From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Owen Klinsky

European energy company BP has announced plans to sell its U.S. onshore wind business as it aims to concentrate on its core oil and gas business and improve investor sentiment, according to the Financial Times.

BP, along with its rival Shell, has looked to scale back on green initiatives over the past few years, rejecting further cuts to oil production in June 2023. Now, the company is looking to sell its roughly $2 billion U.S. onshore wind portfolio, which consists of stakes in ten operating wind farms and has a total net generating capacity of 1.3 gigawatts, the FT reported.

“We believe the business is likely to be of greater value for another owner,” William Lin, BP’s executive vice president for gas & low carbon energy, told Bloomberg. “This planned divestment is part of our strategy of continuing to simplify our portfolio and focus on value.”

The move comes as BP’s share price sits near a two-year low, and as the company is in the process of “shifting capital away from transition themes and back to the core business,” Biraj Borkhataria, head of European energy research at RBC Europe Ltd XYZ, told Bloomberg. It also comes as the U.S. onshore wind industry has struggled more broadly as installations have slowed due to elevated interest rates and permitting challenges, with BloombergNEF lowering its projections for new onshore wind by 22% through 2030.

BP’s offshore wind (OSW) efforts have also run into challenges, with the company writing down the value of its OSW  portfolio by $1.1 billion last year, and the company’s former renewables chief, Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, telling the FT, “offshore wind in the US is fundamentally broken.”

BP’s competitor Shell has also pivoted away from a renewables transition in recent years, with its CEO Wael Sawan  describing cutting oil production as “dangerous and irresponsible.”

“I disagree with him, respectfully,” Sawan said in July 2023 in reference to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrdaes’ comment that new oil and gas investments are “economic and moral madness.” “What would be dangerous and irresponsible is actually cutting out oil and gas production so that the cost of living, as we saw last year, starts to shoot up again.”

The onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in Feb. 2022 drove energy prices skywards, with gas surpassing $5 a gallon in June 2022, up from roughly $1.80 in April 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

BP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Included in Bill C-293 are provisions to ‘regulate commercial activities that can contribute to pandemic risk, including industrial animal agriculture,’ produce ‘alternative proteins,’ and ‘enable contact tracing of persons.’

A “pandemic prevention and preparedness” bill introduced by a backbencher MP of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party would give sweeping powers to “prevent” as well as “prepare” for a future pandemic, including regulating Canadian agriculture.  

Bill C-293, or “An Act respecting pandemic prevention and preparedness,” is now in its second reading in the Senate. The bill would amend the Department of Health Act to allow the minister of health to appoint a “National pandemic prevention and preparedness coordinator from among the officials of the Public Health Agency of Canada to coordinate the activities under the Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Act.”

Bill C-293 was introduced to the House of Commons in the summer of 2022 by Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. The House later passed the bill in June of 2024 with support from the Liberals and NDP (New Democratic Party), with the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois opposing it.  

A close look at this bill shows that, if it becomes law, it would allow the government via officials of the Public Health Agency of Canada, after consulting the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and of Industry and provincial governments, to “regulate commercial activities that can contribute to pandemic risk, including industrial animal agriculture.” 

Text from the bill also states that the government would be able to “promote commercial activities that can help reduce pandemic risk,” which includes the “production of alternative proteins, and phase out commercial activities that disproportionately contribute to pandemic risk, including activities that involve high-risk species.”  

It is not clear when Bill C-293 will proceed to the third reading in the Senate. When it was in the House, it took over a year for it to go from the second to the third reading. Should an early election be called this year, or the bill not get to its third reading before the fall of October of 2025, the bill will die.  

As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Trudeau government has funded companies that produce food made from bugs. The Great Reset of Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum (WEF) has as part of its agenda the promotion of “alternative” proteins such as insects to replace or minimize the consumption of beef, pork, and other meats that they say have high “carbon” footprints. 

Trudeau’s current environmental goals are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades, as well as curbing red meat and dairy consumption.

Bill would give the government powers to ‘enable contact tracing’  

Bill C-293 would allow the government to mandate industry help it in procuring products relevant to “pandemic preparedness, including vaccines, testing equipment and personal protective equipment, and the measures that the Minister of Industry intends to take to address any supply chain gaps identified.” 

It would also allow the minister of industry to procure the “communications capacity and infrastructure for electronic platforms and tools,” which includes electronic applications that “enable contact tracing of persons exposed to infectious diseases that could lead to pandemics.” 

The bill will also “take into account the recommendations made by the advisory committee following its review of the response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Canada.” 

The federal government, and most provincial governments, during COVID, pushed and enacted contact tracing to monitor the general population. Any Canadians who traveled out of the country had to also use the government’s much maligned and scandal-ridden ArriveCAN travel app, which had a contact tracing feature.  

Also during COVID, the Trudeau government took a heavy-handed approach when it came to enacting laws or rules under the guise of “health.” For example, in October 2021 Trudeau announced unprecedented COVID-19 jab mandates for all federal workers and those in the transportation sector. He also announced that the unvaccinated would no longer be able to travel by air, boat, or train, both domestically and internationally. 

This policy resulted in thousands losing their jobs or being placed on leave for non-compliance. It also trapped “unvaccinated” Canadians in the country.