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
Energy: Demand for renewables will be slow, says Saudi oil baron
Fossil fuels will dominate
Energy: Demand for renewables will be slow, says Saudi oil baron
Lynn Moore
The Province
September 14, 2010
Fossil fuels will continue to rule the global energy mix for the next 30
to 40 years, the president and CEO of Saudi Aramco told the World Energy
Congress during Monday's keynote address.
The growth of renewable energy sources and more energy efficiency
technologies will be "slow and uneven" due to a range of factors including
consumer acceptance issues, Khalid Al-Falih said.
OPTI 'going to zero,' RBC says
OPTI is the Israeli Ormat offshoot, designed to bring "cogeneration" (burning dirty waste gunk for 'in-house' energy) to Canada, ala to make it commercially viable to do the same to a similar oilshale deposit in the Negev Desert.
--M
OPTI 'going to zero,' RBC says
BOYD ERMAN
Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Wednesday, February 2, 2011
OPTI Canada's hiring of Lazard Frères & Co. is a sign that the oil sands developer is "preparing for either a debt restructuring or a bankruptcy proceeding" according to RBC Dominion Securities.
Suncor recording great profits
Higher Oil Sands, Downstream Earnings Benefit Suncor
by Allen Good | 02 Feb 11
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National Post: Egypt Crisis opens door for Tar Sands?
Egypt crisis opens door for oil sands
John Ivison, National Post · Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011
The escalating tension in Egypt has provided Stephen Harper with an unexpected opportunity to push for a guarantee that there will be no border tax on Canada's oil sands when he visits U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Friday.
The two men are expected to sign a major security and trade deal, which will likely be long on promises and short on specifics.
Energy regulator okays Alberta’s ninth open-pit oil sands mine (Joslyn Mine)
Energy regulator okays Alberta’s ninth open-pit oil sands mine
JOSH WINGROVE
Edmonton— Globe and Mail Update
Published Thursday, Feb. 03, 2011
Despite mounting criticism from academics and the federal government over Alberta’s patchwork environmental monitoring regime, a provincial energy regulator approved the province’s ninth open-pit oil sands mine last week.
The approval is based on data from the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, an industry-led body that has been the subject of extensive, pointed criticism from three separate reports over the past two months.
"Ditch oilsands monitoring group"
Ditch oilsands monitoring group
Edmonton Journal February 3, 2011
Imagine your boss gave you a job evaluation where you only passed one category out of nine. You would probably be packing up your desk or laying down your tools.
But not if your job was to monitor the impact of the oilsands on rivers and lakes. In that case, you'd be allowed to "adjust" your performance in the future.
Dramatic Shift in the Peak Oil Debate
Dramatic Shift in the Peak Oil Debate
Written by Kurt Cobb
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
If you write about, speak about, or talk with your family, friends and co-workers about peak oil, you've almost certainly been asked: "Well, who else is saying what you're saying?"
German Government Rejects German Military Report ‘Peak Oil’ Occurred in 2010
German Government Rejects Report ‘Peak Oil’ Occurred in 2010
By Rainer Buergin - Jan 24, 2011
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government rejected a report by Germany’s armed forces that global crude-oil production reached its maximum last year, parliament’s HIB newsletter said.
Crude output “can be increased through 2035 under today’s conditions, assuming an optimal development and exploitation of reserves,” HIB said today, citing the government’s response to a query by the opposition Green party. The government’s outlook is based on International Energy Agency estimates, it said.
Extreme Offshore: The Hunt for Hard to Find Crude
Extreme Offshore: The Hunt for Hard to Find Crude
Written by Al Fin
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Brazil's quest for extreme oil may cost as much as US$ 1 trillion. That is a lot of money to invest in a such a risky proposition -- to retrieve oil that is miles deep underwater. But oil prospectors and producers around the world are on the prowl for extreme crude -- found in places that previous generations would not have dreamed of going.
