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
It's the Oil, Stupid! (No tar sands in Iraq, eh!)
It's the Oil, stupid!
Noam Chomsky
Khaleej Times, July 8, 2008
The deal just taking shape between Iraq's Oil Ministry and four Western oil companies raises critical questions about the nature of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq — questions that should certainly be addressed by presidential candidates and seriously discussed in the United States, and of course in occupied Iraq, where it appears that the population has little if any role in determining the future of their country.
Nature Given Constitutional Rights in Ecuador
Ecuador Constitutional Assembly Votes to Approve Rights of Nature In New
Constitution
Legal Defense Fund: Ecuador First Nation in the World to Shift to
Rights-Based Environmental Protection Using Legal Defense Fund Support
Ecuadorians Follow Lead of U.S. Communities Partnering With Legal Defense
Fund
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On July 7, 2008, the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly - composed of one
hundred and thirty (130) delegates elected countrywide to rewrite the
country's Constitution - voted to approve articles for the new constitution
California gets the goods on tar sands
California gets the goods on oil sands
Alberta seeks ways to satisfy new fuel rules
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008
CALGARY - A delegation from the federal and Alberta governments travelled to California this week to ensure its influential environmental regulator has all the facts about the oil sands before it moves forward with a low-carbon fuel standard that could discourage Canadian oil imports.
Shell Backs out of Sarnia Refinery for Tar Sands
Shell backs out of oil sands project
July 10, 2008 // Post-Tribune staff writers
By Gitte Laasby and Christin Nance Lazerus
An oil giant that planned to refine the same Canadian tar sands as BP
Whiting has canceled plans for an expansion in Ontario.
Shell Canada is scrapping a proposed refinery project in Sarnia, which would
have turned tar-like crude from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, into
refinery-ready light oil, the company announced Tuesday.
But BP Whiting's modernization will continue to move forward, BP spokeswoman
Residents turn out to learn about refinery project (Sarnia Ontario)
Shell Canada finally crosses border
July 2, 2008
Residents turn out to learn about refinery project
By James Kelley // Voice Reporter
For many, the visit from Shell Canada was way overdue.
State Representative Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair, and Shell Canada officials
met with concerned citizens last Monday at the East China Township Offices
to provide information about a proposed oil refinery project along the St.
Clair River.
Shell Canada has been planning a project since 2006 to build a Tar Sands
Crude Oil Refinery along the St. Clair River. This is the first time Shell
Big Oil poised to make triumphant return to Iraq
"Anyone who thinks the invasion of Iraq accomplished nothing probably isn't sitting inside the boardrooms of some of the most powerful companies on Earth."
Toronto Star July 5, 2008 // Linda McQuaig
Big Oil poised to make triumphant return to Iraq
Small service contracts announced last week are a step toward major development deals
Lake Athabasca north shore busy with mining
Lake Athabasca north shore busy with mining
By Don Jaque 25.JUN.08
Slave River Journal
Red Rock Energy is one of at least seven exploration companies actively drilling for uranium on the north shore of Lake Athabasca in the Uranium City vicinity.
Fort St. John "won't be another Ft McMurray"
Fri, July 4, 2008
Fort St. John ready to handle oil and gas boom
By LAUREN KRUGEL, THE CANADIAN PRESS
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C., -- Whose motto is "The Energetic City" -- will be able to avoid many of challenges that have become synonymous with the oilsands boomtown of Fort McMurray, Alta., said the city's mayor.
Two enormous natural gas finds in northeastern B.C. -- the Montney Trend and the Horn River Basin -- have piqued the interest of a number of big U.S. and Canadian oil and gas names and sent a massive amount of investment pouring into the region.
Peak Oil: IEA Inches Toward the Pessimists’ Camp
July 1, 2008, 2:56 pm
Peak Oil: IEA Inches Toward the Pessimists’ Camp
Posted by Keith Johnson
What’s up with oil prices? Well, it’s not speculators, and there’s no relief in sight, meaning at least five more years of high prices with no easy fixes. The ugly truth? Peak oil isn’t fringe anymore—it’s going mainstream.
That’s the reading from the latest oil market report from the International Energy Agency, the rich-country energy watchdog. The IEA’s latest x-ray of the oil market includes plenty of disturbing nuggets.
