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
Peak coal to follow peak oil?
Peak coal to follow peak oil?
mongabay.com
December, 19, 2008
Is peak coal coming sooner than we think?
Governments have greatly overestimated global coal reserves according to estimates presented by a geologist at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
David Rutledge, a professor of engineering at Caltech, estimates economically recoverable coal reserves at 400 billion tons worldwide. By comparison, governments claim 850 billion to 998 billion tons of recoverable coal.
"New Technology Could Help Tar Sands Producers"
New Technology Could Help Oil Sands Producers (SU)
SRI Consulting published a new report on producing crude oil from western Canada's oil sands deposits. The report concludes that "with rational engineering and prudent business decision making, grass roots tar sands projects should be economically viable at benchmark crude oil prices below US$60 a barrel." This brings about good news and bad news for the Canadian Oil Sands sector.
Native leaders say climate affecting caribou populations
Native leaders say climate affecting caribou populations
ALLIANCE: Indigenous groups want to participate in global warming talks.
By ARTHUR MAX
The Associated Press
December 23rd, 2008
POZNAN, Poland -- Chief Bill Erasmus of the Dene nation in northern Canada brought a stark warning about the climate crisis: The once abundant herds of caribou are dwindling, rivers are running lower and the ice is too thin to hunt on.
VANOC may axe Whistler ceremonies
VANOC may axe Whistler ceremonies
By BOB MACKIN, 24 HOURS, Dec 24, 2008
A Whistler forest may have been cut for naught.
Medals are supposed to be awarded nightly at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Celebration Plaza next to Whistler Village during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Vancouver 2010 organizers -- faced with unprecedented recessionary pressure for a North American-held Games -- may cancel the Whistler ceremonies to save money.
[Suncor] Voyageur contractors to stay home
Voyageur contractors to stay home
Suncor asks workers to hold off ‘remobilizing’ in wake of plummeting oil prices
December 22, 2008
By CAROL CHRISTIAN // Today staff
Some contractors have been asked not to return to Suncor Energy right after Christmas as the company revisits its Voyageur project as oil prices sink lower than predicted.
Suncor spokesman Brad Bellows confirmed this morning the company has asked some of its contractor workforce to hold off “remobilizing” immediately after Christmas.
Bellows didn’t say how many workers would be affected.
Sunoco, original founder of Suncor, The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Canadian Boreal Initiative, returns to Tar Sands
Sunoco considering returning to the oilsands
By CAROL CHRISTIAN
Today staff
After more than a decade-long absence, Sunoco Inc. is looking to return to the Alberta oilsands by way of increased bitumen for its U.S. refineries.
Sunoco president Lynn Elsenhan outlined that business intention Monday during an analyst conference call. However, she didn’t offer any specific companies as potential partners for the Northern Alberta venture.
The company has started looking, however, and is looking long-term, according to company spokesman Thomas Golembeski.
Once-booming tar sands face uncertain future as list of cancelled projects grows
Once-booming oilsands face uncertain future as list of cancelled projects grows
By JIM MACDONALD, The Canadian Press
December 22, 2008
EDMONTON — Thousands of workers from as far away as the Philippines are watching their jobs in Alberta evaporate as the richest oil boom in the province’s history deflates.
Sinking oil prices have forced skittish investors to hedge their bets on half a dozen multibillion-dollar oilsands projects, leaving one of the key engines of Canada’s economy teetering on an uncertain future.
Tar Sands Output Cuts Unlikely Despite Sliding Crude Price
Oil Sands Output Cuts Unlikely Despite Sliding Crude Price
OTTAWA (Dow Jones)--The plunge in oil prices has forced the first output cut in Canada, but shutdowns across the country's abundant oil sands are a distant prospect.
Earlier this week, Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd (CLL.T) said it will nearly halve output from its Great Divide oil sands project to 5,000 barrels a day indefinitely. The development in northern Alberta had been producing around 9,000 barrels a day of the sludgy bitumen, which sells for less than benchmark light, sweet crude due to its poor quality.
North Dakota: Enbridge plans new pipeline (Alberta Clipper)
IN MY HOMETOWN: Enbridge plans new pipeline
Kevin Bonham Grand Forks Herald
Published Monday, December 22, 2008
While the controversial Keystone Pipeline is being built across North Dakota — from Hardisty, Alta., to Illinois and Oklahoma — another pipeline company continues to expand in the region.
The unjustifiable destruction of the environment (Fidel on the tar sands)
Reflections of Fidel
The unjustifiable destruction of the environment
CAN capitalist society avoid it? News about the issue is not encouraging. In Poznan, they are discussing the project to be presented in December of next year in Copenhagen, where the agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol will be discussed and voted on.
