Energy & Commodities
The FortisBC Tilbury natural gas plant has moved ahead another step towards expansion.
Both the federal and provincial governments decided last week to move forward with environmental assessments of the proposed project to build a new storage facility and expand natural gas liquefaction capacity at the Delta plant, located on the Fraser River.
But a group opposing the expansion said the plans are “out of line” with the province’s targets for the oil and gas sector.
“We think the minister of environment should have terminated the proposal because of (climate change) and its poor location for an LNG facility right off the bat,” said Peter McCartney, who belongs to Friends of Tilbury and is also a climate campaigner for the Wilderness Committee.
FortisBC wants to start expanding the storage capacity of the Tilbury facility by 2023 – with a goal of finishing by 2026 – and start expanding its liquefaction capability in 2028…read more.
Like many governments, Russian financial regulators have had a complicated relationship with cryptocurrencies. Back in October, Russian leader Vladimir Putin praised cryptocurrencies as a possible tool to help dismantle the global dollar-based financial system.
That didn’t stop Russia from barring the use of cryptocurrencies for payment. And now the country’s financial regulators are pushing for a China-style ban on crypto mining, something that could disrupt the international network supporting popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum. In a report published Thursday, the Russian Central Bank called for a full ban on crypto. Its findings were presented during an online press conference led by Elizaveta Danilova, the director of the Bank of Russia’s Financial Stability Department.
The report claimed cryptocurrencies have become widely used in illegal activities like fraud (in the west, they have become closely associated with ransomware attacks like the one that shut down the Colonial Pipeline and JBS). Because of this, Russia needs new laws that would effectively ban any crypto-related activities in the country. This ban should apply to exchanges, over-the-counter trading and peer-to-peer trading, the report said.
The bank, therefore, suggests Russia needs new laws and regulations that effectively ban any crypto-related activities in the country. In particular, cryptocurrency issuance and organization of its circulation in Russia must be banned. The ban should apply to exchanges, over-the-counter trading desks and peer-to-peer platforms. Russian institutional investors should not be allowed to invest in crypto assets and no Russian financial organizations or infrastructure should be used for cryptocurrency transactions. And the existing ban on crypto payments should be more aggressively enforced…read more.
Tesla has dominated electric vehicle (EV) sales in the US. The Texas-based automaker held a commanding 79% share of the EV market in 2020.
That number dropped a bit in 2021, down to 66.3% through the first half of the year, according to registration data from Experian.
According to Bank of America (BofA), that drop is just the beginning and Tesla’s US EV market share will plummet to just 19% by 2024.
The investment bank says the reason for the precipitous drop is due to an all-familiar talking point when it comes to Tesla – competition.
“We think 2022 marks the start of commercialization for electric vehicles, with many start-up EV automakers launching/ramping new product and many incumbent automakers also beginning their product launch onslaught,” the bank said.
BofA doesn’t stop there. They also predict Tesla’s EV market share will be less than those of Ford and General Motors by 2024, the two automakers it says will benefit the most from Tesla’s decline…read more.
Restrictions including COVID-19 passes, mask mandates, and work-from-home requirements will be removed in England, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday. Johnson also suggested that self-isolation rules may also be thrown out at the end of March as the pandemic becomes endemic.
Effective immediately, the UK government is no longer asking people to work from home. The COVID pass mandate for nightclubs and large events won’t be renewed when it expires on Jan. 26. And from Thursday, indoor mask-wearing will no longer be compulsory anywhere in England.
The requirement for secondary school pupils to wear masks during class and in communal areas will also be removed from the Department for Education’s national guidance.
Roaring cheers from lawmakers could be heard in the House of Commons following Johnson’s announcements on masks.
People who test positive for COVID-19 and their unvaccinated contacts are still required to self-isolate, but Johnson said he “very much expect[s] not to renew” the rule when the relevant regulations expire on March 24.
“As COVID becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others,” the prime minister said.
Asked to remove testing rules for vaccinated UK-bound travellers, Johnson said the government is reviewing the testing arrangements on travel and that an announcement can be expected in the coming days…read more.
Extreme weather and supply-chain snarls are among the reasons for shortages in grocery stores. Here’s another: Unvaccinated truck drivers.
In Canada, where as much as 90% of the country’s fruits and vegetables come from the US during the winter, a vaccine mandate for truckers is slowing down food shipments. Drivers who aren’t fully vaccinated against covid-19 have to quarantine for two weeks after entering Canada. Just about half of US truckers are vaccinated, according to industry estimates.
Vaccination rates among Canadian truckers are roughly in line with the national average, which is in the 83% to 87% range, according to the Canadian Trucker Alliance.
The mandate adds to the already strained supply chains in Canada, which have been subject to worker shortages, transportation bottlenecks, and recent storms. These factors are pushing up food prices globally.
The price to bring food across the border has doubled on some routes due to the scarcity of available truckers, Alex Crane, an operations manager at Paige Logistics, a freight broker in British Columbia, told Bloomberg. As a result, some shipments are just sitting in warehouses.
The US is set to impose similar rules on Jan. 22, which could worsen the cross-border food trade…read more.
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