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
China's tar sands plans no concern
China's oilsands plans no concern
By Markus Ermisch, Calgary Sun
June 9, 2010
China’s increased appetite for Alberta’s oilsands shouldn’t ring alarm bells in Ottawa, says a market observer.
“Supply will always be controlled by the country where the supplies are,” Tim Marchant, a professor of energy and geopolitics at the International Institute for Resource Industries and Sustainability Studies, said during a panel discussion at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary on Tuesday.
Tar sands output set for takeoff, CAPP predicts
Oil sands output set for takeoff, CAPP predicts
New projects to boost production as they return from backburner
By Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald June 10, 2010
CALGARY - New oilsands projects and investments have changed Canada's long-range supply picture for the better, according to a new industry report.
The emergence of several new players in Alberta's oilsands will lift overall crude production between 2020 and 2025, a period that wasn't expected to see any production gains in last year's forecast, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said Wednesday.
Foreign workers earn ‘substantially’ less than 'Canadians'
Foreign workers earn ‘substantially’ less than Canadians
June 08, 2010
Nicholas Keung
Temporary foreign workers earn substantially less than their Canadian counterparts and their most common jobs are as live-in caregivers, housekeepers and cleaners, says a new report.
Almost 30 per cent of Canada’s 265,000 non-permanent residents at the time of the 2006 census, including foreigners here on work permits and student visas, had been in Canada for at least five years, according to the Statistics Canada study released Tuesday.
Gulf spill's ripples felt at petroleum show
Gulf spill's ripples felt at petroleum show
Oilpatch Keeping Tabs On Leak
By Dan Healing
Calgary Herald
June 9, 2010
The subsea wellhead display at the FMC Technologies booth at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary is a tiny, perfect, clean representation of what a deepsea drilling environment should be.
But the display, with spindly threads representing pipes and cables leading from bright yellow miniature wellheads to ships and platforms floating above on a plate of glass, was designed long before the horrors of the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.
China out front at Calgary oil show
China out front at Calgary oil show
June 9, 2010
CBC News
Chinese companies were well represented at the World Petroleum Show, which runs June 8 to 10 in Calgary.Chinese companies were well represented at the World Petroleum Show, which runs June 8 to 10 in Calgary.
As the world's top players in the oil and gas industry gather in Calgary for a high-stakes trade show, the largest contingent and most impressive displays are from China.
Canada tar sands industry hits back at critics
Canada oil sands industry hits back at critics
By Bernard Simon in Toronto
June 9 2010
Financial Times
Alberta’s oil sands industry has vigorously defended itself against an attack by Lush, the UK-based cosmetics group, in a sign of a more aggressive approach being taken by oil sands producers towards their critics.
Dave Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (Capp), issued a statement accusing Lush of distorting the industry’s environmental record.
Cross-border fight simmers over tar sands
Cross-border fight simmers over tar sands
David Ebner
Jun 9/ 2010
Globe and Mail
The oil sands have a new adversary: the City of Bellingham, Wash.
On Monday night, in a vote of 7-0, city councillors endorsed a resolution to
reconsider what sort of fuel Bellingham buys for its fleet vehicles, a motion
that pointed a specific finger at “high carbon fuels such as those derived from
the Canadian Tar Sands.”
The resolution is largely symbolic, since the city of 76,000 is locked into its
current fuel supply contract until 2015, but highlights the ongoing political
ERCB report shows 14 percent growth in Alberta tar sands production in 2009
ERCB report shows 14 percent growth in Alberta oil sands production in 2009
by: Government of Alberta | Jun 5th, 2010
June 5, 2010
Alberta’s Reserves 2009 and Supply/Demand Outlook 2010 – 2019
Fast Facts
Bitumen Reserves and Production
Boreal countdown
Boreal countdown
By Enzo Di Matteo
Now Toronto // June 3-10, 2010
The details of the greenprint signed two weeks ago by eco groups and the forest industry to save the boreal forest are emerging after the 39-page pact was leaked last week. Is the historic Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) as good as advertised?
We break it down in five easy pieces.
1. Burning question
The one on everybody’s mind: why weren’t First Nations included in the discussions?
Greenpeace divided on Boreal Forest Agreement
Greenpeace divided on Boreal Forest Agreement
Leaked conference call obtained by the Vancover Media Co-op exposes divergent views on CBFA
by Vancouver Media Co-op
» Download file 'gp_damage_control.mp3' (3.9MB) by going to the website:
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/audio/3573
A leaked discussion between Greenpeace staff obtained by the Vancouver Media Co-op indicates the group is preparing damage control related to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, which was announced on May 18.
