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
Keystone pipeline to U.S. refineries nears approval
Oil sands pipeline to U.S. refineries nears approval
JAMES MCPHERSON
Associated Press
March 4, 2008
BISMARCK, N.D. -- The U.S. State Department intends to issue a permit this month for a $5.2-billion (U.S.) pipeline that would transport crude oil from central Alberta through seven states to U.S. refineries.
The State Department, in a decision published yesterday in the Federal Register, said that if no other federal agency objects, a permit will be issued within 15 days for the Keystone pipeline, a project of TransCanada Corp., Canada's largest natural gas shipper, based in Calgary.
Sherritt's proposed coal gasification project, southeast of Edmonton
Sherritt International [in partnership with the Ontario Teachers Pension
Plan and Epcor] is proposing to develop a large $1.5B coal gasification
project 3/4 of an hour south east of Edmonton. The primary purpose of this
project will be to produce syngas and/or hydrogen which then can be sold to
bitumen upgraders, refineries and the heavy oil industry. Sherritt hopes to
cash in on further tar sands expansion.
The area of the project is approximately 312 sq kms [most of which is
productive agricultural land] and will be bordered by the town of Tofield,
Fort Chipewyan Takes Action in Edmonton
Note: Fort Chip is not a reserve, but a hamlet.
--M
Reserve holds cancer rally
By SHANNON MONTGOMERY The Canadian Press
Sun. Mar 2 - 4:46 AM
EDMONTON — Janelle Vermillion owns a house in the tiny northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan. Her family, including her brother, still lives there. She considers it home.
But the 27-year-old woman says she will never again feel safe living there.
"I just want to move back home," she said, fighting back tears as she gestured to the pink-clad six-month-old baby in the stroller in front of her.
The Ultra-Right National Post Really Gets the Futility of the "Partial Moratorium" Proposal
"The reality is that the best oilsands rights have already been secured, promises to investors have been made, plans have been drafted, money is being spent and the areas proposed for the time out have marginal potential."
Therefore, the need to shut down the tar sands and *cancel* the existing leases....no more industry-friendly greenwash courtesy of Pew/Sunoco and other multi-billion dollar US foundations.
- Tarpit Pete
Oilsands lease issue tempest in a teapot
It's hardly a call to slow development in the Athabasca region
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
A low-hanging fruit greenwash strategy for a kinder, gentler tarpits as revealed by the Report on Business
Nothing new here really, as the multi-billion dollar US foundations along with the corporate environmentalists on their payrolls have been playing the low-hanging fruit greenwash strategy for decades, most recently in the Great Bear Rainforest deal and in the Mackenzie Valley. But in the mainstream media it takes the hard-nosed "Report on Business" to understand what's really going on, as the soft liberal left buys right into the greenwash game.
- Tarpit Pete
Why Big Oil discovered its love of trees
DEREK DeCLOET
Industry Smokescreen to Rein in the Tarpits
Finally Canada's establishment newspaper gets it right! The proposed partial moratorium is indeed a PR greenwash smokescreen:
Proportionality
Proportionality
by Richard Heinberg
Energy Bulletin (February 07 2008)
There is a strange clause in the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) that applies to only one country - Canada. The clause states
that Canada must continue to supply the same proportion of its oil and
gas resources to the US in future years as it does now. That's rather a
good deal for the US: it formalizes Canada's status as a resource
satellite of its imperial hub to the south.
From a Canadian perspective there are some problems with the
The Great Coal Rush and Why It Will Fail
The Great Coal Rush and Why It Will Fail
by Richard Heinberg
MuseLetter #190 (February 2008)
This MuseLetter, and several more during the next few months, will be
chapters for a forthcoming book on coal, to be published by Post Carbon
Press. This month's issue is the book's Introduction.
The world appears poised for a headlong sprint toward greater dependence
on coal. This book's purpose is to examine one crucial question that
will shape this next great coal rush: How much is left?
The answer from conventional wisdom is, Lots. Coal appears to be the
Offshore oil a no-go for B.C. despite the value
Offshore oil a no-go for B.C. despite the value
Barbara Yaffe
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Early this month Ottawa invited bids from oil companies for further exploration of the environmentally sensitive Beaufort Sea in the Arctic.
And, of course, everyone knows development of Alberta's oilsands is going gangbusters. This, despite the fact environmental groups are sounding serious alarm bells about the devastation the project north of Edmonton is generating in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, use of valuable natural gas and water pollution.
TransCanada plans direct oil line to Gulf Coast
TransCanada plans direct oil line to Gulf Coast
By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 25 -- TransCanada Corp. said it is considering an oil pipeline directly to the US Gulf Coast from Alberta's oil sands, press reports said Feb. 21.
An alternative would be to connect Alberta oil sands with Gulf Coast refineries by converting underused natural gas pipelines for part of the route, Chief Executive Officer Hal Kvisle was reported as saying.
