I guess we know where the priorities are…

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Government-Of-British-Columbia-1026945.html

WTF??

http://www.windaction.org/news/22381

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/07/29/bc-utilities-commission-hydro-projects-decision.html?ref=rss#socialcomments

What a bunch of of brain dead jack a$$es we have in office. It does not matter what banner or label they apply to themselves. they are all incompetent.

Fossil fuels are the past now, renewable energy is the only viable future. The sooner we get on board with converting solar, wind, and hydro to electricity, the easier the transition will be away from fossil fuels.

Those IPP's did a lot of great ground breaking work, they had BC Hydro on board, they did due diligence with environmental concerns.

Now the regulatory body kills the whole deal. For what? So they could collect more fees from fossil fuels! Don't worry about the producing fossil fuels right now. If you really want to profit from fossil fuels, just wait till Saudi Arabia and Brazil run out, then we could get premium dollars for a scarce commodity rather then getting the same as everyone else that is in the game.

Is Loki planning to make a run for office?

Clearly, fossil fuels are where the money is at nowadays -- exploration is still going strong. Oil and Gas is the economic driver of the province right now.

Sure, and I am accepting contributions to my campaign.

The cheque is in the mail. ;)

"those who believe in knowledge-based, resource development"

What is that supposed to mean? Is that any relation to

1.knowledge-based auto manufacturing?
2.knowledge-based ranching?
3.knowledge-based auto forestry?
4.knowledge-based fast food industry?

The knowledge-based industry is something completley different. Of course that industry is applied to many other more traditional industries.

Tell me, was the
1. auto manufacturing of yesterday based on no knowledge?
2. ranching of yesterday based on no knowledge?
3. forestry of yesterday based on no knowledge?
4. fast food industry of yesterday based on no knowledge?

Of course not!!!!!

I wish people would quite introducing buzz words that are totally meaningless!

Maybe next we will be seeing SMART, SUSTAINABLE, knowledge-based resource development.

Let's face it folks, it is all the same - get some money from people who are gamblers, explore the region with the latest tools, drill some holes where the most likely spots are, cross your fingers that the info is correct, jump up and down if it is, cap it and wait for the price to go up, then sell it or develop it.

Don't forget geothermal energy, it could last millions of years and is presently being mostly ignored. (except in places like Iceland where it is growing monster vegetables in very little time)

I am reluctant to promote geothermal. In and of itself it is a wonderful idea. Free thermal energy to warm our homes.

The issue as I see it is when it reached total market saturation, there would be so much of the earth's heat dissipating that it would actually cool the mantle. This scenario would not occur with the occasional use like Iceland, and the few other countries dabbling in geothermal. This scenario would occur once other energy sources are tapped out and there is massive global use of that resource. It would take years to detect, but by the time it were detected, the damage would have been done.

The earth is the ONLY island in our solar system we can inhabit and we have not yet reached other solar system with habitable planets. Yet we insist that the earth is not over populated and that there are endless resources available. We have a long history of abusing and wasting resources.

IMO the earth is way overpopulated!
We are running out of resources quicker than the general public is lead to believe! Not to worry though, it won't be energy shortages that will be the demise of the modern world, it will be simple water. Without clean potable water, we cannot grow enough food and maintain healthy hygiene to prevent the spread of illness.

I saw a figure not long ago that indicated that out of all the water on the earth, less than 1% is available in a clean enough state for consumption. Maybe Gus can find the correct figure.

http://www.mindfully.org/Water/Water-On-Earth.htm

Is that good enough?

Total Water on Earth = 1,400,000,000 km3
Earth's Total Water Supply Earth's
97.2% Oceans (saltwater)
2.8% Freshwater
100.0% Total Water on Earth

Total Freshwater Supply
2.380% Icecaps, glaciers
0.397% Ground water
0.022% Surface water
0.001% Air and soil
2.800% Total Freshwater on Earth

I picked up the first result .... porbably close enough for dicusssion purposes.

Notice that much of the fresh water is in icecaps and glaciers.

I am sure that we will learn how to use the ocean's water much easier.

BTW. When sea ice freezes, it expells the salt.

Just as one can use geothermal energy to extract heat from the ground one can use hydrothermal to extract heat from the water. If that is perfected to the point of actually forming ice, the salt water sinks to the bottom and the ice can be harvested as fresh water.

So, new fresh water and new energy.

Yes, geothermal may eventually have an effect on the surrounding mass depending on which part of the world one lives in.

However, we must remember that geothermal also allows for cooling in the summer months when some of the heat from the air should be pumped through to replenish the underground heat sink.