I live down the street from a school in Calgary. I’m building a ‘little free banned library’ that I’m going to be filling with every book the government bans

Perfect is the enemy of good only if you WAIT for perfect. I eat minimal meat, get my veggies from a local farm share, have solar panels, an EV that charges only off excess solar production, a heatpump, have re-insulated the attic, ditched the gas range for induction that runs off solar, etc. My footprint is less than anyone around me, but probably still way higher than your average individual living in the global south.

I’m trying to hit net zero and once I hit it, I’ll keep going because Canada (where I live) is rich and I want to continue to reduce my footprint (the dream is net negative in my life) because I’m privileged and have the resources to push harder. I make it a game - figure out what’s my best opportunity to reduce my footprint, do it, move on to looking for the next thing I can do.

Giving up (most) red meat and patting yourself on the back is severely minimizing what you COULD be doing. I’m a long, long way from perfect, and am exceedingly lucky to have the resources to play this game - but carbon reduction is a way of life, not a checkbox IMO.

But seriously, what IS vibe coding?

Legitimately one of my favourite YouTube channels. Tech deep dives (generally on extremely esoteric topics), sarcasm, and interesting insights.

Friendly reminder that getting vaxxed is free. My partner has a shitty immune system so I got two rounds of boosters.

Here in Alberta all you need to do is call 811 and they can book you in with a vaccine specialist.

Mine (2025) rattles when twisted.

I suggested Maxime Bernier running to some friends as a joke. Bernier is AWFUL - but it would be hilarious to see Poilevre lose again. Poilevre is trying to avoid that risk by picking an extremely right leaning district - so no risk from the left, but farther right? Rural Albertans have a history of not forgiving screw-ups…

I got a 2025 Ioniq 5 too and absolutely love it.

Except for the lack of hitch availability. Ecohitch and Stealth Hitch are the only two options available at the moment and they’re both made in the US.

I always appreciated the old adage about Canadian politics that the outcome will always be the most boring option. This was not that.

John Timmer does an incredible job with with articles like this.

A bunch o’ ridings were gearing up for recall campaigns before the federal election got called. A whole lot of folks were distributing literature and rallying volunteers until folks refocused on the federal election.

Once the election is done, I’m pretty confident that’ll ramp up again - the UCP ain’t getting less corrupt. Check out abresistance.ca for info.

This is absolutely fantastic

I kinda like pet-chem if we’re going to do more upgrading - and sure enough we’re seeing activity in the space.

Refineries produce gasoline (for old cars), diesel (for old trucks), and oils (there’s alternatives). Refineries are for antiquated tech that were trying to phase out IMO.

Upgrading light ends (methane, ethane, propane, etc) are what I’d be investing in if I was looking at fossil fuels investment. We have LOTS of gas plants sweetening and fractionating that stuff so the product streams are there and the emissions intensity of that end is WAY better than liquids.

Dow is building a huge ethane cracker to produce polyethylene. IPL has the Heartland petrochemical complex that’s going to be soaking up immense amounts of propane to produce polypropylene pellets. I haven’t checked what Nova is up to lately, but I can promise you they’re looking to grow in the space.

I don’t love polymers, but we COULD recycle it if we were smart and unlike combustion where everything ends up in the atmosphere, a landfill full of plastic is actually carbon sequestration when you think about it.

Methane (natural gas) is worth approximately nothing at the moment, but coastal LNG exports will help China et al. ween off coal while they continue to build out renewables and Europe needs LNG for similar reasons and timescales.

Source - random internet person

I live and work downtown Calgary in an O&G related field (emissions reduction analysis - it’s a frustrating job). I listen to a LOT of anti-Smith diatribes. The UCP mostly gets elected by rural ridings. They have about half of Calgary, and I don’t know why they even bother running candidates in Edmonton.

There’s a lot similarities to BC actually - BC votes conservative (whatever they call themselves) most places outside of Vancouver and Victoria.

There’s even recall campaign talk in Calgary at the moment because people are hoping to force an early election to try and force the UCP out. (abresistance.ca for any Calgary homies who are interested in getting involved)

I think that the scale of investment involved in oil sands development necessitates MUCH longer range planning than relatively short political cycles.

There’s may be something to be said maximizing CAPEX when the commodity pricing sucks. Spending pullback from the more boom/bust centric conventional/frac operators reduces competition for trades and key manufacturers.

I think the differentiator at the moment is the lack of predictability. Normally your financial models only have to factor in modest price uncertainty. Right now the tariffs change so quickly that who knows what things will cost. I don’t have a clue how you price a project in this environment. I pitty project managers.

Steel plate and pipe is easy to source domestically - especially when the US buyers aren’t tying up Evraz capacity. Big inch valves would start to get tricky I think - but it’s been over a decade since I was working in that space. Coatings are Dupont and 3M for buried assets - so lots of risk exposure there.

Personally, if I operated any major facilities (fractionation/refineries) I’d be looking at what turnaround/maintenance work I could be pulling forward right now. When oil’s booming, you don’t want to shut down your money machine to do repairs.

The blog post is an incredible read.

Completely understand and hugs. Pets’ lives are too short.

I mean, I’d give you a hug, take you to my local pub which just so happens to be queer owned and does fundraising for amazing causes and introduce you to my friends and community. Hell, I have a spare bedroom if you want a place to crash while you get set up.

You aren’t your government any more than the turds running my province (Alberta) are me. You’ll most likely be met with sympathy for the challenges you face in making such a big move and admiration for having the conviction and courage to do so.

Like any country, there’ll be jerks, but as a rule of thumb, we’re pretty friendly.

Heck, if you want a vacation, shoot me a message and come visit and use that spare room I mentioned. Do you hike or bike? I’m in Calgary which is super close to epic mountain fun and incredible scenery. We’ve also got three cats who demand attention, and a guide-dog in training who is a goofy/genius puppy, so there’s lots of pet-therapy available too.

The courage of these folks is pretty inspiring.

I still don’t get the butane reference? (kidding)