The amount of unpaid property taxes that oil and gas companies owe Alberta rural municipalities has more than doubled over the last year, a trend some are calling a tax revolt.

Rural Municipalities Alberta said Monday that a survey of its members shows that they are owed a total of $173 million — a 114 per cent increase since a similar survey was done last spring.

“Municipalities require property taxes to provide the infrastructure and services that industry relies on to access natural resources,” association president Al Kemmere said in a release.

“If Alberta’s property tax system is not amended to prevent oil and gas companies from refusing to pay property taxes, many rural municipalities will struggle to remain viable.”

Fossil fuel companies must better engage with the climate crisis and develop a clear strategy for managing their role in the global response, according to a paper released today by the influential International Energy Agency (IEA). 

A failure to develop a coherent response to climate change, including a clear plan to drastically curb greenhouse gas emissions, could result in oil and gas firms losing their licence to operate and profitability. 

The death of Iranian commander Qasim Suleimani on January 3rd in an American drone strike has roiled Iran and Iraq. It has also jeopardized the future of Iraq’s oil production growth. 

Heightened security risks in the wake of Suleimani’s death could persuade the international oil companies active in Iraq — like Exxon Mobil or BP — that investing in infrastructure projects that are key to Iraq’s oil production ambitions isn’t worth it. Iraq’s fiscal terms were already viewed as notoriously tough inside the oil industry, and routine maintenance at the country’s aging oil fields is only getting harder. Now, greater odds that Iran will lash out through its powerful militia proxies in Iraq to stoke unrest could be the last straw.

On top of that, the prospect of a withdrawal of US troops raises the stakes. Iraq’s parliament voted shortly after the drone strike to expel US troops, calling the attack a violation of their sovereignty since it happened on Iraqi soil. A...

Global demand for oil and natural gas will crash within a decade, according to Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends.

And in his new book, The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028 and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth, Rifkin argues that this could have extremely serious economic ramifications for Canada and the United States.

That's because these two western industrialized nations have been slow to adapt to a world in which it's possible to generate zero marginal-cost renewable energy.

The Maryland-based economics and energy consultant even includes a section in his book about a $40-billion investment into a natural-gas pipeline, LNG plant, and export terminal in British Columbia. It's cited as an example of the blind eye that the Canadian government is showing to global economic realities. 

"While the Trump administration is at least up-front about its avowed...