A Scout is Brave Campaign Day 7 = 2013-12-08

8/13/2019 A Scout is Brave Campaign Day 7 = 2013-12-08

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A Scout Is Brave Campaign - Day 7

In view of “The Vancouver Sun” article in the December 7 edition, I feelcompelled to bring this poignant and insightful analysis to the attentionof Rex Tillerson and his staff in the Office of the Chairman.

Following is my email which was sent at 2:41pm today:

Dear Mr. Tillerson,

Further to my email of December 4, in addition to the recent technicalpaper published by Dr. James E. Hansen et al, an article appearing inthe December 7 issue of The Vancouver Sun offers another perspectiveon the urgency to begin reducing CO2 emissions right away.

The choices we make with regard to how

to address guarding the economy andprotecting future generations fromdevastating effects of climate changepresent us with a conundrum ... Essentially this: How can we have ourcake and eat it too?

In other words: Do we value life onearth, or "discounted present value"profits?

Your staff's responses to my request to meet you to discuss the contentsof my book "A Scout Is Brave" tells me that you have insulated yourselffrom constructive input, an act of "intentional blindness" that puts futuregenerations of humanity in mortal jeopardy.

Attached is the entire article (http://bit.ly/vancouver-sun-7-december),but for your convenience, the central and most poignant discussion is thefollowing nine short paragraphs (my emphasis added):

There are two ways to keep emissions in check in the short term,until new technology is ready - slow down expansion planstemporarily, and promote the use of clean, renewable energy,says [Simon Dyer of the Pembina Institute, an environmental think-tank and research group]. "The oilsands can continue to grow but much more slowly undercarbon constraints, not the uncontrolled growth we have now," hesays.

December 8, 2013

http://bit.ly/vancouver-sun-7-december




http://bit.ly/TellRex


http://bit.ly/Hansen02DecDanger















[Former oil executive Eric] Newell is dead set against deceleratingexpansion because that would send a negative signal to investors, whomight go elsewhere.

"If we slow it down, no one will notice the GHG loss, but they willnotice the loss of energy," he says.

Dyer argues Newell's CCEMC just doesn't have the tools to do its job.At $15 a tonne, the price of carbon is far too low to give oilcompanies a financial incentive to cut emissions.

A study by the Pembina Institute shows fewer than half thecompanies reduce emissions; mostly, they pay into the fund becauseit's cheaper.

The price should be raised gradually to $100 or higher, says Dyer,noting the cost to build carbon capture into a project is around $200a tonne.

Dyer also says Alberta's reduction targets are weak compared withinternational targets.

To avoid the worst of global warming, carbon emissions have to bereduced by 80 per cent by mid-century, he says, citing the long-established Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Please have your staff read the entire article and present you with theirassessment.

To encourage you to acknowledge and respond constructively -- hopefullyan invitation to meet for coffee -- I will continue to stand at theentrance to your ExxonMobil facility on Las Colinas Blvd. in hopes thatyou and your staff will see my placards and understand that this is anissue of the utmost concern to me.

Anxious to meet with you to discuss my book "A Scout Is Brave".

Sincerely yours,

Doug Grandt510-432-1452

December 8, 2013

http://bit.ly/TellRexAmazon





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Photograph by: Larry Wong, Postmedia News Files, Postmedia News

Bitumen negates climate change efforts

Alberta's galloping growth is outpacing Canada's efforts to reducegreenhouse gas emissions

BY SHEILA PRATT, POSTMEDIA NEWS DECEMBER 7, 2013

It's Alberta's biggest environmental battle - to reduce rising greenhouse gases from the oilsands - and

former oil executive Eric Newell is running a global search for some silver bullets.

Newell knows it's a race against time.

As the U.S. and other industrialized countries are reducing carbon emissions to combat global

warming, Alberta's greenhouse gas emissions just keep rising.

Those emissions are a major reason why Canada won't meet its international target for 2020, a 17-per-

cent reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels. They are also negating the effect of reductions in



other provinces that have moved away from coal-fired electricity.

