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
"California clean air standards a danger to Cdn oil industry"
California clean air standards a danger to Cdn oil industry
2007-06-08
http://money.canoe.ca/News/Other/2007/06/08/4243714-ap.html
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Clean-air agreements signed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and two Canadian provinces could dramatically slow oil production in the Alberta tar sands.
Ontario and British Columbia have agreed to adhere to California's low-carbon fuel standards, which means the provinces will have to curb oil production sources that create high amounts of global-warming emissions.
China National Petroleum Co. starts Exploring in Tar Sands
CNPC Signs Canadian Oil-Sands Agreement
2007-07-02
The Wall Street Journal
http://english.cri.cn/3130/2007/07/02/262@244638.htm
In a sign of the expanding international ambitions of China's oil companies, China National Petroleum Corp. has bought the rights to explore for oil in Canada.
The state-owned parent of Hong Kong- and New York-listed PetroChina Co. will develop an oil-sands field that is estimated to contain about two billion barrels of a thick and hard-to-process form of oil called bitumen.
Alberta Clipper Project: more pipes for more tar sand bitumen
July 6, 2007
Clipper pipeline hearing set Nov. 5
http://dcnonl.com/article/id23517
CALGARY
The National Energy Board has scheduled a hearing on an application from Enbridge Pipelines Inc. to construct and operate the Canadian portion of the Alberta Clipper Expansion Project.
The Canadian portion of Alberta Clipper would involve the construction and operation of approximately 1,074 km of new 914 mm outside diameter (36-inch) oil pipeline between Enbridge’s Hardisty Terminal and the Canada - United States border near Gretna, Manitoba.
Three-year Suncor contract gets nod from union workers
Three-year Suncor contract gets nod from union workers
UPDATED: 2007-07-06 01:53:16 MST
By CP
http://calsun.canoe.ca/Business/2007/07/06/4317550-sun.html
FORT McMURRAY -- About half of unionized workers at Suncor Energy Inc. near Fort McMurray have voted in favour of a new three-year contract.
Members of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) Local 707 approved an agreement including a wage increase of 7% in the first year and 6% in each of the following two years, as well as a $4,000 lump sum payment.
Fort McMoney, Fort McProblems
FORT MCMONEY, FORT MCPROBLEMS
http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=6751
ANDREW CISAKOWSKI / cisa@vueweekly.com
For the past decade, Fort McMurray has grown at a rate of 10 per cent per year, over twice the provincial average. During this time it has developed all the characteristics of a boomtown: skyrocketing prices, overstretched infrastructure and a growing homeless problem. Only able to raise money through increasing property taxes, the city is at a loss of how to deal with these problems. More and more, public pressure is mounting for oil companies to foot the bill.
TransCanada Enlarges proposed Capacity of Keystone Pipeline
TransCanada boosts size of planned Keystone line
Tue Jul 3, 2007 11:43 AM EDT138
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&stor...
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp. (TRP.TO: Quote) said on Tuesday it plans to boost the capacity of its proposed Keystone oil pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Midwest to 590,000 barrels a day, from 435,000 barrels, after shippers committed to sending more crude on the line.
'NOT VIABLE': CEO weighs inflation impact on projects in Canada, Alaska.
Exxon frets over Arctic gas pipeline cost
http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/pipeline/story/8934914p-8834883c...
'NOT VIABLE': CEO weighs inflation impact on projects in Canada, Alaska.
By WESLEY LOY
Anchorage Daily News
Published: May 31, 2007
Last Modified: May 31, 2007 at 06:16 AM
Exxon Mobil Corp.'s chief executive told stockholders Wednesday that rising costs to build pipelines to exploit Arctic natural gas from Alaska and Canada possibly could red-light the projects as uneconomic.
Tar Sands Tanker Traffic 'under radar' along BC Coastline
Oil tanker traffic ‘under radar’ along B.C. coastline
http://www.ladysmithchronicle.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=18&cat=23&...
By Brennan Clarke
Black Press
Jul 03 2007
VICTORIA – Increasing oil tanker activity in B.C.’s northern waters has West Coast NDPers calling on Ottawa and Victoria to “formalize” a long-standing moratorium on tanker traffic and offshore exploration.
Maya Rolbin-Ghanie and Fort McMurray to Fort Chipewyan
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/maya_rolbin_ghanie/1259
posted by Maya Rolbin-Ghanie and Fort McMurray to Fort Chipewyan
June 29, 2007
What in Tarnation?
