada “still intends to keep the fossil fuel industry in the driver’s seat by giving them expensive tax credits instead of using those funds to invest in a safe, sustainable future.”

At a news conference at the Manitoba legislature Thursday, NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the fiscal plan doesn’t offer much-needed support for workers affected by a transition to a low-carbon economy.

“You cannot have a single solitary emissions target that is not also paired with a jobs target,” she said.

The Liberals have promised a $2 billion Futures Fund towards skills development and retraining to help gear up energy workers for jobs in green technology, but the government is still in consultations on its Just Transition plan.

Mike Holden, chief economist at the Business Council of Alberta, told Postmedia the CCUS tax credit is positive, but the budget is silent on addressing the regulatory burden for projects that are needed to reach climate change goals, from liquid natural gas pipelines to hydrogen infrastructure.

“You want to build to get shovels in the ground as quickly as possible and (if) it takes a minimum of five years to open up a new lithium mine, it’s gonna be tough to build new batteries,” he said.

— With files from Jason Herring and Catherine Lévesque

lijohnson@postmedia.com

THE REALITY IS THAT CCS IS NOT GREEN NOR CLEAN IT IS GOING TO BE USED TO FRACK OLD DRY WELLS SUCH AS IN THE BAKAN SHIELD IN SASKATCHEWAN

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-myth-of-carbon-capture-and-storage.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CCS

Guilbeault asks Alberta minister Nixon to 'correct' column on emissions reduction

EDMONTON — Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has written a letter to his Alberta counterpart to correct what he calls errors in Jason Nixon's recent newspaper column.


© Provided by The Canadian PressGuilbeault asks Alberta minister Nixon to 'correct' column on emissions reduction

Earlier this week, an Alberta newspaper published an op-ed by Nixon in which he called the new federal plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions "insane."

In his letter, sent Friday, Guilbeault says Nixon misread a graph and got his facts wrong.

"I want to correct the record on what this plan does and does not do," he writes.

The first sentence of Nixon's column, published Saturday, read "Alberta will not accept production cuts in the insane climate plan released by the Liberal-NDP coalition."

He backs that up with reference to numbers pulled from the federal document. He writes they prove the federal plan is an attempt to reduce oil and gas production and economic activity in Alberta that would destroy the province's quality of life.

That's not what the numbers say, wrote Guilbeault.

The reductions Nixon points to refer instead to the differences in projected production with and without the emissions reduction plan. The plan actually allows the oilpatch to increase output, he said.

"Oil production could grow by about one million barrels per day and emissions would remain aligned with Canada’s 2030 goal of 40 to 45 per cent reductions relative to 2005. The plan is focused on cutting the emissions."

Guilbeault points out the direction is shared by industry groups such as the Oilsands Pathways Alliance, a coalition of major oilsands producers.

"Informed public debates cannot happen when fundamental facts are entirely mischaracterized by public officials," he wrote. "I respectfully request that you please correct the public record."

Nixon stood by his comments Friday.

"A production cut below projected growth is still a cut," he said in an email through his spokesman, calling the emissions caps a "masquerade."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2022.

-- Follow bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

SEE  

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/04/increased-carbon-rebates-coming-in.html

Transportation Safety Board investigates natural gas release from northern Alberta pipeline


The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says it has deployed a team of investigators to a northern Alberta pipeline site following a natural gas release.


© Courtesy, TC Energy

TC Energy investigates a natural gas release at a site near Fox Creek, Alta., Thursday, April 7, 2022.

The TSB said Friday morning a release and ignition of natural gas took place from a Nova Gas Transmission Limited pipeline near Fox Creek. It happened at about 4 a.m. Thursday in a very remote area about 80 kilometres west of Fox Creek, according to TC Energy.

The Canadian Energy Regulator said Thursday afternoon a fire was observed in the area but it was extinguished.

TC Energy said it activated its emergency management and response procedures after a natural gas release on its eight-inch Simonette Lateral natural gas pipeline on the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. system.

Read more:
Federal government approves $1.3B Nova natural gas system expansion in Alberta

"We have the pipeline isolated and are working with affected customers. There are no reported injuries to our workers or members of the public," TC Energy said.

"TC Energy technical experts and emergency management personnel are actively responding and working closely with federal and local authorities to ensure an effective and coordinated response. Air monitoring has been established at the site for the ongoing safety of personnel and contractors accessing the area."

The company said it notified regulatory agencies, local responders and nearby Indigenous communities, municipalities and industrial operators as a precaution.

"We continue to take steps to protect the safety of the public and our employees, and to minimize any impacts in the immediate area."

Fox Creek is located about 250 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

TC IS TRANSCANADA PIPELINES REBRANDED 

BUILDERS OF KXL AND COASTAL GAS LINK

KENNEY SHOVELED THEM TAXPAYERS $$$$

ALBERTA HAS THE MOST PIPELINES IN CANADA

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE

Puerto Rico power outage: Crews scramble to restore electricity after island-wide outage
By Melissa Alonso and Jason Hanna, 
CNN
© RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images


© ULAN/Pool/Latin America News/ReutersA firefighter battles flames at the Costa Sur power plant Wednesday.

Electric service restoration efforts were still underway Thursday evening in Puerto Rico, a utility company said, a day after the start of an island-wide outage that left many people in the dark overnight and prompted school cancellations and other interruptions across the US territory.

Most customers on the island of about 3.2 million residents still were without power Thursday, officials said. By day's end, at least 380,200 LUMA customers have had their power restored as of 10 p.m. local time, LUMA Energy said in a statement on its Twitter account.

"Given the massive size of the outage, its scope and the necessity to operate in safety, we are informing our customers that the restoration will continue through Thursday night and into Friday," the company said in the statement.

An unspecified failure led to a fire at the Costa Sur power plant outside the town of Guayanilla on the southwest coast around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, cutting power across the island, Kevin Acevedo, vice president of LUMA Energy, said during a news conference. Firefighters have since extinguished the flames.

All customers on the island lost power service initially, Josue Colon, Puerto Rico's lead telecommunications and infrastructure engineer, told reporters, "because all the generating units went offline."

The exact cause wasn't immediately known, the utility has said.

LUMA Energy, which operates the island's power grid, expected power to be restored within 24 hours of the incident, Acevedo said at the news conference.

The power outage also has interrupted water service to about 100,000 homes and businesses, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said, citing the island's aqueducts and sewers authority.

Puerto Rico's Department of Education canceled classes Friday for students, but "school principals, custodians, and school cafeteria employees must report to the campuses starting at 10:00 am," the department said in a tweet.

Pierluisi suspended school classes Thursday across the island and told nonessential government workers to stay home. Only government workers "with essential and emergency functions will have to report to work," Pierluisi said in a news release.
Hospital's intensive care floor temporarily lost power

The intensive care floor at Mayagüez Medical Center, on the island's west coast, temporarily was without power because of backup generator issues, prompting LUMA to especially focus on restoring power there, officials said.

Power eventually was restored at the location, Puerto Rico Health Secretary Carlos Mellado López said on Twitter.

Four patients on that floor were intubated, and would have been moved to a floor with electricity had service not been restored quickly, officials said earlier.

All hospitals were operational by Thursday afternoon, whether their power was restored or they were operating via a generator, according to Secretary of the Interior Noelia García Bardales.

"All hospitals are operating without any setbacks. All elective surgeries were performed today without inconveniences. All dialysis services are being performed without delays.", said García Bardales.

Puerto Rico's airports were operational, and no flight cancellations were reported due to the outage, according to officials.

Police have a plan to help circulate traffic with the lights out, but "we ask for cooperation from drivers on the roads," Pierluisi said.
Replacement power plant parts ordered, official says

Early Thursday, the utility said the "massive island-wide blackout" might have been "caused by a circuit breaker failure" at the Costa Sur plant.

Firefighters extinguished flames that affected two substations at the plant, the Bureau of Puerto Rico Fire Departments said Wednesday on Facebook.

The cause of the fire is being investigated, Acevedo said Thursday morning, adding that the equipment was up to date on maintenance inspections.

Cleanup at the plant is underway, and replacement parts have been identified and ordered, Acevedo said.

LUMA is a joint venture of Quanta Services and the Canadian energy company ATCO, which the Puerto Rican government chose to take over the operation of the power grid from its previous public electric utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. LUMA has been in charge of the power grid since June 1.

Essays on the History and Philosophy of Ecological Economic Thought

Marco P Vianna Franco

2019, PhD Dissertation

291 Views162 Pages

1 File ▾

History of Economic Thought,

Ecological Economics,

Russian Intellectual History,

Political Ecology and Economy

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This work aims to contribute to the history and philosophy of ecological economic thought (EET), with a focus on Russian thought and the concept of ecological utopianism. The first essay brings a historical account of EET in the 1880s-1930s, showcasing its intellectual diversity and foundation on social energetics. A scientific metaparadigm was identified, combining different values, methods and ideas into an ecological critique of mainstream economics, comprised of a biophysical approach to economic processes. Bearing in mind such developments, the second essay addresses the body of knowledge produced by Soviet ecology in the 1920s. Research on the links between community ecology, conservation and economic planning revealed how innovative their views were and how well they fit into the definition of ecological utopianism. The third essay acknowledges 19th-century narodnism not only as one of the intellectual origins of Soviet ecology, but as an important school of EET on its own. The ecological utopianism of Nikolai Chernyshevskii is explained in terms of the extent his ideas were grounded in the natural sciences, and how he envisioned egalitarian social ideals, which would serve as inspiration for the narodnist revolutionary movement. The fourth essay analyzes the ideology of ecological neo-narodnism as a viable alternative to deal with the social and ecological challenges of the 21st century. It is argued that, as political economy, it should move beyond Chaianovian economics to redeem the principles of communality and cooperation of Chernyshevskii. As political ecology, it is a true heir of narodnism; it is best represented by environmental justice movements; it combines the ethnical and local character of peasants’ movements with the need for internationalization; it addresses power relations as a key issue to enforce peasant’s rights; and it adds biophysical limits at the planetary level as a new argument in favor of systemic change.

https://www.academia.edu/40037418/Essays_on_the_History_and_Philosophy_of_Ecological_Economic_Thought

TECHNOLOGICAL CONSPIRACIES: COMTE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

Lawrence Quill 

ABSTRACT:

 While there have been numerous critiques of the ideology of technology,it is useful to situate technology within both a liberal and a conspiratorial framework.The early work of Auguste Comte offers an ideal vehicle for this kind of analysis.Liberalism’s embrace of technology is developed in Comte to produce a theory of  scientific and technical elites intent on reinventing society and the individual. This “ technological conspiracy” reads very much like elements of a Silicon Valley manifesto describing the cyber-utopia of a near tomorrow. For these reasons Comte is relevant to a discussion of conspiracy today.

Philosophy of technology: An introduction

 BLOOD, NOT SOIL

Anna Bramwell and the Myth of “Hitler’s Green Party”

ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT /June2001 /

PIERS H. G. STEPHENS

University of Liverpool

The antigreen backlash that began in the 1990s has constantly advanced charges of misanthropic extremism against ecologists, and these charges are dramatically illustrated by claims, most notably drawn from Anna Bramwell’s work, of historical or thematic linkage between ecologism and National Socialism. The author analyses Bramwell’s work both historically and systematically, arguing first that her claims of association between ecologism and Nazism are historically flawed, and second, that her conceptual treatment fails to take into account the central motivational roles of Social Darwinism and absolutist purity in National Socialism. These factors effectively divorce green thought about nature from Nazi connection. The author concludes that no clear historical or necessary conceptual link between ecologism and Nazism has been successfully demonstrated by Bramwell and the backlash campaigners, but that greens should nonetheless eschew dangerous purity notions if possible

https://www.academia.edu/188312/Blood_Not_Soil_Anna_Bramwell_and_the_Myth_of_Hitler_s_Green_Party_

 Hitler’s Monsters: The Occult Roots of Nazism and the Emergence of the Nazi‘Supernatural Imaginary’*

Eric Kurlander

German History 

Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 528–549, 2012. 

Published by Oxord University Press on behalf of the German History Society.

All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/gerhis/ghs073

The success of National Socialism, the unique appearance of the Führer, has no precedent in German History ... The consequence of these historic and unprecedented political occurrences is that many Germans, due to their proclivity for the romantic and the mystical, indeed the occult, came to understand the success of National Socialism in this fashion. 

Alfred Rosenberg, 1941

Near the end of the First World War a twenty-six year old veteran and art student, discharged from the German army due to wounds received on the Western Front, proceeded to Munich to seek his fortune. Neither born nor raised in the Reich proper, the ambitious young artist had developed a passion for Pan-Germanic ideology, spending most of his time consuming any literature he could find on the history of the Teutonic people. Shortly after arriving in Bavaria’s capital city, he joined a working group of like-minded nationalists dedicated to forging a Greater Germany devoid of Jews and Communists. 

