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
Lessons in simplicity on warming
Lessons in simplicity on warming
Jul 29, 2008 04:30 AM
Albert Koehl
The most useful lessons to be learned in the fight against global warming can probably be gleaned from grade-school problem-solving exercises – for example, that letting air out of the tires of a truck that doesn't quite fit under a bridge is easier than raising the bridge. In other words, difficult problems don't always call for complicated solutions.
Investors urged to kick the tar sands habit
Investors urged to kick the tar sands habit
New report claims carbon intensive projects to extract oil from Canadian tar sands present unacceptable business risks
James Murray, BusinessGreen, 29 Jul 2008
Investors are to be urged to shun controversial projects to extract oil from North American tar fields following the publication of a major new report that claims the carbon intensive processes involved represent an unacceptable environmental and business risk.
Law Suit a Tar Sands Stopper?
Quote from the article below:
"It could also, conceivably, shut down Canada's only tactical bombing range at Cold Lake."
Unshackling the Mackenzie-- Petroleum News
Unshackling the Mackenzie
McCrank offers blueprint to untangle NWT’s cumbersome regulatory regime
By Gary Park
For Petroleum News
Editor’s note: TransCanada’s proposed gas pipeline route from Alaska’s North Slope to Alberta gas hub does not go through the Northwest Territories.
Canada’s northern territories are a step closer to a simpler system to regulate development of their minerals, forestry and oil and natural gas.
NEB gives nod to Canadian expansion of Keystone pipeline
NEB gives nod to Canadian expansion of Keystone pipeline
By The Canadian Press - For Business Edge
Published: 07/25/2008
The National Energy Board has approved a plan to expand the Canadian portion of the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline (TSX:TRP) project.
The $348-million expansion will allow Keystone to increase its capacity by 156,000 barrels per day to 591,000 bpd.
The Canadian portion of the Keystone pipeline will extend from Hardisty to a point near Haskett, Man.
Red tape ties up Mackenzie plan
Red tape ties up Mackenzie plan
Herald News Services
Published: Friday, July 25, 2008
As the Alaska pipeline clears political hurdles and marches forward, Canada's own multibillion-dollar plan to tap Arctic natural gas reserves in the Mackenzie Delta remains in regulatory limbo.
The fact wasn't lost on Northwest Territories industry minister Bob McLeod.
Naomi Klein: Bush Sees Crises in Fuel, Food, Housing and Banking as Chance to Exploit Us More
Naomi Klein: Bush Sees Crises in Fuel, Food, Housing and Banking as Chance to Exploit Us More
By Amy Goodman
Jul 20, 2008, 06:04
People are desperate for solutions but instead they're handed policies that don't solve the crises, and are highly profitable for corporations.
Bay Area/ Richmond, California OKs Chevron refinery plan
Richmond council OKs Chevron refinery plan
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, July 18, 2008
RICHMOND -- A sharply divided Richmond City Council approved on Thursday Chevron's controversial plan for a major upgrade of its century-old refinery and accepted $61 million from the oil company for community programs.
The council voted 5-4 to approve a conditional use permit for Chevron to replace a hydrogen plant, install new hydrogen-purifying equipment, build a new cogeneration power plant and replace other antiquated machinery.
Brazen protesters tag Syncrude pond
Brazen protesters tag Syncrude pond
Alexandra Zabjek, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 2:31 am, July 25, 2008
EDMONTON - A new chapter in activism against Alberta's oilsands was
opened Thursday when a group of protesters entered Syncrude's Aurora
mine site north of Fort McMurray and unfurled banners on the edge of a
controversial tailings pond.
"To actually go onto the (oilsands) sites themselves, that's a new thing
and I think we can expect to see more of that in the future as greater
awareness is brought to what's going on up north," said Paul Joosse, a
Tar Sands Industry Poised to Pollute Canada's Largest Freshwater Aquifer
Tar Sands Industry Poised to Pollute Canada's Largest Freshwater Aquifer
CALGARY (July 24, 2008) – The Métis Nation in northeastern Alberta has
discovered that many of Alberta's in situ tar sands projects sit immediately
below a vast groundwater channel system that flows into the Athabasca River.
Given the accidental steam blowouts that have already occurred in the
region, the potential for pollution of Canada's largest freshwater aquifer
is very real.
"We are deeply concerned about these blowouts," says Rick Boucher,
