Prairie Chapter

CALGARY, ALBERTA, Sep 30, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Imagine your backyard transformed into a mini power station with your very own wind turbine and every house on your street equipped with solar panels. Today, the University of Calgary announced the new NSERC/ENMAX Industrial Research Chair in Renewable Energy at the Schulich School of Engineering to explore ways to implement renewable energy solutions at the household level.... Read more »

CALGARY - Alberta's energy minister says pipeline companies are being victimized by an increasingly hostile environmental movement.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Ron Liepert noted it wasn't long ago that the pipeline sector went largely unnoticed, but that has changed with TransCanada's (TSX:TRP) plans for the Keystone XL pipeline to ship oilsands product south through the United States.

"I think back to the good old days this pipeline business used to be sort of a sleepy, boring, unnoticed part of the industry. That's not the case anymore," Liepert said.

"I think pipelines have sort of become the baby seals of the environmental groups these days."

 ... Read more »

Over 200 protesters objecting to the federal government's enthusiastic support for Alberta's Tar Sands and the Keystone pipeline XL were arrested Monday morning as they attempted to stage a sit-in in the House of Commons.

The protesters wanted the chance to air their grievances with the environmentally reckless policies of the Harper-led Conservatives inside Parliament but were blocked from entering by fenced barricades and over 50 RCMP officers.

The protesters were encouraged by hundreds of boisterous supporters as they passed the media scrum and calmly hopped over police barricades.

Those arrested in the first wave of protesters trying to gain access to the House included chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Maude Barlow, and Dave Coles, the president of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, along with his executive assistant andrabble.ca blogger Fred Wilson.... Read more »

EDMONTON — Environmental groups are hoping to trigger what they call the "largest civil disobedience action in the history of Canada’s climate movement"Monday in Ottawa — a sit-in on Parliament Hill to protest federal government support of Alberta's oilsands.

“This isn’t about condemning anybody that works in the tarsands or oilsands industry. This is about presenting choices,” said Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema.

The Edmonton-based activist, who plans to be in Ottawa on Monday, said he hopes people do not see the protest as an attack on Alberta, but as a bid for a “clean-energy economy.”

Monday’s action takes aim at Alberta’s oilsands as a whole, but the effort piggybacks on growing American and Canadian attention to the proposed $12-billion Keystone XL pipeline extension.... Read more »