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
"Canada: Losing Water Through NAFTA"
Canada: Losing Water Through NAFTA
by Stephen Leahy
Global Research, September 23, 2007
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada lost control over its energy resources. Now, with “NAFTA-plus”, it could also lose control over its freshwater resources, say experts.
Canada’s water is on the trade negotiating table despite widespread public opposition and assurances by Canadian political leaders, said Adèle Hurley, director of the University of Toronto’s Programme on Water Issues at the Munk Centre for International Studies.
TransCanada Defends Keystone Pipeline, Disputes Union Claims
It appears here the one being less than honest below is this Robert Jones-- shipping bitumen that has been "blended" with a Kerosene like by product called diluent that is needed to make the bitumen flow in a pipe is not refining. The refining process, and this is exactly the purpose of the Keystone-- will take place "downstream"(as the industry likes to call it) in Illinois. In other words, this press release on his part is Jones, working for TransCanada, trying to count on ignorance among people who would be aghast if they understood the facts. Disinformation is not a military policy only.
Keystone Pipeline gets Canadian approval
We have to wait and see what the CEP and the AFL do to tackle this horrible (yet predictable) news... their campaigns against the pipeline has been in the forefront, and had it prevented the pipeline was also preventing the delivery of up to another half million barrels a day-- approximately the production of either the Suncor or Syncrude plants. Fight on all fronts!
--M
Keystone Pipeline gets Canadian approval
Sep 24, 2007 - 11:24:21 CDT
By the Associated Press
Alberta going Socialist (again)!!!
U.S. market pundit flees 'socialist' North
JOHN PARTRIDGE
Globe and Mail Update
September 19, 2007 at 3:28 PM EDT
The sky must be falling: Denis Gartman is beating a white-knuckle retreat from the Great White North.
The U.S. market commentator is abandoning his lengthy love affair with Canada and he's blaming Alberta's oil and gas Royalty Review Panel and the province's suddenly – wait for it –“socialist” government for his hasty exit.
Closing Edmonton's Tent City
Closing Edmonton's Tent City
EDMONTON — It’s a difficult feat to be homeless but still have a space that feels like a home, but that’s exactly what life in Edmonton’s tent city has felt like for Claude Parisee over the past month.
Surrounded by the books he reads to pass the time, and secure in the knowledge that guards watched his belongings and kept unwanted troublemakers from causing a stir, the former resident of Hull, Que., said life has largely been good in the makeshift community, which was set up in May and at times swelled to 80 tents and up to 200 people.
Wildcat Strikes Continue to Sweep Across Alberta
Booming Alberta crippled by wildcat strikes by frustrated tradesmen
September 16, 2007
EDMONTON (CP) — Alberta's booming construction landscape is being disrupted with pickets and protests as a complicated labour law that hobbles building trade unions from striking is being attacked by hundreds of workers.
The giant Petro-Canada upgrader project in Edmonton was crippled for several days last week after unionized workers refused to cross picket lines set up by carpenters and other tradesman seeking higher wages but unable to stage a legal strike.
Energy Alberta boss: "nuclear energy will protect province from carbon tax"
Energy Alberta boss says nuclear energy will protect province from carbon tax
September 18, 2007
CALGARY (CP) — A businessman who wants to build Western Canada's first nuclear power plant says nuclear energy would help protect Alberta from a carbon tax.
Wayne Henuset, president of Energy Alberta, told a Calgary business audience that with Ontario and Quebec relying heavily on nuclear and hydro electricity, there will be a move to apply the tax and come after Alberta's oil and gas resources.
Peak Oil and Gender
Peak Oil and Gender
Jon Lebkowsky
September 17, 2007 8:27 AM
Kurt Cobb at Energy Bulletin wonders whether peak oil is a gender issue or, as he says, a "guy thing." (Thanks to Paul Robbins for the pointer.)
A peek at the peak oil problem
A peek at the peak oil problem
By The Mogambo Guru // Asia Times Online
There are a few people who ask me to rebut the argument that oil will go down in price, thanks to a slowing world economy and the increased use of alternative energy resources and the "fact" that the world has zillions of barrels of oil still waiting to be pumped. By now, my response is automatic; "Oil go down in demand or price? What a load of hooey! You're a stupid freaking moron!" To which they always bizarrely reply, "Oh, yeah? Well, screw you!"
"Tar sands are the enemy of the planet"
Tar sands are the enemy of the planet
Posted by Jon Rynn at 12:35 PM on 14 Sep 2007
Our civilization's addiction to oil is being displayed in all its nefarious glory in the tar sands of Canada. According to Chris Nelder:
