No vision for what will be an alternative energy future, as our governments stubbornly hang on to, and invest in a fossil fuel past.

As more and more decarbonization agreement are made, like the recent G7 decarbonization agreement signed by the Harper Government, expect world-wide demand for fossil fuels, including natural gas, to plummet by half in the next 35 years. Of course along with plummeting demand for natural gas will be plummeting natural gas prices due to oversupply.

Wow, how backwards looking, can our governments get?

This is going to cost us all…

When you look at the people in Government who are driving this project you cannot help but get sick in the stomach. Once again we have people with very little experience trying to play with the big boys.

If you see demand for fossil fuels plummet by half in the next 35 years you will be living in a cave. All that bs. means is government bureaucrats have signed on to the Suzuki lies and now you have too.
Oversupply of natural gas is good for us all as long as you don’t let the tree huggers screw it up like they are doing to the coal industry.

At the recent G7 summit, Germany wanted a decarbonisation agreement where fossil fuel use would be totally eliminated by 2050. Perhaps it is because Germany is already generating 74 % of its power from alternative energy sources.

http: //thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/13/3436923/germany-energy-records/

contractor, you talk like a chain smoker in the 1970’s defending the Big Tobacco Industry in its assertions that cigarettes do NOT cause lung cancer. Too bad, because it is now a universally accepted fact that our use of carbon emitting fossil fuels is heating up, and killing, our planet.

Even Big Oil and Gas mouth piece Harper admits there is no long term future in fossil fuels. Every day these a-holes are in power, federally and provincially, Canada and this province falls further behind the rest of the world in its race towards an alternative energy based economy.

Last week Saudi Arabia’s oil minister – who also heads the country’s climate planning – said the government planned to be a “global leader in solar and wind energy”. In Saudi Arabia, we recognise that eventually, one of these days, we are not going to need fossil fuels. I don’t know when, in 2040, 2050 or thereafter,” he told a conference in Paris. When the leaders of an Oil & Gas giant country makes announcements like this to the international community, you know times they are a changing, an exciting time to be living in, that’s for sure!!!

www. rtcc.org/2015/05/28/saudi-arabia-solar-power-exports-absolutely-realistic/#sthash.o6gUDNKA.dpuf

So even a country like Saudi Arabia is actively planning and moving away from it’s number one export product, yet here in Canada we have the Harper government embracing the Tar Sands, and Christy Clark government embracing the Natural Gas industry… what a bunch of fossils with absolutely NO FUTURE!!!

You really believe that stuff you read don’t you Sage? Considering Germany’s coal fired power generation for 2014 was marginally under the 45% of the total in 2013, add your 74% from alternative energy generation and they are 119% … ?

Natural gas generation in Germany is about 10% Oil generation is over 1% Maybe they consider hard coal “alternative energy”?

Huh, most of us would have been shocked at the position that the world’s number 1 exporter of oil (Saudi Arabia) is taking with respect to moving away from fossil fuels and towards alternative energy, yet Germany jumps out at you slinky? *sratches head*

There is a finite amount of oil in the Middle East. Perhaps Sauda Arabia and other Countries are planning for the days that it runs out.

Once the oil is gone we will be forced to look at other means. That’s just the way it is. China and India will help us burn up all the oil and gas in a very short period of time.

The number one enemy of mankind, is mankind, and his insatiable demand for creature comforts like Airlines, cars, ships, air conditioning, excessive water, etc; etc;.

Mankind is eating and drinking himself into oblivion. Concentrating on one issue like oil, while sitting back eating a meal of seafood is a prime prime example of hypocrisy. Our oceans are being ruined by fish eating, and plastic using people, who complain about the oil industry.

What a double standard. If you want to save the ocean, then don’t eat fish. If you want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, get rid of your car and ride a bike. Cattle contribute a large amount of gas into the air, so if you want to remove some of this gas, then don’t eat beef.
If you want to save water, then quit pouring it on your lawn. Get some cement and paint it green.

Palopu states; “There is a finite amount of oil in the Middle East. Perhaps Saudi Arabia and other Countries are planning for the days that it runs out.” Ummm… are you living in a constant state of denile Pal?

Read the following words from the Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister again Pal;”In Saudi Arabia, we recognise that eventually, one of these days, “we are not going to need fossil fuels”. I don’t know when, in 2040, 2050 or thereafter,” he told a conference in Paris.”

The man said we are “NOT GOING TO NEED FOSSIL FUELS” he did not say “when we run out of fossil fuels”. For the love of this planet and our children’s future Pal, stop acting like Harper and Christy Clark and stop living in their world of denial.

As far as the tentative deal, I would like to know if other countries who export LNG give the same kind of guaranties as we are looking at when it comes to taxation, royalties etc. If this industry is going to become such a large business of extracting “our” natural gas by a multi national company, then I would like to know that we are not giving away too much to entice their investment. We risk our environment, they only risk some cash.

As for the debate over fossil fuel use, the world’s dependancy upon it and whether alternate energy is viable…. it took less than 100 years for the world to create this dependancy. We can easily and quickly change to another form of energy if the world so chose to. I seen many off the grid setups and watched the advancements in this tech over the last 20 yrs. It can be viable, also, price and advancements will change even faster as it becomes a larger market. Just in the past 4 yrs solar tech has taken huge leaps and become more affordable. Wind is a nice addition, but very location dependant.
Those who firmly believe in a future in fossil fuels should really become more educated in the matter.

The estimated revenues of 9 billion and thin employment numbers pales in comparison to the 60 billion and more debt Christy Clark Liberals are amassing. Many of these overseas companies are employing their own people by having construction done in their own country and then barged over to BC. The Liberals are also doing this “deal” with dictators and dictatorial regimes. Liberals are giving our resources and sovereignty away.

Palopu, I agree with your “double standard” comment!

We all sit at our computers, wasting electricity as we post our comments on this site. Our computers are created in a process that utilizes massive amounts of energy, from the mining of the necessary minerals that make up electrical components, to the oil and gas industry products that make up the plastics and other petro-chemical components, to the rare earth minerals used in batteries, to the fossil fuels used in the transportation of raw materials to factories, to the finished shipped courtesy of fossil fuels to the wholesalers and on to the retailers, to each and every one of us who drives to Best Buy, London Drugs, Costco, Walmart or whatever other retailer we shop at for the best price, to the energy consumed hauling our packaging waste and ultimately our computers to the landfill or recycling depot!

As I sit here blithely contributing to our consumptive, energy consuming economy, I feel no guilt whatsoever! None! Nada!

I’m amazed at the people on this site who profess to save the planet, all the while contributing to the degradation of said planet!

I’d be really interested to know what kind of vehicles some people here own and operate. I’d like to know they use air travel! Do they use a clothes dryer, or do they hang their clothes out on the line? How do they heat their homes and their water? Do they have a job and do they consume energy at their job?

Also, it doesn’t surprise me that the Saudi Energy Minister would say that someday we are not going to need fossil fuels. As the Energy Minister of one of the world’s largest oil producing countries, does anybody really think that he would speak of a day when Saudi Arabia would RUN OUT OF OIL, or would he rather deflect attention away from the fact that Saudi Arabia has little if anything to offer the planet besides oil? Of course he would say that we are not going to need fossil fuels!

I hope that everybody feels huge pangs of guilt reading my comment, HUGE pangs of guilt while you are consuming energy, contributing to global warming and the destruction of the planet!

Cheers!

I think its a go, wow I cant believe all the negative crap in here. It shows a lot of hot air and jealous people. We have so much natural gas.
Im pleased with the news. Oh, and yes Im a businessman. Not a know it all
who lives on the computer every day. Natural gas will replace oil and coal to a large degree.

“Once again we have people with very little experience trying to play with the big boys.”

Name me one democratic government in the world that does any better. It is the nature of government being directed by people who are voted in by the vast number of people, who are generally average people.

They are “expert” at the function of government. They have advisors who are professionals in the fields being negotiated and agreed upon. The companies are no different. They hire experts in the field of negotiating with various parties. Everyone is armed to the hilt for the negotiation tables.

Who are the big boys is merely a point of view, an opinion. The world still moves along and we never know whether the deals made were good or bad. It is all relative.

Germany was sitting on what was considered to be a 600 year supply of brown coal some 40 years ago. I do not know what the present estimate is. The whole Ruhr (heavy industry region) is dependent on brown coal. It is strip mined. Entire hamlets, villages and towns with a history of many centuries are rebuilt behind the mined areas which receive artificial hills and small lakes while the old towns are flattened.

And we are concerned because 100 or so people were moved to a new village some 100 years ago.

