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
The Costly Compromises of Oil From Sand
The Costly Compromises of Oil From Sand
by IAN AUSTEN
Published: January 6, 2009
New York Times
OTTAWA — The oil that is extracted from Canadian dirt is being portrayed as saving America from energy dependence on the unstable Middle East, or an environmental catastrophe in the making — depending on the perspective.
The Conservative government of Canada, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has championed the industry.
Syncrude worker found dead at Mildred Lake site
Syncrude worker found dead at Mildred Lake site
Updated: Thu Jan. 01 2009 18:47:13
ctvedmonton.ca
It was a tragic end to 2008 for a Syncrude employee in northern Alberta. The worker was found unconscious at Syncrude's Mildred Lake upgrader at about 10:30 Wednesday morning.
He was discovered on a catwalk in the Hydro Processing area of the upgrader. He was rushed to hospital in Fort McMurray where he was pronounced dead.
Occupational Health and Safety is investigating. A provincial government spokesperson says it appears the employee was struck by a piece of falling ice.
Energy at any cost (Wyoming; "Rockies Express Gas Pipeline")
Energy at any cost
Natural-gas pipelines encroach on farms, homes and businesses with government support, with more projects in the works
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 3:08 AM
By Sandy Shore
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Rockies Express natural-gas pipeline stretches across rural land as it is built near Cheyenne, Wyo. The $4 billion project will have the capacity to move 1.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
DENVER -- In the push toward more U.S. energy independence, massive infrastructure projects that will help deliver it have clashed with land-ownership rights.
WANING of the BOOM
WANING of the BOOM
Once the dream factory for 24,000 mobile workers, Fort McMurray's slowdown may be most devastating for the communities across Canada who export them.
GORDON PITTS
December 29, 2008
FORT McMURRAY, ALTA. -- Hungry young tradesmen like Evan Brewer used to be as plentiful on the ground in Fort McMurray as chips at the Boomtown Casino. They'd get off the plane from Atlantic Canada and score big money in the oil sands.
Petro-Canada working on costs (Fort Hills, Montréal Refinery, etc...)
Petro-Canada working on costs
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Friday, December 12, 2008
CALGARY -- Petro-Canada is seeing "a pretty good response" as it re-negotiates deals to bring down costs at its delayed Fort Hills oil sands project, Ron Brenneman, chief executive, said Friday.
"I don't know where it will end up or whether it's enough to make a difference in the overall project economics," but costs are moving down and are becoming more predictable, Mr. Brenneman said in an interview.
Workers vote to end 13-month lockout at Petro-Canada refinery (Montréal)
Workers vote to end 13-month lockout at Petro-Canada refinery
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 |
CBC News
Workers at a Petro-Canada refinery in Montreal have voted to accept a new collective agreement, a move that will put an end to a 13-month lockout.
Union officials, representing 260 employees, said Tuesday the agreement was accepted by 94.6 per cent of members. Employees will be back at work Jan. 12.
The cold truth about climate change
The cold truth about climate change
Deniers continue to insist there's no consensus on global warming. Well,
there's not. There's well-tested science and real-world observations.
By Joseph Romm
Feb. 27, 2008 | The more I write about global warming, the more I realize I
share some things in common with the doubters and deniers who populate the
blogosphere and the conservative movement. Like them, I am dubious about the
process used by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to
write its reports. Like them, I am skeptical of the so-called consensus on
More on Massive Refinery Expansion Plans for Great Lakes Region (US/Canada)
Superior refinery expansion at center of Great Lakes debate
By Dan Egan/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Superior Telegram
Published Friday, December 26, 2008
SUPERIOR — There is indeed a growing awareness of just how precious the Great Lakes are — and will be — in a century in which many are predicting fresh water will become more coveted than oil.
The significance of this can’t be underestimated for a system of linked lakes that hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water and 90 percent of the nation’s.
The Fusion of Peak Oil & Climate Change
by James Howard
Energy Bulletin (December 01 2008)
Peak Oil and Climate Change are two historic events for humans and life
on earth. The first threatens modern industrial ways of living and the
latter threatens the climatic systems that are an integral part of our
world and the way we live and survive.
A quick recap on both. Peak Oil is the point of historic maximum global
oil flow, Climate Change is the alteration of established climate
systems due to (in this case, anthropogenic) global warming. The onset
Superior at center of oil production plans (Wisconsin: New Refinery hub for tar sands)
Superior at center of oil production plans
By Dan Egan/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Superior Telegram
Published Wednesday, December 24, 2008
SUPERIOR — U.S. dependence on foreign oil conjures images of derricks pecking at Saudi Arabian sands or supertankers steaming for coastal refineries.
But here is a more apt icon for our future reliance on other nations’ fossil fuels: fields just south of Lake Superior pocked with gymnasium-sized tanks of oil piped 1,000 miles from tar sands in Alberta — one of the largest proven “unconventional” oil reserves in the world.