Profoundly influenced by the right-wing, occult milieu of prewar Vienna, the working group adopted an elaborate array of folkish (völkisch) ideas, including pseudo-scientific racism and esoteric symbols such as the swastika.

Within two years, the young artist had helped transorm this discussion circle of a few dozen radical racists into the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP).

These biographical details describe almost perfectly the political and ideological trajectory of the future Führer of the Nazi movement, Adolf Hitler. Except that the young artist in question was not Hitler, but Walter Nauhaus, leader of the Germanic Order of the Holy Grail, and co-founder, with Rudolf von Sebottendorf, of the proto-Nazi Thule Society.

Nauhaus was a follower of the Wilhelmine-era esoteric philosophy known as ‘Ariosophy’, developed somewhat independently by two Austrian occultists, Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels. Ariosophy prophesied the resurgence of the ancient Indo-European Aryan race, now embodied by the Germanic people, through adherence to a series of arcane pagan religious practices and strict racial purity. 

In Liebenfels case, these ideas were supplemented by his own occult doctrine of theozoology, which suggested the extraterrestrial origins of the original Aryan ‘God Men’ and recommended the forced sterilization of the biologically inferior.

We now knowt hat Hitler himself, like Nauhaus, read Lanz von Liebenfels’ semi-pornographic, occult magazine Ostara 

.https://www.academia.edu/3998398/Hitlers_Monsters_The_Occult_Roots_of_Nazism

Jakob Wilhelm Hauer’s New Religion and National Socialism

By Karla Poewe and Irving Hexham

Department of Anthropology and Religious Studies

University of Calgary 

© 2003

This paper was eventually published as :“Jakob Wilhelm Hauer's New Religion and National Socialism.” Karla Poewe and Irving Hexham. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 20 (2) 2005: 195-215.

Abstract

Jakob Wilhelm Hauer (1881-1962) was a missionary to India and, later, both a professor of religious studies at Tübingen and a founder of a new religion called the DGB. According to Hauer, his movement was the essence of National Socialism. Because some contemporary scholars try, nevertheless, to separate Hauer’s scholarship and the DGB from National Socialism, this paper reviews existing literature about the Hauer phenomenon. It does so in light of our research at the Federal Archives of Koblenz and Berlin. Then Hauer’s personal development and determination to further Nazism are traced. Together the literature review and Hauer’s view of religion show that his religious thought and his Nazi politics are inseparable

https://www.academia.edu/515881/Jakob_Wilhelm_Hauers_New_Religion_and_National_Socialism

New Religions and the Nazis

Karla O Poewe

Published 2006

19 Pages

Völkisch National Socialism and Arabic Islam

The main thesis of this paper is that Nazi political religiosity has its origins in the pagan phenomenon called the völkisch movement. This movement consisted of uncountable religious-cum-political groups called Bünde whose leaders and followers were closely interconnected with one another and with the developing Nazi Party. From there völkisch thought penetrated the German Protestant Church and found followers among some Catholics. Given this development, an obvious question follows, namely, can National Socialism be blamed on Christianity and is Christian anti-Judaism the ultimate source of the Holocaust?

https://www.academia.edu/515845/New_Religions_and_the_Nazis

Scientific Neo-Paganism and the Extreme Right Then and Today: From Ludendorff's Gotterkenntnis to Sigrid Hunke's Europas Eigene Religion

Karla O Poewe

1999, Journal of Contemporary Religion

Publisher: .ucalgary.ca

Publication Date:  Jan 1, 1999

Publication Name:  Journal of Contemporary Religion

ABSTRACT

 During the Weimar Republic, flourishing new religions were harnessed to usher in the cultural revolution from the right that was soon dominated by the Nazis. J. William Hauer’s Deutsche Glaubensbewegung, an umbrella group for numerous new religions from versions of Hinduism to Nordic Neo-Paganism, all collaborated, at some point, with Hitler and his party. This paper shows the continuity of core ideas from Mathilde Ludendorff’s Gotterkenntnis to Hauer’s Glaubensbewegung and, importantly, Sigrid Hunke’s Unitarier. 

