reclamation efforts and drive down risk of environmental damage from possible seepage and dam failures. However, there are currently no chemical regulations for the safe release of what is known as process water, and companies have yet to develop technology for contaminant reduction.
Some of the world’s busiest shipping ports will soon be monitored for compliance with air pollution regulations by teams of drones.
Regulators in the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Denmark, Norway, and others are bracing for rules that are meant to lower emission of sulphur oxides, pollutants often blamed for acid rain and aggravating human health conditions like asthma.
The technology will work by filtering through tens of thousands of vessels coming in and out of ports and collecting data to ascertain whether a ship is burning non-compliant fuel — ultimately helping authorities target the right carrier for a manual inspection.
The regulations, set by the International Maritime Organization, are set to begin Jan. 1, 2020, and require most ships across the globe to burn more expensive fuels, Bloomberg reports.
On Tuesday morning, Brent Crude was at US$71.88 and West Texas Intermediate US$63.02.
- Exclusive: Russian pipeline restart hit by dirty oil evacuation problems (Reuters)
- Oil Companies Join Corporate Lobbying Push for U.S. Carbon Tax (Bloomberg)
- Climate change: Global sea level rise could be bigger than expected (BBC News)
- Small nuclear reactors could make Alberta’s oilsands cleaner, industry experts suggest (CBC News)
- New Zealand investigators re-enter disaster-stricken mine after eight years (Reuters)
- Oil traders sell dirty Russian crude to Asian buyers (Reuters)
“Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it’s been,” Max Fawcett quotes Wayne Gretzky in his op-ed for the Globe and Mail.
“For the global divestment movement that has identified Alberta’s oil and gas industry as one of its primary targets, new Premier Jason Kenney might be about to get trapped in the offensive zone just as the puck heads the other way.”
He writes that demand for fossil fuels will peak some time in the next 10 to 25 years, and investors don’t want to be “left standing when the music stops.” Fawcett continues by noting Shell has already cited divestment as a material risk to its business, and argues that if it’s notable to a global powerhouse such as Shell it should be even more so to smaller Canadian companies.
“Indeed, for all the talk about the ethical merits of divesting from fossil fuels, it’s the economic one that should scare the industry the most.”