Shot
Whistler ski resort in British Columbia Canada tried to extort money from the oil industry because of climate change effects to their resort.
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/whistler-wants-albertan-oil-and-gas-company-to-pay-for-resorts-climate-change-costs
Chaser
The oil company fired back and cancelled meeting reservations. Then the mayor of Whistler did an about face and is trying to suck up to the oil company.
HT/MaxD
ALLAN MACRAE
If you had ever skied the very light and very deep powder at Alta, up Little Cottonwood Canyon from Salt Lake City, you would have put it first.
My first skiing from a lift system was at Norquay.
When my pants were baggy and my face was smooth.
Later, it was the opposite.
And when I last skied, both were baggy.
If you want virgin powder, ski the Bugaboos.
http://www.skicmh.com/destinations/cmh_heli-skiing/resorts/cmh_bugaboos.html
Canadian oil and gas has been specifically targeted in a massive scorched earth campaign by American activists and we are being destroyed by $10 oil (vs. $55-ish WTI). We have hundreds of thousands of layoffs in western Canada with no change in oil demand. This is a crisi right now manufactured by environmental extremists, and we could use all the help we can get. Btw, the letter from Whistlers mayor came originally from an American enviro activist campaign which he put on town letterhead. He said it himself.
Unfortunately, I expect those American activists hit a wall in the U.S. and then decided to try to take out the smaller guys in Canada first. They may have even had help in the form of cash from some petroleum organization in the U.S. American coal companies were attacked by green groups using funds from a natural gas producer in 2012. With a Democrat President helping, the campaign had a real effect on the coal industry. It did not matter that the campaign was one of lies and trick photography.
The linked article mentions Whistler wanting protection from “climate change events”.
WTF?
Having skied the majority of major ski resorts in North America, Banff is my first choice. Being on the semi desert side of the Rockies it gets dry snow and the elevation is reasonable, mostly under 9000 feet except for the highest points at Sunshine. Whistler being only a half hour and 2500 vertical feet above the the ocean gets much wetter snow, especially on the lower half of the mountains. I still marvel at the ski industry folks who sign on to climate change. They are trying to sell condos and homes in the mountains while telling prospects the snow will be gone in a few years. There is even a group called POW (Protect Our Winters) on a fool’s errand that is supported by many in the industry. Not exactly bright.
If you want to know how bad it is in western Canada, google Rachel Notley, the left wing premier of Alberta, and look at how much of a pipeline crusader she has become. Or Alberta separation from Canada (or Saskatchewan) the polling is I think over 50% in both provinces. Notley instituted a government mandated production cut, which sent our WCS oil from $10 to $30, vs. $55 WTI, but of course, we’re producing less. Big American Green has destroyed our economy while doing nothing for oil demand, by choking off the pipelines.
Almost every ad on Canadian TV these days that isn’t Christmas-related is from the Alberta government about how cute and fluffy the pipeline is.
This mayor is another quack. Not one shred of thinking going into his comments.
Just to put it in perspective, the previous mayor chastised all the people that come to Whistler from Vancouver because they brought their own lunch and didn’t spend enough money there…
Which is of course pretty damn funny. It was families from Vancouver that made Whistler. Developed it. And some of those families still go there that started it back in the early 60s. (I know some of them)
The problem is in the mayors office. Asking for money for “climate change” in a mountain town is the height of drug fueled quackery.
I don’t blame you guys from Alberta being pissed. I live in Vancouver but have always considered Calgary a second home. So I get it. The problem we all have is a lack of adult supervision at pretty much every level of government in this country.
The ballot box is our best weapon.
If I had to decide for society how to reduce CO2 emissions, closing ski resorts would be right near the top of my list. Lots of travel required, lots of heating of vacation homes, lots of electricity to run the ski lifts. And all absolutely unnecessary.
Yeah there’s the true irony of all this. An entity that owns a SKI RESORT wants to blather about “climate change?!” Might as well be a gas station owner…but then again those are at least NEEDED, unlike “ski resorts.”
Some 30 years ago I spoke in Whistler and the person running Blackcomb was worried about global warming because he was planning an expansion. I told him what would happen. He expanded and made a lot of money – never gave me a nickel. They can all go down hill as far was I am concerned. For me I don’t ski anymore , I don’t need to go to the mountains to go down hill.
One days when this trick is pulled the oil companies are just going to say ‘OK we will no longer supply you with any of our ‘evil products ‘
Followed by a sudden rush to the store to buy toilet roll and clear underwear from the newly liberated from ‘evil oil products ‘people that tired this trick in the first place.
I wonder how all the Whistler customers get to Whistler? The letter was part of a campaign organised by yet another outside-Canada environmental group West Coast Environmental Law trying to help us dumb Canadians do the ‘right’ thing.
West Coast Environmental Law is an outfit partly bankrolled by US “fake” charities as exposed by Vivian Krause https://fairquestions.typepad.com/.services/blog/6a0120a65d9a8c970b01348837d3c8970c/search?filter.q=West+Coast+Environmental+Law
So you guys are saying there’s still snow?
82″ on the ground today, 10″ of it brand new.
