Category — Environment and Sustainability

The timing could not be worse for Kinder Morgan and Trans Mountain Pipelines, who pleaded guilty today in a Vancouver court room to charges arising from a massive 2007 oil spill that soaked a Burnaby neighbourhood and polluted Burrard Inlet.

While local communities, First Nations and environmentalists appear poised to stall a proposed oil sands pipeline to Kitimat across northern BC, Kinder Morgan and Trans Mountain have been working quietly to expand capacity to the Westridge Terminal in Burnaby to increase exports from there six-fold.

UBCM delegates voted Friday to deman a full review of that proposal, a demand so far rejected by the National Energy Board.

The UBCM motion, proposed by the Cities of Victoria and Burnaby, passsed easily once delegates put it on the floor for debate. It called for full environmental review of the Kinder Morgan project, which would require deepening of the Second Narrows to admit Suezmax tankers.

The debate on tar sands oil exports is now shifting south. If more evidence of that fact is needed,  just look at the latest issue of BC Shipping News, which features a freighter using a kite to reduce fuel consumption.

Inside: an environmentalist’s perspective on Crude Oil Tankers in Georgia Strait, written by the Georgia Strait Alliance’s Mike Richardson.

A clear commitment to energy retrofit BC’s existing housing stock while changing energy pricing could reduce poverty, cut a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions and create up to 12,000 new jobs province-wide, according to a compelling new study from the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The CCPA analysis is the first to look carefully at the social justice side of energy pricing to create a program that could reduce poverty and global warming at the same time.

It’s entirely consistent with Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Greenest City Action Plan and a challenge to make such a plan province-wide in scope.

Are green jobs a political fad or the key to future prosperity for Vancouver?

Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Greenest City Action Plan proposes firm targets to grow green jobs as part of the city’s economic development strategy. While only three percent of the city’s economy now, the green sector is growing at twice the rate of other key sectors.

I believe green jobs are critical to the city’s future and made the case in this recent column for Business in Vancouver:

Who says regulations are job-killers?
A new ban on sending mattresses to landfill generated 45 new private sector recycling jobs — and yes, those are “green” jobs — in less than eight months, according to a recent Metro Vancouver news release.
The three new businesses jump-started by the ban deconstructed 47,000 mattresses, enough to create a pile one and a half times the height of Everest, diverting 95 percent of the materials from landfill.
Is this the kind of job to expect from Vancouver’s new Greenest City Action Plan, which has as one of its goals, “to double the number of green jobs over 2010 levels by 2020?” [Read more →]

Cities are the engine rooms of the global economy, says urbanist Richard Florida, and Vancouver ranks 20th of the top 25 most powerful cities economically.

Tucked between Montreal and Vienna, Vancouver scores well for financial services and innovation. Number 1, surprisingly given all the talk about Japanese economic stagnation is Tokyo. Says Florida:

“Economists increasingly argue that clustering, concentration, and density stand alongside land, labor, and capital as key features that shape economic growth.”

Despite cynicism in some quarters, Vancouver is increasingly strong as a centre for green jobs and important creative sectors like film and digital entertainment. As for density? It’s fair to say that’s a work in progress.