Tar Sands 101
The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change.
The tar sands are already slated to be the cause of up to the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will see 3 million barrels of tar sands mock crude produced daily by 2018; for each barrel of oil up to as high as five barrels of water are used.
Human health in many communities has seriously taken a turn for the worse with many causes alleged to be from tar sands production. Tar sands production has led to many serious social issues throughout Alberta, from housing crises to the vast expansion of temporary foreign worker programs that racialize and exploit so-called non-citizens. Infrastructure from pipelines to refineries to super tanker oil traffic on the seas crosses the continent in all directions to allthree major oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The mock oil produced primarily is consumed in the United States and helps to subsidize continued wars of aggression against other oil producing nations such as Iraq, Venezuela and Iran.
To understand the tar sands in more depth, continue to our Tar Sands 101 reading list
NDP MP Don Davies drafts bill to ban oil tankers off B.C. coast
NDP MP Don Davies drafts bill to ban oil tankers off B.C. coast
By Stephen Hui
*Don Davies*, the NDP MP for Vancouver Kingsway, has drafted legislation to
enshrine in law the federal moratorium that prohibits oil tankers from
plying British Columbia's coastal waters.
"Oil tankers in our coastal waters pose a grave threat to our environment
and sensitive ecosystems," Davies said in a statement e-mailed today
(February 5) to the *Straight*. "The risk of oil spills and damage to our
marine mammals is unacceptable."
In this week's *Straight* cover
story
Poverty Olympics spotlight Downtown Eastside
VANCOUVER 2010: 'IT'S NOT A GAME'
Poverty Olympics spotlight Downtown Eastside
February 9, 2009
VANCOUVER -- They have their own Olympic mascots - Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach and Chewy the Rat - their own torch, made from a toilet plunger, and a catchy marketing phrase: "End poverty. It's not a game."
But what the Poverty Olympics doesn't have is money - and that was the main point being underscored yesterday by a celebration/protest march through the Downtown Eastside.
Syncrude faces charges (from Alberta) over death of ducks
Syncrude faces charges over death of ducks
By Scott Haggett
Feb 9, 2009.
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The province of Alberta and the Canadian laid charges against the Syncrude Canada Ltd joint venture after 500 ducks died after landing on a tailings pond at its oil sands operation in April.
The province alleges Syncrude, the world's biggest oil sands producer, failed to have appropriate deterrents in place to keep the ducks from landing on the toxic waste-water pond.
Imperial backs tar sands, seeing through Kearl Project
Imperial backs oil sands
$3.88B profit helps drive Kearl project
By Claudia Cattaneo, Calgary Bureau Chief, Financial Post
January 30, 2009
In the thick of the global economic downturn, Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada's largest oil company, posted another record annual profit and said it's increasing spending by 60% this year as it moves forward with the Kearl oil sands project.
"Alberta serious about tar sands clean up"
Alberta serious about oil sands clean up: minister
Strict New Rules
By Darcy Henton and Dan Healing, Canwest News
February 4, 2009
Alberta's energy minister says strict new rules governing oil sands tailings ponds will show the world that Alberta is serious about cleaning up the province's oil sands developments.
"I think the market community internationally [is] going to see that the province of Alberta and this government are very serious about how we move forward with ... development that's environmentally friendly," said Mel Knight.
UTS Energy Rejects Total’s Offer as ‘Inadequate’
UTS Energy Rejects Total’s Offer as ‘Inadequate’
By Jim Polson
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- UTS Energy Corp.’s board said Total SA’s C$617 million ($506 million) offer for the Canadian oil- sands explorer is “inadequate” and recommended shareholders reject the bid by Europe’s third-largest petroleum company.
The board formed a special committee to “pursue various initiatives with the objective of maximizing value for all shareholders,” Calgary-based UTS said today in a statement.
Foreign workers sacked from Olympics site (London England)
Foreign workers sacked from Olympics site
* Published: 02 February 2009 09:18
The police have arrested 136 illegal workers on the Olympic Park
site in Stratford, East London, in the nine months from April to
December 2008.
Of the 136 people arrested on suspicion of working in the UK without
permission 16 have been prosecuted, of which 11 were removed from the UK.
A further 19 workers have been granted leave to remain in the UK based
on new applications to the Home Office.
The remainder either have applications awaiting decisions or are
Fort Chip cancer rates higher than expected: report
Fort Chip cancer rates higher than expected: report
February 6, 2009
CBC News
The number of cancer cases in Fort Chipewyan, Alta., is higher than expected, says a report from Alberta Health Services released Friday.
Fifty-one cancers in 47 people were found in Fort Chipewyan between 1995 and 2006, a dozen more than the 39 cancers that were expected, and the incidences of some cancers warrant more followup, the report said.
Racial Scapegoating of TFW's beginning in Economic Downturn?
During an economic downturn, scapegoats are preferred by capital to distract us from our real problems. This thinly-disguised racism is coming about through the modern populist cry against "foreigners", which inevitably means non-whites. Leave it to the Edmonton Sun to be the first to exploit this situation to turn worker upon worker.
Petrocan CEO is on the hot seat
Petrocan CEO is on the hot seat
Andrew Willis,
February 2, 2009
Welcome to the hot seat, Ron Brenneman.
Petro-Canada's CEO faces a full-scale shareholder revolt in coming weeks, as the much-watched Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan leads a campaign for better performance from the former Crown corporation.
Mr. Brenneman must defend a strategy that's seen Petrocan build a diverse collection of assets, a number of which are yielding relatively low returns, at a time when rivals for focusing their operations.
