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
Our Drinkable Water Supply is Vanishing
Thanks to global warming, pollution, population growth, and
privatization, we are teetering on the edge of a global crisis.
by Tara Lohan
AlterNet (October 11 2007)
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Hungarian biochemist and Nobel Prize winner
for medicine once said, "Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and
medium. There is no life without water."
We depend on water for survival. It circulates through our bodies and
the land, replenishing nutrients and carrying away waste. It is passed
down like stories over generations - from ice-capped mountains to rivers
to oceans.
G & M:Effect of royalty rates not so painful
Effect of royalty rates not so painful
In recent quarterly reports, energy firms say higher rates won't pinch profits so hard
NORVAL SCOTT
With files from Reuters
November 10, 2007
CALGARY -- A swath of energy companies said this week that the impact of Alberta's increased royalty charges won't be as significant as some in the oil patch had initially feared.
Total SA to Increase Strip Mining over In Situ
Total to alter Joslyn plans
NORVAL SCOTT
November 10, 2007
CALGARY -- French energy giant Total SA is re-evaluating strategy at its Joslyn oil sands development, with a view to doing more mining of the resource than previously expected, according to the junior partner in the project.
(Industry PR) Suncor Production Numbers-- Year to Date
Suncor Production Numbers-- Year to Date
CALGARY, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Suncor Energy Inc. reported today that production at its oil sands facility during October averaged approximately 260,000 barrels per day (bpd). Year-to-date oil sands production at the end of October averaged approximately 233,000 bpd. Suncor is targeting average oil sands production of 240,000 to 245,000 bpd in 2007.
Study Proves It: Tar Sands Operations Poisoning Athabasca Basin, Fort Chipewyan
By RENATO GANDIA, SUN MEDIA
High levels of cancer-causing toxins are being found in areas downstream of Fort McMurray's oilsands, says a study commissioned by residents of Alberta's oldest community.
Waters in Fort Chipewyan contain high levels of arsenic, the fish are contaminated with high levels of mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - another pollutant - are higher than they should be, said Kevin Timoney.
Timoney is the ecologist who studied the waters and sediments in the Peace-Athabasca Delta near Fort Chipewyan, 610 air km northeast of Edmonton.
Rising Demand for Oil Provokes New Energy Crisis
New York Times
November 9, 2007
Rising Demand for Oil Provokes New Energy Crisis
By JAD MOUAWAD
With oil prices approaching the symbolic threshold of $100 a barrel, the world is headed toward its third energy shock in a generation. But today’s surge is fundamentally different from the previous oil crises, with broad and longer-lasting global implications.
Just as in the energy crises of the 1970s and ’80s, today’s high prices are causing anxiety and pain for consumers, and igniting wider fears about the impact on the economy.
"A look at Alberta's new housing plan"
A look at Alberta's new housing plan
Martin Lussier
Gauntlet News
November 08, 2007
Rental vacancies have been lower than 0.5 per cent in Calgary.
Premier Ed Stelmach announced the government would be undertaking a 10-year plan to address homelessness in communities across Alberta last week. This announcement couldn't come at a better time for some, as the 2006 Homeless Count of Calgary identified over 3,400 people without homes. Stelmach pledged to build 11,000 affordable homes over the next ten years, 4,000 of which are to be built in Calgary.
Edmonton: Report tackles sex trade
Wed, November 7, 2007
Report tackles sex trade
Edmonton Sun
By FRANK LANDRY, CITY HALL BUREAU
Prostitution is a growing problem in Edmonton, fuelled by the city's red-hot economy.
That's among the findings of a new report commissioned to address the problem.
The document calls for "safe housing" for active prostitutes and for those getting out of the sex trade. It also calls for tougher penalties for johns.
Alberta's tar sands to supply South Dakota's oil projects
Alberta's tar sands to supply South Dakota's oil projects
Pipeline, refinery would tap into Canadian crude
Oct 23, 2007 04:30 AM
Dirk Lammers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.–As oil hovers around $90 (U.S.) a barrel, the race is on to tap more heavily into the world's second-largest oil reserve, and South Dakota – a major ethanol producer that typically sits on the alternative side of the fuel industry – is finding itself at the crossroads of two major oil projects.
Poor public image has cost oilpatch billions
Poor public image has cost oilpatch billions
'We have to regain out voice:' Producers group
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
Published: Wednesday, November 07, 2007
The general view of the oil sector -- some of it showing up in its own opinion polls -- is that it's greedy, crooked, environmentally and socially irresponsible, unneeded and, technologically, a dinosaur.
Yet the industry can sincerely assert that it is generous, environmentally and socially responsible, honest, essential and smart.