Federal figures released in October show Canada's emissions are again on the rise, after six years of

decline. By the end of the decade, they will be 20-per-cent higher than the climate-change targets set

at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit - in essence, little reduction from 2005.

Newell, chairman of Alberta's Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation, says the

situation is growing urgent. As a former CEO and chairman at oilsands giant Syncrude, he also knows

what's at stake if Alberta's efforts fail.

"If we want to expand oilsands production as planned - and get all those economic benefits for Canada

and Alberta - we have to reduce emissions absolutely, not just per barrel," he says. "That's the

challenge."

It's a tall order and Newell takes the long view. By 2050, Alberta must cut 200 megatonnes from the

400 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions that will accompany planned expansion of the oilsands

in decades ahead.

Critics say the province isn't even on track to meet its interim target of a 50-megatonne reduction by

2020; it may achieve one-third of that goal.

Oilsands GHG emissions were 48 megatonnes in 2010, but are set to more than double to 104 by

2020.

So Newell and the CCEMC are searching for silver bullets or, as he calls it, "transformative

technology."

"We are looking for gamechangers, and they do come along."

New technology gambles

There's plenty of money to put into the job. Set up in 2009, the CCEMC runs Alberta's technology fund

fed by a $15-a-tonne levy on excess carbon emissions. About $398 million has been paid to the fund,

with more than $217 million invested in 52 cleanenergy projects, says Alberta Environment.

In February, Newell's search for new technology went global. He got more than 340 submissions from

130 countries when CCEMC made its first "grand challenge" - worth $35 million for the winning project

- to find new ways of turning carbon emissions into useful material, such as carbon-fibre pens.

Three months later, Newell put $50 million on the table in another challenge, this time focusing on

transformative technology to clean up greenhouse gases from oilsands extraction and production.

In industry circles, a lot of hopes are riding on a new $35-million project using electromagnetic heat,

like a big underground microwave, to melt the bitumen along with solvent to separate sand and oil for

underground extraction.



The project - a co-operative effort of Suncor, Nexen and technology owner U.S.-based Harris Co. -

could slash greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by reducing the need to burn natural gas to

create the steam that's now injected underground to melt the bitumen, says the Canadian Association

of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the industry lobby group.

A pilot project is ready to proceed at Suncor's site, but commercial use is a long way off.

That's the trouble with gambling on the tantalizing prospect of new technology to cut emissions, says

Simon Dyer of the Pembina Institute, an environmental think-tank and research group.

Carbon capture

Such technology is usually years away and might not happen at all - as is the case, so far, with the

province's big hopes for carbon capture and storage.

Alberta set aside $2 billion for four projects to store carbon emissions underground. In its plan, the

province is counting on carbon capture projects to bury 139 megatonnes of the 200-megatonne target.

But this year, two major projects were cancelled, including one at TransAlta's Keephills coal-fired power plant west of Edmonton, partly because neither was economically viable. That's a major setback, says

Dyer.

So far, Alberta has only achieved an annual reduction of five megatonnes and it is only expected to hit

a 14-megatonne reduction in 2020 - less than one-third of its target, according to Alberta Environment.

"The ball is in the government's court to deliver on that promise," says Dyer.

The Shell Quest project to bury emissions from its Scotford oil upgrader in Strathcona County is slated

to be operating in 2015. While it will cut emissions there by one-third, that's still only one megatonne a

year. The province put $745 million into the Quest project, which also got $120 million in federal

funding.

Production rises

In the last decade, oilsands companies successfully reduced what's known as carbon intensity of the

bitumen - emissions per barrel - by about 26 per cent.

In 2007, Alberta became the only province to impose a carbon levy on large emitters, giving them

further incentives to reduce greenhouse gases.

Under the levy, companies had to reduce per-barrel emissions by 12 per cent from a 2005 baseline or

pay $15 a tonne for emissions above that level into the CCEMC technology fund.

But overall emissions keep rising because production has gone up dramatically and will continue with

more open mines and underground projects already approved.

There are two ways to keep emissions in check in the short term, until new technology is ready - slow



down expansion plans temporarily, and promote the use of clean, renewable energy, says Dyer.

