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
The Sierra Club [USA] Greenwashes Al Gore
August 30, 2007
The Desecration of John Muir
The Sierra Club Greenwashes Al Gore
http://counterpunch.org/donnelly08302007.html
By MICHAEL DONNELLY
The Sierra Club accelerated its plunge to environmental irrelevancy, firmly cementing its role as Democratic Party lapdog by awarding its highest award, the John Muir Award, to Carbon Off-set magnate, Al Gore, Jr.
The club announced this year's award with a fawning press release stating;
Tar Sands the Only Reason Reserves Not Dropping
Global oil reserves up only 1% last year
Canada's Oilsands Sole Booster, Study Says
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
Published: Thursday, August 30, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=7bd3bdc5-...
CALGARY -- Record global oil and gas profits of US$243-billion and record spending of US$401-billion have resulted in a marginal 1% increase in world oil reserves last year -- all of it coming from a 1.9-billion-barrel addition from Canada's oilsands, according to a new study.
Keystone Pipeline hearings set in Missouri
Keystone Pipeline hearings set
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stcharles/story/CB3250...
08/30/2007
Public hearings on a draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Keystone Pipeline are planned in St. Charles and Collinsville next week.
Call for Moratorium on Mackenzie Gas Project
Green Groups Seek Freeze on Canada Arctic Pipelines
http://www.cnbc.com/id/20516662
30 Aug 2007 | 03:33 PM ET
Regulators should slap a moratorium on pipelines in Canada's North because governments and oil companies have not planned for long-term environmental impacts, a green-group representative said Thursday.
Several environmental and social activists began submissions Thursday to the regulatory panel probing the C$16.2 billion ($15.3 billion) Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline on the proposed development's cumulative effects.
Think I'll Go Out to Alberta
THINK I'LL GO OUT TO ALBERTA.
SCOTT HARRIS / scott@vueweekly.com
Greenpeace and its ilk set up shop to battle oilsands
Opposition to the Alberta oil sands got a boost this August when international environmental advocacy organization Greenpeace opened the doors of its Edmonton office, becoming the first of a number of well-known environmental organizations to officially set up shop in Alberta to take on increased development in the north of the province.
BC NDP Opposing Alberta Nuclear Plans
Carole James is, of course, correct to oppose a dramatic *increase* in global warming emissions brought about by the tar sands-fueling proposed nuclear plant near Peace River Alberta. However, another point that needs to be made for British Columbians is the fact that Tilma-- The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement-- makes between provinces the same kind of impact as Chapter 11 of NAFTA; if the plants are approved in Alberta, by 2009 in both provinces such will not be allowed to be "interfered or impeded" with. Precedents become above legislation.
--M
Tar Sands, Peak Oil and lack of New Discoveries
Copyright 2007 The Calgary Herald.
All Rights Reserved
The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=a...
August 30, 2007 Thursday
Final Edition
SECTION: CALGARY BUSINESS; Deborah Yedlin; Pg. E1
LENGTH: 799 words
HEADLINE: Canada's oilsands bear the burden
BYLINE: Deborah Yedlin, Calgary Herald
BODY:
Anyone sounding the warning bells about oil prices crashing to earth
in the wake of the ongoing liquidity crunch would be well advised to
Application to build a Nuclear Reactor in Northern Alberta/Peace River
Application to build a Nuclear Reactor in Northern Alberta/Peace River
Shaun Polczer, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, August 28, 2007
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=d5f7f6ae-00ce-4...
The prospect of a nuclear-fuelled Alberta moved closer to reality after a Calgary-based company filed for a licence to build the province's first reactor.
Yet more ways to get [mock] oil from Alberta
Squeezing oil from stones
There are vast reserves of oil trapped within Alberta's rockbed - the trick is getting it out
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070822.ROILSANDS22/TP...
NORVAL SCOTT
August 22, 2007
CALGARY -- OSUM Oil Sands Corp. believes it might have the answer to one of the oil patch's most perplexing problems - extracting the billions of barrels of crude trapped in Alberta's limestone deposits.
Syncrude ordered to cut emissions from smelly pond
Syncrude ordered to cut emissions from smelly pond
Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:13 PM EDT143
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&stor...
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Syncrude Canada Ltd has been ordered to clean up a settling pond at its northern Alberta oil sands project after it began emitting ammonia and small amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas, Alberta environmental regulators said on Tuesday.
