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
At least 125 ducks die in latest Syncrude incident
[Keep following this story; apparently it may also be Suncor and hundreds more than this article suggests...]
At least 125 ducks die in latest Syncrude incident
By Scott Haggett And Jeffrey Jones –
Tue Oct 26, 2010
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – About 125 ducks had to be euthanized after landing on a toxic waste pond owned by Syncrude Canada Ltd, just three days after the oil sands producer was penalized C$3 million for a similar incident two years ago that killed 1,600 waterfowl.
Idaho road becomes tar sands battleground
Idaho road becomes oilsands battleground
By Shaun Polczer,
Calgary Herald
October 23, 2010
A twisting highway in the scenic Pacific Northwest has become the latest battleground for anti-oilsands activists hoping to block development of the world's second-largest oil reserves.
More than 200 process modules for Imperial Oil's $8-billion Kearl oilsands mine began arriving in Vancouver, Wash., on Oct. 3 and are being barged up the Columbia and Snake rivers to Lewiston, Idaho, without permits from state authorities to ship them 1,300 kilometres overland to the Alberta border.
J.P. Morgan aims at Canadian tar sands
J.P. Morgan aims at Canadian oil sands
Broker initiates coverage of names from the Great White North
Oct. 25, 2010,
By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — J.P. Morgan on Monday launched coverage of six Canadian oil stocks as it took aim at the vast oil sands of Alberta as oil prices stabilize at or above $80-a-barrel.
J.P. Morgan analyst Katherine Lucas Minyard said the move reflects the conclusion that the oil sands will provide in increasingly important source of oil.
Some investment
Some investment
Published Oct 25, 2010
I’m beginning to wonder if Gov. Gary Herbert has his head buried in Utah’s tar sands. I just endured a TV ad that ended with him looking smugly out a window as the words “Education: Utah’s single biggest investment” popped up on the screen.
Is Herbert making a mockery of us? Utah ranks last in the nation in per-pupil spending, spending on instruction per student, teacher salaries per student and school administration.
That’s an impressive list for our “biggest investment.”
Syncrude Fined $3m for Duck Kill at Tar Sands
Syncrude Fined $3m for Duck Kill at Tar Sands
by Richard Komorowski – Cornwall Ontario – October 23, 2010
Cornwall ON – Syncrude, which last year had revenues estimated at $7 billion, was today fined almost $3m for the massive duck kill in April 2008.
The company, which is jointly owned by a number of multinational oil companies, was convicted of one offence under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994, and one count under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act.
First Nations Women to Speak Out in Toronto against Tar Sands
First Nations Women to Speak Out in Toronto against Tar Sands
By Kathleen Airdrie
Published Oct 25, 2010
National First Nations Women's Speakers Tour on Tar Sands will hold an event October 27, 2010 at the University of Toronto.
The women’s tour is sponsored by several organizations concerned with the devastation caused by the massive projects’ degradation of the land.
First Nations Women Speaking Out
Note to industry: "Nothing nefarious about Tides"
Utterly amazing that this puff piece-- a letter to the editor-- would be sent to the pro-industry paper of record in Canada. As a clarion call to alert tar sands operators that from now on, Tides (and those they fund, such as Greenpeace, Canadian Boreal Initiative, David Suzuki Foundation and the "invisible to the outside" North American tar sands coalition itself) is no longer going to allow itself to be a part of this crap about "shutting down the tar sands" but instead will be a part of a fake deal that greenwashes while development continues.
Shell hammered at hearing over refinery (Montréal)
Shell hammered at hearing over refinery
Produced 90,000 barrels per day. Company must dismantle refinery and decontaminate soil
By KEVIN DOUGHERTY,
The Gazette
October 20, 2010
Nicolas Houle, director of Shell Canada's Montreal East oil refinery, got a rough ride yesterday at special National Assembly hearings challenging the company's decision to shut down the facility.
"Why should I give you a permit to dismantle it?" asked Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau.
Enbridge Energy could be Minnesota's BP
Enbridge Energy could be Minnesota's BP
Oil company has friends on the PUC
By Justin Horwath Wednesday, Oct 20 2010
The Midwest is a new market for companies with leases in Alberta, Canada's tar sands fields, which constitute the largest untapped oil supply in the world outside Saudi Arabia.
Enbridge Energy and other pipeline companies have been in a race to tap the Gulf and East Coast markets, and soon enough, companies with leases in the tar sands will have access to the entire U.S.
Can the Canadian Economy Afford the Tar Sands?
Can the Canadian Economy Afford the Tar Sands?
Jeffrey Rubin
Economist // October 19, 2010
America is banking on a lot more Canadian bitumen exports to supply it with oil in the future. Already the single largest source of the US's imported oil, the Alberta tar sands' supply could soon comprise as much as almost a third of America's total oil imports -- apart from the fact that it's far from clear whether or not the rest of the Canadian economy could afford the consequences.