"The oilsands can continue to grow but much more slowly under carbon constraints, not the

uncontrolled growth we have now," he says.

Newell is dead set against decelerating expansion because that would send a negative signal to

investors, who might go elsewhere.

"If we slow it down, no one will notice the GHG loss, but they will notice the loss of energy," he says.

Dyer argues Newell's CCEMC just doesn't have the tools to do its job. At $15 a tonne, the price of

carbon is far too low to give oil companies a financial incentive to cut emissions.

A study by the Pembina Institute shows fewer than half the companies reduce emissions; mostly, they

pay into the fund because it's cheaper.

The price should be raised gradually to $100 or higher, says Dyer, noting the cost to build carbon

capture into a project is around $200 a tonne.

Dyer also says Alberta's reduction targets are weak compared with international targets.

To avoid the worst of global warming, carbon emissions have to be reduced by 80 per cent by mid-

century, he says, citing the long-established Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In-situ emissions

Meanwhile, there's a new red flag in the federal government's 2012 report on greenhouse gas emission

trends.

"Specifically, emissions from oilsands mining are projected to double while emissions from in situ

production are expected to increase more than five times from 10 megatonnes in 2005 to 55

megatonnes in 2020," says the federal report.

In situ or underground production will eventually be used in 80 per cent of the oilsands.

That's creating a potential problem, says Greenpeace researcher Keith Stewart.

It's difficult to put carbon capture and storage technologies in place on in situ operations, which include

deep wells and pipelines that stretch many kilometres through the boreal forest, he says.

Alberta's rising oilsands emissions are already offsetting reductions achieved in other parts of Canada's

economy, Stewart notes.

For instance, the country's biggest single drop in emissions, from Ontario's decision to phase out coal-

fired electricity, was negated by the increase in oilsands emissions.

What about coal?



Newell gets irked by the fingers pointing constantly at the oilsands when the coal industry in Alberta is

also responsible for major emissions. Yet there's not much fuss about coal, which has another 50 years

to phase out its plants under federal rules.

Syncrude - the largest oilsands producer, with its mine and upgrader on-site - pumped out 12.9 million

tonnes of GHG emissions, while two coal-fired plants - TransAlta's Keephills and Capital Power's

Genesee - produced 11.5 million tonnes and 9.4 million tonnes respectively, according to 2011 figures.

Looking at coal on a global scale is one place where Greenpeace's Stewart and Newell might find

themselves on the same page.

In a recent report, Greenpeace documented the global sites with the fastest growing GHG emissions.

Alberta's oilsands are fifth on the list, while at the top are expanding coal-fired plants in Australia and

China.

By 2020, the Australian plants are expected to produce another 720 megatonnes and those in China,

another 1,400 megatonnes.

While Stewart agrees "coal is the biggest threat globally," that doesn't let Canada or Alberta off the

hook, he says.

The oilsands is one industrial site and it has emissions equal to a small country such as Portugal. "It is

one of the largest pools of carbon in the world, so it is a globally significant source."

Attitudes changing

In the 1990s, the oil industry fought the need to reduce greenhouse gases, resisted a carbon levy and

supported Alberta's battle to derail the defunct Kyoto accord in 2001.

But times have changed, says CAPP, whose website notes: "Canadians expect the oil and gas industry

to do its part to fight climate change."

"As an industry we account for 23 per cent of Canada's emissions and 0.5 per cent of global emissions.

It's a big number and industry understands it must improve its performance."

There are some hints the province is now reviewing its climate policy. The $15-a-tonne levy is up for

review in 2014, and behind-the-scenes discussions about increasing it are underway.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has written U.S. President Barack Obama to call for

discussion of a joint GHG strategy in his effort to get TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline approved.

So far, there's been no response from Washington.

Newell says he's aware that the industry's social licence to exploit the resource partly depends on

making sure Alberta and the oilsands are ready for a low-carbon future.

"We're not in a PR campaign, we will be judged by our actions, so we'd better get on with it," he says.



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A Scout is Brave Campaign Day 7 = 2013-12-08

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