The 2024 Canadian Federal Budget was released on April 16th. This year’s budget is focused on affordability, housing, and spending on social programs such as pharmaceutical care, daycare, and dentist care.   Peter and Jackie discuss the budget, including the size of the deficit and the planned increase in capital gains taxes. They also cover energy-related updates from the budget, such as changes to investment tax credit programs (ITCs), adjustments to the green home subsidy, and the announcement of an Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program. They also mention that the Canada Growth Fund ..read more

The threat of a wider Middle East war is increasing. Over the past weekend, Iran attacked Israel with missiles and drones in retaliation for Israel’s suspected strike on Iran's embassy in Syria. This week, our guest, Raoul LeBlanc, Vice President, Energy, S&P Global Commodity Insights, explains why oil prices have increased over the past few months, including the impact of the growing conflict in the Middle East, OPEC+, and US shale oil growth.  Jackie and Peter also asked Raoul about recent research by Prof. Robert Howarth from Cornell University. The paper, which has not yet been pe ..read more

This week our podcast guest is Rachel Walsh, Environmental Commodities Strategist at BMO Capital Markets.   Here are some of the questions Peter and Jackie asked Rachel: Is the hefty Canadian emitter carbon tax starting to impact competitiveness? Is the carbon levy causing industrial emitters to invest in reducing their emissions? Canada and Alberta have introduced incentives to reduce the capital cost of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. Are these incentives enough to kick-start the industry? Are the contracts-for-difference that guarantee a carbon price for industrial emitters ..read more

Recently, Alberta announced significant changes to its power market: short-term changes to stop economic withholding and a long-term redesign of Alberta’s deregulated electricity market into a restructured energy market (REM).   This week, our guest, Blake Shaffer, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, helps us understand these changes. Here are some questions Jackie and Peter asked Blake: Why does Alberta need a market redesign? Was the near-brownout during a frigid weekend in January a sign that the current system is ..read more

Peter is back from a one-week whirlwind trip to the UK where he was a guest on a government-hosted tour titled “Energy Commentators Mission.” During his visit, he met people working on the UK energy transition, including with offshore wind, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and refining.  Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear about Peter’s trip and takeaways, including interviews with some of the people he met in his travels.  We hear from:  Andrew Rodden, Energy Transition Zone Ltd.   Pilar Amieva, X-Academy  Allan MacAskill, Flotation Energy plc  Je ..read more

This week, John Stackhouse, Senior Vice President, Office of the CEO at RBC joins the podcast. John is also the host of the Disruptors podcast. This episode is a joint podcast that is being made available on both the ARC Energy Ideas and Disruptors podcast channels.  John, Jackie, and Peter discuss sustainable finance and Canada’s dearth of capital spending on energy transition and decarbonization.   Questions covered during the podcast: Is the lack of a national taxonomy that defines what projects count as clean, green, and sustainable slowing investment? Should decarbonization proj ..read more

On February 16, 2024, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced some proposed changes to the draft Clean Electricity Regulations (CER). Initially released in August 2023, the draft legislation requires electricity production in Canada to be net zero by 2035. Peter and Jackie start the podcast by reviewing the recently proposed changes and discuss whether these changes are enough to win over the provinces that object to the proposed CER, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. Next, they introduce this week’s guest, the Honourable Todd Smith, Ontario’s Energy Minister and MLA ..read more

This week, our guest is Ellis Ross, an MLA in the British Columbia Legislature since 2017, representing the Skeena riding for the BC United political party (formerly the Liberal Party). His region includes the communities of Kitimat and Terrace on the northern coast of British Columbia.  Ellis also currently serves as the Shadow Minister for Energy and LNG. Before being elected to the British Columbia legislature, Ellis Ross was the Chief Councillor for the Haisla Nation, in that position, he signed an agreement with an LNG developer to build a plant on the Haisla Nation reserves.  H ..read more

This week, our guest is Greg Lyle, Founder and President of Innovative Research Group.  Innovative Research Group is a full-service market research firm with offices in Vancouver and Toronto. The firm has recently done some interesting polling on how Canadians are thinking about energy infrastructure and energy transition. Greg also talked politics, giving us some insight into how Canadians would vote (based on polling) if a federal election were held today.  Here are some of the questions that Peter and Jackie asked Greg: How much do Canadians know about the energy transition? How d ..read more

This week, our guest is Carlos Pascual, Senior Vice President of Global Energy at S&P Global Commodity Insights.   Carlos's past roles include establishing and directing the new Energy Resources Bureau at the US Department of State and serving as a senior advisor to the Secretary of State on energy issues. He has also previously been a United States Ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine.  Here are some of the questions that Carlos tackled:  How do you expect the US will react to the recent attack on an American base in the Middle East that killed three soldiers?  What is Ira ..read more