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
Military Members Gung Ho for Keystone XL
Military members push for pipeline
Daily Progress, Jacksonville, TX
March 5, 2011
Meagan O'Toole-Pitts Jacksonville Daily Progress The Jacksonville Daily Progress Sat Mar 05, 2011, 02:11 PM CST
JACKSONVILLE — The American GI Forum of Texas and 66 military veterans urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to grant TransCanada a Presidential Permit to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion this week, aiming to reduce the nation’s dependency on oil in the Middle East.
CNRL Horizon losing big to fire
Horizon slow to resume production; damages may hit $400 million
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
March 4, 2011
CALGARY - Canadian Natural Resources on Thursday said it will take longer than expected to get its fire-damaged Horizon oilsands project back to full production.
Green groups call for more review of [Keystone XL] pipeline
Green groups call for more review of pipeline
By JAMES MacPHERSON
More from BusinessWeek
March 3, 2011
BISMARCK, N.D.
The U.S. government must evaluate the additional impacts of allowing domestic crude on a proposed pipeline designed to carry Canadian tar sands oil to refineries along the Gulf Coast, a coalition of environmental groups has said.
B.C. may face unprecedented native unrest if rights ignored
B.C. may face unprecedented native unrest if rights ignored
TEX ENEMARK,
VANCOUVER SUN
MARCH 3, 2011
In an article in The Sun Feb. 14, ("The Skeetchestn say enough already"),
Rich Deneault, the Skeetchestn Band chief served notice that the way
business and governments ride roughshod over native rights in British
Columbia has to come to an end, or face the consequences, which may not be
pretty.
He says, very bluntly, "In the days ahead, those companies and agencies
that have not acted honourably will be receiving letters from us, advising
Why the BBC's 'impartial' stance on climate science is irresponsible
Why the BBC's 'impartial' stance on climate science is irresponsible
Sceptics too often go unchallenged when they make inaccurate and misleading statements on BBC programmes
Bob Ward
Thursday 3 March 2011
guardian.co.uk
A bizarre performance by former TV presenter Johnny Ball on Wednesday's edition of The Daily Politics show has once again highlighted the BBC's unsuccessful struggle to balance accuracy and impartiality when it comes to climate change.
Government of Trinidad and Tobago are now hawking tar sands...
The government of T&T is now openly pushing the expansion of Tar Sands bitumen extraction to include their small island. The link below is to a pamphlet put out only a couple of weeks back. Anyone who knows people in T&T should immediately raise the alarm as to what is actually taking place, and not allow this development-- the most destructive in the world-- from entering through the backdoor on this spectacular island.
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What 'Peak Oil' Really Means for the Energy Sector
What 'Peak Oil' Really Means for the Energy Sector
by: Kenneth D. Worth February 23, 2011
Peak oil is here. Even the International Energy Agency (IEA) has admitted that production of conventional petroleum has peaked, although they forecast continued conventional production at 2011's reduced levels (down 2 million barrels per day from 2006) many years into the future.
Suncor, Syncrude face new regulations
Suncor, Syncrude face new regulations
CARRIE TAIT
CALGARY— Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, Mar. 01, 2011
The Alberta government is on the verge of rewriting rules governing oil sands reclamation, changes that target the two largest players in northern Alberta as well as any new mines.
Tar Sands "fetch premium price"
Oil sands crude fetches premium price
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Mar. 02, 2011
Synthetic crude – produced by oil sands companies such as Suncor Energy Inc., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Nexen Inc. and Syncrude Canada Ltd. – is fetching a premium of more than $15 over West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude that closed above $100 yesterday for the first time since October, 2008. Historically, the price for synthetic crude has stayed roughly level with WTI.
Keystone’s tar sands pipeline concerns environmentalists
Keystone’s tar sands pipeline concerns environmentalists
2011-03-02 /
The Cherokeean Herald
TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline System is being heralded as one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken by the United States and Canada – four times the length of the Alaska pipeline.
The 2,151-mile pipeline already connects Hardisty, Can. with Cushing, Ok. Lying in the path of the Keystone Gulf Coast Extension (Keystone XL) from Cushing, Ok. to Port Arthur is Cherokee County.
