Chevron, Ecuador, and court shopping
30,000 people, including indigenous tribes, suing Chevron (for toxic waste discharges by its predecessor, Texaco) obtained an $8.6 billion judgment this week from the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbios in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. The penalty is reportedly to be doubled if Chevron does not…
View the post titled Chevron, Ecuador, and court shoppingBP: Can we manage the risks we create?
Morally, legally, financially, environmentally: can we really create huge unprecedented risks in pursuit of our own comfort, and manage them successfully? I am coming to agree with Thomas Homer-Dixon that our destructive capacity has far outstripped our ability to manage or even understand i…
View the post titled BP: Can we manage the risks we create?Offshore wind moratorium
So, Ontario is ducking the offshore wind issue until after the election. I suppose it should not be a surprise, given the extraordinary public and media attention that the rapid growth in wind energy has elicited, and the growing fixation of the entire political system on the forthcoming ele…
View the post titled Offshore wind moratoriumSolar: Who really owns the roof?
An interesting wrinkle in solar energy development is: who really owns the roof? As property owners across Ontario decide whether to put solar panels on their roofs, the toughest issue often turns out to be: tenants’ rights and interests.
View the post titled Solar: Who really owns the roof?Speaking for the public: who pays?
"There is an obligation for each member of the public to accept some responsibility of bringing environmental issues to the forefront."
View the post titled Speaking for the public: who pays?Innovative thinking about water?
Diane Cunningham, director of the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management at the Richard Ivey School of Business organized another great forum last month on innovation for Canadian environmental issues. This year’s forum was on Water Innovation; the keynote address and pane…
View the post titled Innovative thinking about water?A new crime: hacking carbon credits
In January, much of the European Union carbon trading system was shut down in response to the theft of carbon credits from a Czech carbon registry. Blackstone Global Ventures announced: Stolen EUA. Yesterday at 12 CET 475 000 allowances were unlawfully removed from our account with the Czech…
View the post titled A new crime: hacking carbon creditsApprovals Reform and IT
The Ministry of the Environment is racing to get its new approvals system in place. The publicly accessible database of environmental approvals is being expanded; improvements to the search function are apparently also to come. September 2012 is the target for full implementation of new appr…
View the post titled Approvals Reform and ITBig fees for renewable energy approvals
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has announced its intention to start charging significant fees for applications for renewable energy approvals: EBR 011-1203. The new Renewable Energy Approval fee structure will come into effect on March 15, 2011.
View the post titled Big fees for renewable energy approvalsMisinformation fouls the wind debate
There are many heartfelt disputes about wind, and some legitimate issues on which reasonable people may differ. However, it is also true that a great deal of misinformation is being peddled. Mike Brigham, chair of the Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative, wrote a letter to the Editor respon…
View the post titled Misinformation fouls the wind debateReceive Blog Posts
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