It shows, further, theclose connections between these forms of neo-paganism and the present day European NewRight. The paradoxical co-occurrence in fascism of a religious populism and a metapolitical elitism, philosophical vitalism and dreams of national or European rebirth, has its roots in these French and German forms of neo-paganism.

https://www.academia.edu/515870/Scientific_Neo_Paganism_and_the_Extreme_Right_Then_and_Today_From_Ludendorffs_Gotterkenntnis_to_Sigrid_Hunkes_Europas_Eigene_Religion

THE SPELL OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM:

The Berlin Mission’s Opposition to, and Compromise with,the Völkisch Movement and National Socialism: Knak, Braun, Weichert.

BY Karla Poewe

© 1999

This paper was published as: “The Spell of National Socialism: The Berlin Mission's Opposition to, and Compromise with, theVölkisch Movement and National Socialism: Knak, Braun, and Weichert.” In Ulrich van der Heydenund Juergen Becher, Eds. Mission und Gewalt: Der Umgang christlicher Missionen mit Gewalt unddie Ausbreitung des Christentums in Afrika und Asien. (Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv, Band 6)Stuttgart: Franz Steiner 

Introduction: Cultural Context

From the time of the first major internments of Berlin missionaries by the British in 1915,the Berlin Mission defined and redefined its place in the larger scheme of things which includedthe international Christian community, the mission field in the colonies of Britain, and Germanyitself. Berlin missionaries did not see Germany as belonging to the Herrschervölker 

(dominatingnations) like England, France, and Russia. Nor did the Berlin Mission see Germany as having aninterest in conquest politics (cf. Dumont 1994). In their view, internment belied the universalisticideals heralded during the 1910 mission conference in Edinburgh (Richter 1915:93, 95, 97; Knak 1940). Furthermore, far from seeing internationalism as succeeding, Berlin missionaries notedthe simultaneous striving toward nationhood of neue Völker (new peoples) (ibid.). 

Of particular concern were the Afrikaaner whose nationalism, like that of Germany in the nineteen twenties and thirties, took on religious qualities (Knak n.d.a:227).The Berlin mission saw itself as beleaguered on all fronts: by the English and French in the trenches of the First World War where their recruits fought, died, and were lost to the mission; and by the English and Afrikaaner in South Africa where the first mentioned enhanced their Imperialism and the last mentioned their religious nationalism. The worst battle of the mission was fought, however, in Germany itself where, after 1933, national socialism, the völkische Bewegung (völkish movement), and the various “new” Nordic and German religionstogether attacked Christianity as right for its downfall. Germany of the thirties was awash with virulent movements. There was first the party specific movement of the national socialists. There was the broadly based völkische Bewegung (Mosse [1966] 1981). Within this, and very much in tune with Nazi ideology, which it refined, were the “new” or “other” religious movements loosely referred to as “deutscher Glaube”(German Faith) (Meyer 1915), “deutschvölkischer Glaube

” (Faith of the German folk) (Boge1935), “Rasseglaube” (Race Faith) (Braun 1932), the “Deutsche Glaubensbewegung” (GermanFaith Movement) (Hauer 1933), various Wirklichkeitsreligionen (Reality Religions) (Mandel1931), the “Deutschreligion” (Bergmann 1934), “Gotterkenntnis” (God-cognition) (Ludendorff 1935), various “Nordungenkreise” or Nordic religions (Boge 1935), to mention but a view(Bartsch 1937; Poewe 1999). Also included in Germany’s “other” or “own” religions must be the Deutsche Christen who rejected the Old Testament and Pauline Gospel as foreign, that is, as Jewish, and/or they argued for an Aryan Christ.

https://www.academia.edu/515893/THE_SPELL_OF_NATIONAL_SOCIALISM

New Religions and the Nazis

Karla Poewe,2006 Oxford: Routledge,pp. 111-127 

Chapter 8

Hauer and the War of Attrition against Christianity

 

Introduction

By 1933 religion in Germany was muddled. There were three major forces atplay: the Catholic Church, the Protestant church, and the diverse groups of German faithlers, völkisch, and free religious. With the Reich Concordat passedin Cabinet on July 14 and signed in Rome July 20, the Catholic Church ceased tobe part of the religious confusion. Not so the Protestant Church. It was gravelydivided into various factions from the Young Reformers who wanted anindependent church but one unconditionally loyal to the state, to the DeutscheChristen (German Christians) who had no use for the Old and New Testamentand made Jesus a fellow Aryan

https://www.academia.edu/2954894/Hauer_and_the_war_of_attrition_against_Christianity_in_New_Religions_and_the_Nazis_2006_Routledge_Press_London_pp_111_127