It is a strange world, isn’t it?

Nice deflection Sage, try understanding what you read and you won’t post nonsense.

BC is 90% hydroelectric generation which is “alternative energy” – why not post that instead of Germany who are way less than even 50%? Germany is actually building MORE coal fired plants not LESS. Why look elsewhere for examples of what you already have at home?

If our natural gas resources can switch other countries away from “dirty” coal and oil fired generation would that not be a “good thing”?

Sophic . Have you seen onecowichan.ca and or Kimberly sunmine . Even in Canada the times they are a changing . We are so bloody far behind the rest of the world but there is no stopping the change . It will be game over for the fossils well before 2050 , not because of climate change but because they won’t be able to compete . Get Tony seba on your Twitter feed .

I visited both sites Ataloss, innovative solar projects, spearheaded by forward thinking people.

Yet here we are stuck with backward thinking Harper and Christy Clark governments. Every country in the world will be ahead of us in the next 5 years, including an oil exporting Saudi Arabia, go figure.

Anyone who would disagree with a Saudi Arabian Oil Minister,about the future of fossil fuels, would have to be completely wacko!

Ataloss I just read onecowichan and found this little gem,”With your solar system tied to the grid, it is now possible to bank your sunlight for later use during darker times—BC Hydro becomes, in effect, a battery”. So in other words the grid is still required, site c is still required as a battery, so whats the point.

As for sunmine what happens at night? what happens on cloudy days? Oh wait still connected to the grid and needing site c power.

Ataloss you have never described your solar system? How come Germany’s cost of power went up 400%? How much are you willing to pay? Germany is building coal plants as fast as they can and import coal from all over the world, why when their so called green is supposed to be so great.

A good part of the money whoes of Portugal, Spain and Greece is because of the so called green power.

You’d have to be as thick in the head as both harper and Crissy to not get it . Or bought up by the fossil companies .

“Is Germany building new coal plants to replace nuclear despite the country’s green ambitions? Many observers conclude so. But an in-depth look reveals that the growth of renewables has more than replaced nuclear power over the past decade. Coal is not making a comeback in Germany. However, German policymakers should reduce the country’s coal dependency sooner than scheduled.”

Ummm… did anyone get the part about “Coal is not making a comeback in Germany”?

http: //energytransition.de/2014/06/german-coal-conundrum/

Oh, and by the way; In Germany, “Mainly, power from natural gas has been offset (by alternative energy sources), with hard coal going next based on fuel price in the merit order.

Wow, a first hand example of a country reducing its need for natural gas… and yet what is BC doing? Yup investing heavily in a energy source that other countries are phasing out!!!

Seamutt , that’s what you think . With storage getting as cheap as it is , you don’t need the grid . That’s what’s freaking out the private utilities in the states . They are so lucky that they are not as tied to monopoly utilities we have here in Canada . In the states over 30% of utilities are in the hands of co-ops like the Tennessee valley power authority (5 states) . They are leading the way and growing . They unlike us are getting smaller bills through their deployment of renewables . Their aim is zero marginal cost because it is membership owned . In bc it seems like the sky is the limit for cost . The times are changing fast . Just not here . Slinky keeps whining about the failed solar at one of your schools that were granted funding but never mention the other ten projects in the program . They were ten years ago and about 20 % as efficient as today’s are . You guys just hang on to your old news . You’ll sleep better .

By the time site -c is built , if it ever is , it will be redundant .

What about cloudy days ? I guess you didn’t check out the deger panel tech . On cloudy days it still converts energy from Sunshine to electricity . Just not as much as on sunny days .

On an ironic note seamutt . The deger panels are German . Ottawa still hasn’t clued in to the fact that the sun also shines on canada .

I have a proposition for all you pro-fossil fuel supporters, if you think the future is so bright for the fossil fuel industry, why don’t you invest in a house in Tumbler Ridge? Buy low and sell high right? Put your money where your mouth is!!!

The 15 year price index for coal, shows a 2008 price for coal briefly at almost $140 per tonne, currently it is priced at $40.77 per tonne and dropping.

Natural gas traded at more than $13 USD/mmBTU in 2008, now it sells for $2.76 USD/mmBTU and dropping.

Crude oil reached a $140 per barrel high, again in 2008, now it is trading at $56 per barrel and dropping.