Yes, as usual in Canada, because the national media is based in Toronto, and because Toronto has a huge UHI signature and there is currently no snow, there is no snow anywhere else in Canada. Center of the universe, we are.
Oh.
https://eldoradoweather.com/snowdepth.html
Whistler averages over 1100 cm of snow annually. What exactly are they worried about?
Commentary in Tuesday’s newspaper…
Daphne Bramham: Whistler politicians intent on biting the hands that feed them
Like it or not, they’re in a resort municipality whose success or failure depends on outsiders.
The tone-deafness and hypocrisy of Whistler politicians is almost as breathtaking as the mountain scenery and the ski resort’s 1,530-metre vertical drop.
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/daphne-bramham-whistler-politicians-intent-on-biting-the-hands-that-feed-them
Shot! Chaser! OOO! So violent! I feel unsafe!
The only reason oil companies produce their evil product is because of consumer demand, which would include the clueless mayor and his councillors, every person who lives in Whistler and every customer who travels there for conferences or recreation.
So if they’re really concerned about burning fossil fuels, they would ban the use of them entirely in Whistler before looking any farther for miscreants.
The mayor is even more brain dead than the average global warming doomsayer.
Whistler blackcomb was purchased by Vail resorts. Which pretty much explains how they came up with such a goofy policy.
The mountain is Canadian but the policies are american.
A few comments from a long-time [50+ years] Whistler-Blackcomb skier:
Despite W-B’s upscale image, its voting population of well under 10,000 is decidedly left-leaning and uber-green resulting in the unopposed acclamation of the current misguided mayor who has had to backtrack and apologize for his letter following the cancellation of the oil and gas portion of an investor’s conference at a scheduled conference in the resort. Like some other politicians, he was sucked in by a green NGO to send the letter.
The irony here is that virtually every skier, snow boarder and summer mountain biker or tourist who visits Whistler travels some 260 round-trip kilometres [160 miles] from Vancouver, BC to get there via mostly fossil-fuelled automobiles or buses because there is no local airport nor is there any passenger rail service. Also, of course, many of these visitors drive much further, primarily from the US Pacific Northwest, or travel thousands of miles by air from international locations via Vancouver’s YVR airport.
The only “global warming” issue faced by W-B has been occasional very early season WEATHER as was the case this year, with somewhat lower than normal precipitation and slightly higher temperatures which have limited lower elevation snow accumulation. However, the snow report for December 18, 2018, less than a month after this year’s opening day, states that the present mid-mountain, on the ground snow base is just under 7 feet and total daily snowfall for the season to date is 12 feet, so much for the mayor’s issues.
As noted in some other posts, the letter in question has nothing to do with Vail Resorts, the U.S. company that now owns and operates the resort. Following its acquisition of the resort for some $1.4 billion in 2016, Vail has made significant further investments, including $166 million in expanded lift facilities over the past year. Clearly, Vail doesn’t share the mayor’s concerns.
Apologies if this post repeats points already made, I’ve not had time to read all the comments.
The old adage “Let them freeze in the dark.” Comes immediately to mind.
As does the newer adage “Get woke, go broke”
So how “bad” has it been this year at Whistler/Blackcomb? Just checked, almost 144 inches of snow so far this year, 84 this week alone, with more snow to come.
Pretty good, especially for an El Nino winter. Some ski areas in the Northwest were a little bit late opening, though I don’t know about Whistler, but things are looking good now.
That idiot Notely wants to buy 80 train engines and 7000 oil rail cars to move oil because BC is blocking pipelines, along with the usual eco terrorist outfits, who are funded by the usual foundations. She should be buying tanks, artillery and planes, and putting the pipelines through at the head of a column of tanks. Enough is enough.
These folks are never wrong. They don’t make mistakes. It’s Jim Comey’s fault, or is it the electoral college, so many (other) people to blame.
I wonder what powers all those ski lifts? Wind turbines at the summit? Fairy dust? Anyone know?
From Australia, the disappointment of no snow again this Christmas on the slopes of Ayer’s Rock.
It is hard for snow when the daily maximum is over 100F day after day, but modelling might show the possibility of sub-zero nights yielding snow in other months. Geoff.
Did Atlas just shrug!!! I hope the Petroleum industry is inspired to start boycotting these places and put a stop to this stuff. Unfortunately they partly ruined it by telling they had already wasted 3 billion on climate change! I could have done something actually useful with that kind of cash. That 3 billion came out of fuel consumers pockets. Grow an even bigger pair and stop trying to buy these irredeemable idiots’ love.
“Andrew Gage, a lawyer with the firm, said the goal was to start a conversation about who ought to pay for the effects of climate change.”
Looks like he’s just started the conversation as to who is going to pay for all of the cancellations ! Time these bloodsucker ambulance chasers faced up to the responsibilities of their crass demands!
That said, Whistler snow sucks … way better resorts inland without huge rude crowds of drugged up idiots.
The reality is that the climate change that we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. The fossil fuel companies have nothing to do with it. So the party of sue for damages is Mother Nature. Lost of luck collecting on a judgement against Mother Nature.