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
Chief Terry Nelson: Letter to WFPress on Keystone Pipeline
Dear Editors of Winnipeg Free Press
First of all, I thank you for sending a reporter to our Treaty One Press
Conference. I would also like to clarify some of the comments makes
regarding the issue in the article and then for the benefit of the readers
to restate some of the conference information left out of the article as
written by Ms. Welch.
"The First Nations hope to parlay those consultations into a funding deal
that would give the bands a source of revenue, similar to property taxes
collected on the pipeline by rural municipalities."
Chávez's Oil Threats Slick but Not Solid
Chávez's Oil Threats Slick but Not Solid
Halting Exports Would Hurt Venezuela More Than U.S.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, center, has threatened to halt oil sales to the United States.
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 13, 2008; Page D01
Northern pipelines (Alaska Highway, MGP) at mercy of global energy prices, experts say
Northern pipelines at mercy of global energy prices, experts say
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 | 3:05 PM CT
CBC News
Natural gas pipelines being proposed in the North may never be built at this point if global energy consumers can instead import liquefied natural gas from other sources around the world at cheaper prices, experts say.
Projects like the Mackenzie pipeline in the Northwest Territories and the North Slope pipeline down the Alaska Highway have been in the planning stages for decades, with Mackenzie pipeline proponents waiting for regulatory approvals.
"We are willing to pay for our emissions with offsets."
How Crude
Midwest refineries source more crude from tar sands; emissions will rise
Posted at 12:39 PM on 12 Feb 2008
Conoco not Planning Immediate Expansion in the Tar Pits
Conoco content with current oil sands position
Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:54am EST
HOUSTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The head of ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in Canada said on Wednesday the company is content with its oil sands position and has no current plans for expansion.
"We have a substantial resource position, and at this time, we're focused on developing that resource position," Kevin Meyers, president of ConocoPhillips Canada, told reporters after a CERA conference breakfast meeting.
CNRL Raises Costs Estimates-- Again
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, the company that is already using Temporary Foreign Worker labour from behind fences to construct their massive "Horizon" project, is one of the biggest anti-union, pro mining, and generally reactionary, "cost-cutting" corporations already deep at work in the tar pits. These projections are released in order to soften up an audience to their desire to ramp up TFW's, for one-- also this is a set up for further de-regulation and more.
Chavez Threatens to Halt Oil Sales to US
Associated Press February 10, 2008
Chavez Threatens to Halt Oil Sales to US
Venezuelan President Threatens to Cut Off Oil Sales to US, Calls Exxon Mobil
'Outlaws'
By Sandra Sierra, Associated Press Writer
Caracas, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut
off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if Exxon Mobil Corp.
wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de
Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the
Finanical Post: Dirty oil tricks
Dirty oil tricks
Peter Foster, Financial Post Published: Saturday, February 09, 2008
So much for any suggestion that press baron Rupert Murdoch is a right-wing dinosaur, or that his media empire is out of step with the eco-zeitgeist. First he announces that News Corp. will become "carbon neutral" by 2010. Now his flagship British organ, The Times of London, has started crusading against Alberta 's oilsands.
"Chiefs want pipeline royalties"-- Keystone
Chiefs want pipeline royalties
By Paul Turenne
A group of southern Manitoba chiefs is asking the federal court to overturn Ottawa’s decision to allow a massive pipeline project to be built in the province because the chiefs say the government did not fulfill its duty to consult them about it.
TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline project, approved by the National Energy Board and the federal cabinet last fall, would pump more than half a million barrels of oil per day from Alberta to Illinois and Oklahoma.
Manitoba Nations Fighting Keystone Pipeline in Court
Native bands ask court to block pipeline Updated at 4:41 PM
By Mary Agnes Welch
Some Manitoba bands have asked the court to quash a plan to build an oil pipeline through southern Manitoba, saying the federal government failed to consult with First Nations or offer compensation.
