Barack Obama

Campaign 2008 has come to Canada. While we cannot vote in this Presidential election, it looks like we are going to have seats on the 50 yard line and see the action up close.

One of the plays expected from the Obama team is a policy move to bring in a low carbon fuel standard. This policy will effectively see refiners and gasoline marketers who use Canadian oil sands crude penalized because this crude oil emits "bad stuff" into the atmosphere when processed. In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, journalist Shawn McCarthy references a chart that compares the various types of oil. Oil from the North Sea (Brent Crude) emits 494 kg of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) per barrel of Oil processed, Arab Light Crude 517 kgs, Nigerian Crude 541 kgs, Mexican Crude 557 kgs, Canadian Tar Sands Crude 568 kgs and Venezuelan Crude 579 kgs. The important observation here is that Canadian Tar Sands Crude emits only 10% more "stuff" than Arab Light Crude. These data tell me that Tar Sands Crude is hardly worthy of being further maligned by a carbon fuel standard policy. Read more »

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is now promising as president he will mandate greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the time 2020 rolls around and he will reduce emissions to 80% of these 1990 levels by 2050.

This week the Washington based scientific think tank Marshall Institute crunched the numbers and the end result is a scary one. Read more »

Oil is rising, Oil is rising, Oil is rising !!! But is it? The media has done a wonderful job of turning the word Oil into a one size fits all term. The fact is, when we hear that Oil is rising, what we are really hearing is that prices of Crude Oil Futures contracts based on West Texas Intermediate Crude are rising.

There are many other types of Oil in the world over and above the West Texas variety. In fact, a goodly amount of Oil in the world is what we call heavy oil which contains long, complicated molecular chains. This Oil requires specialized approaches to refining which can involve some environmental issues. But, if refined properly these environmental concerns can be mitigated. Right now there is a shortage of refining capacity in the USA to handle these heavier types of Oil. This explains why Iran and other Middle Eastern nations right now have tanker loads of heavy oil moored offshore. Nobody wants the stuff because there is a lack of refinery capacity for it. Read more »