Guess what folks, as alternative sources of energy continue to replace fossil fuels world-wide, the price of fossil fuels will remain depressed, as demand for fossil fuel decrease and supply increases. By investing in the fossil fuel industry, our governments are steering Canada and BC into economic extinction.

I am as certain of this as I am that the sun will rise tomorrow, and the wind will blow somwhere on earth… so why don’t we invest in them?

Once again Sage understand what you are reading. Fossil fuel use is increasing not decreasing, there are many articles on the web that will show you IEA predicts it will not start to drop until at least 2040 or even later. You are completely wrong in your assertion that the demand for fossil fuel is decreasing, it is only decreasing in percentage terms of the whole as energy consumption is up all across the board including fossil fuels.

The reason prices are down is not due to less use and thus oversupply, it is due to a deliberate oversupply attempt by some suppliers to drive others out of the market. In fact OPEC is delivering 1.3 million more barrels a day than they can even produce and that cannot go on forever.

You know what to do, but again, understand what you are reading

http: //www.marketwatch.com/story/opec-monthly-output-highest-since-august-2012-2015-07-06

http: //www.thenational.ae/business/energy/year-in-review-2014-end-of-a-stable-era-for-fossil-fuels

http: //www.scientificamerican.com/article/global-growth-in-fossil-fuel-burning-continues-unabated/

By the way your doom and gloom about economic extinction was a hoot. Hate to tell you this but the government is not investing it’s money or the fate of the province in anything, rather adding another revenue stream to its coffers. They collect taxes from investors, if the world were to stop producing fossil fuels cold turkey tomorrow there are still other revenue streams to drive the economy. It would hurt a bit, but we would fare the storm better than most other provinces and countries of the world.

slinky states; “In fact OPEC is delivering 1.3 million more barrels a day than they can even produce and that cannot go on forever.”

No it cannot go on forever only until they pump as much of their oil out of the ground before alternative energy renders it completely worthless. Saudi Arabia heads OPEC, and Saudi Arabia sees the writing on the wall regarding the future of fossil fuels… there is none!!! Even Harper has publicly stated; “there is no long term future in fossil fuels”, why can’t you agree with the Saudi Arabian Oil Minister, and Harper, slinky?

slinky states; “By the way your doom and gloom about economic extinction was a hoot. Hate to tell you this but the government is not investing it’s money or the fate of the province in anything, rather adding another revenue stream to its coffers.”

We have all heard how Harper has put all of Canada’s eggs in one basket “Oil & Gas”, now when the price of crude oil falls so too does the value of our dollar, did you know our loone is projected to fall to 70 cents slinky? Harper gambled and lost on his precious Tar Sands.

Now we have Christy Clark doing the same thing with LNG. And no there is no such thing as the world stopping the production of fossil fuels cold turkey tomorrow, that would be both impossible and irresponsible to do. Guerss you can’t read slinky, the world could go zero use of fossil fuels by 2040 to 2050 as the Saudi Arabian Oil Minister has stated.

Sorry Ataloss, had to stop laughing before I could reply.

Fort Nelson Secondary installed a huge system. “The school’s 10kW solar system, comprised of 98 Evergreen 102 watt panels and 4 Xantrex GT3.0 Power Inverters was installed on the rooftop of the school with a non-penetrating roof mount. This system will generate about 10,000 kWh of electricity per year, which is enough energy to light three classrooms, run 50 computers or an average household”

Do the math, at .08 per kWh multiply by 10,000 kWh per year and you get $800.00 savings per year. Even at tier 2, 11.95 per kWh you save 1,195.00 per year. Each panel costs you 125.00 or 12,250 for 98 of them. As for the converter, lets say you get a smoking deal for 2,500 each you have to add 10,000.00. Okay almost done, now installation and electrical say another 10,000.00, probably more but I will give you a break on that one.

Total is 32,250.00 to install this system on the roof of the school (did not add in a automatic disconnect and other electronics also required but you get the picture). Lifespan is say 20 years – so the cost was 1,612.50 per year to save 1,195.00 in energy costs. Even at max rate you are looking at 27 years as a break even point.

Now add in a battery pack so as not to require a grid to act as a battery…

Thanks for the vote of confidence but I guess you have a lack of reading skills as well. IEA estimates fossil fuel use will climb until at least 2040, I suppose you did not read the links but hey – that is OK as I do not read yours either