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
"Oil patch split over proposal for partial moratorium"
Oil patch split over proposal for partial moratorium
NORVAL SCOTT
February 25, 2008
CALGARY -- A business-led lobbying effort to create a partial moratorium on oil sands development in order to free up conservation land has divided Canada's major energy companies, while a government decision on the issue will likely be delayed until after next Monday's provincial election.
Major oil producers - led by Petro-Canada Corp., Suncor Inc., Husky Energy Ltd., Shell Canada and Imperial Oil - have for the first time called on Alberta to slow development in the Athabasca region.
Globe on Keystone and Clipper Approvals Process
Pipeline approvals ease strain on network
NORVAL SCOTT
Globe and Mail Update
February 24, 2008 at 10:39 PM EST
CALGARY — Pipeline companies are set to build the projects needed to transport higher levels of crude production from Alberta's oil sands, resolving the question of how energy firms will bring their future output to market.
Last week, the National Energy Board – Canada's energy regulator – approved two projects being proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., including its giant Alberta Clipper pipeline that would allow increased exports to Wisconsin.
Arctic ‘Doomsday Vault’ Filled With World’s Seeds Comes to Life
Arctic ‘Doomsday Vault’ Filled With World’s Seeds Comes to Life
by Pierre-Henry Deshayes in Longyearbyen, Norway
AN Arctic “doomsday vault” filled with samples of the world’s most important seeds will be inaugurated in Norway today.
0224 03The vault aims to provide humankind with a Noah’s Ark of food in the event of a global catastrophe.
Clipper pipeline project approved
Sun, February 24, 2008
Clipper pipeline project approved
But Canadian regulator attaches conditions
By LAUREN KRUGEL, CP
CALGARY -- The National Energy Board has approved the $2-billion Alberta Clipper oil pipeline proposed by Enbridge Inc. but attached certain conditions in response to concerns raised in public hearings last November.
The 1,600-km pipeline will stretch from Alberta to Wisconsin and will have an initial capacity of 450,000 barrels of oil a day.
Canada-U.S. pact allows cross-border military activity
Clip:
"Are we going to see [U.S.] troops on our soil for minor potential threats
to a pipeline or a road?" he asked.
Good question, but what's our collective answer?
--M
Vancouver Sun February 23, 2008
Canada-U.S. pact allows cross-border military activity
Deal allows either country to send troops across the other's border to deal
with an emergency
David Pugliese
Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the
militaries from either nation to send troops across each other's borders
Enbridge Gateway pipeline "back on track"
Fri, February 22, 2008
Gateway pipeline back on track
UPDATED: 2008-02-22 01:25:47 MST
Enbridge will transport product from Alberta oilsands to B.C. coast
By MARKUS ERMISCH, SUN MEDIA
Pipeline company Enbridge Inc. has picked up construction pace on the Gateway Pipeline after slowing down the project in late 2006.
Construction is expected to finish between 2012 and 2014, said company spokeswoman Jennifer Varey, noting that construction costs will most likely come in above the original $4 billion.
Cost pressures primarily stem from higher labour prices and materials costs.
Another sex trade murder in Edmonton
The housing crisis in Alberta, as it gets more and more desperate has as it's corollary more people-- in particular young, often racialized women-- working in the survival sex trade. This, like almost everything else in Alberta, comes from the extremity of the tar sands boom with no attention paid to human or environmental cost. The woman below is likely another victim of the tar sands.
--M
Sex trade slay
Fri, February 22, 2008
RCMP need the publics help with the latest homicide
By KEVIN CRUSH, SUN MEDIA
Grande Prairie suffering effects of uncontrolled growth
Grande Prairie suffering effects of uncontrolled growth
City's national ranking fell from fourth to 99th in one year
Dan Barnes, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
GRANDE PRAIRIE - On a brilliant, blue sunglasses-mandatory Monday, the good folks of Grande Prairie were enjoying the outdoor pleasures of a city that just two short years ago was ranked the fourth best place to live in the country.
Ahead of Calgary. And Vancouver. And yes, even Edmonton.
North Dakota: Keystone Pipeline Approved
New Pipeline Approved
Feb 21 2008 7:19PM
KXMBTV Bismarck
The Public Service Commission gives the go-ahead for a 218 mile oil pipeline through eastern North Dakota.
The Keystone Pipeline will run through eight counties. You can see it on this map.
The pipeline will carry about 600-thousand barrels of oil per day from Alberta to Illinois and Oklahoma.
Commissioner Kevin Cramer says it's in the public interest to build the pipeline.
Enbridge Gateway "Rekindled" for BC Tankers and Massive Pipelines
Enbridge rekindles oilsands pipeline plan
Jeffrey Jones, Reuters Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008
CALGARY -- Enbridge Inc. has rekindled plans for a $4-billion pipeline to Canada's West Coast in response to demand from producers and refiners wanting oilsands-derived crude shipped to Asia, Enbridge's chief executive said Thursday.
Enbridge, the country's second-largest pipeline operator, has convinced enough potential customers to fund the remaining costs to get the Gateway pipeline project to the regulatory approval stage, CEO Pat Daniel said.
