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
EPA Backs Opponents of BP’s Whiting Refinery Expansion Plan
EPA Backs Opponents of BP’s Whiting Refinery Expansion Plan
By Tina Seeley and Paul Burkhardt
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has granted part of a petition by environmental groups objecting to BP Plc’s expansion of its Whiting refinery in Indiana.
The EPA said in a statement today that Indiana regulators must re-evaluate the emissions calculations for BP’s plan to expand the facility to refine high-sulfur Canadian crude oil.
ENGOs vs. Corporate Fronts: Defining the difference
ENGOs vs. Corporate Fronts
Defining the difference
from "Offsetting Resistance: The effects of foundation funding from the Great Bear Rainforest to the Athabasca River", a special report by Dru Oja Jay and Macdonald Stainsby.
Released September, 2009.
Suncor Submits Fort Hills Tar Sands Tailings Plans
This project was originally led by Petro Canada, the official energy supplier to the 2010 Olympic Games, until the entire company was recently bought up by Suncor Energy.
Sadly, industry representatives continue to show their wonderful even handed nature and behaviour towards anyone and anything that may (or, may not) be the slightest bit deviant from their basic line of total production everywhere, at all times, and intimidate and harass those who defy it. As such, the article below was removed from this site after a series of bizarre threats for posting the article.
Greenpeace lawyer slams Alberta Premier Stelmach
Greenpeace lawyer slams Alberta Premier Stelmach
Slave River Journal, October 14, 2009
The lawyer defending Greenpeace’s oilsands activists says Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is using his political position to try to influence the legal system and prevent a fair trial.
Brian Beresh, a well-known Albertan defense lawyer, has taken on the case of 16 activists arrested during a protest at Shell’s Scotford upgrader on October 3.
Offset Promoting Partner of the Canadian Boreal Initiative: Nexen calls for tripling production in Tar Sands.
Nexen says oilsands to triple production
Cities Commit To Cut Emissions
By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald
October 8, 2009
CALGARY - The Alberta oilsands will triple production to three million barrels of oil per day, Marvin Romanow, president and chief executive of Nexen Inc., predicted Thursday, adding he's confident it will happen but is a little hazy on the timeline.
More Fear Mongering in the Tar Sands, Courtesy of G & M.
Protests in oil sands raise anxieties
Oil companies say activists are most at risk, but one security specialist warns the oil patch is a sitting duck for terrorists
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
CALGARY — From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, Oct. 12, 2009
The parade of Greenpeace protesters marching through the heart of Alberta's oil sands in recent weeks has provided an embarrassing glimpse at the state of the industry's security, says a former special forces operative who has helped safeguard Canada's nuclear plants.
NWT projects to be promoted to the feds
NWT projects to be promoted to the feds
Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 12, 2009
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In what the GNWT is calling "a big step forward," the NWT Chamber of Commerce has successfully pushed three key NWT infrastructure developments with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which will now lobby for those projects - as well as reforming the NWT regulatory regime - with the federal government.
Sunoco idles NJ Refinery, plans to expand Philadelphia
Sunoco Announces Strategic Actions to Strengthen Competitive Position; Idles Eagle Point Refinery, Reduces Quarterly Dividend to $0.15 Per Share
Tue Oct 6, 2009 4:01pm EDT
PHILADELPHIA--(Business Wire)--
Sunoco, Inc. (NYSE:SUN) announced today it is indefinitely idling all process
units at its Eagle Point refinery located in Westville, New Jersey in an effort
to reduce losses in its refining business at a time when a recessionary economy,
weak demand for refined products, and increased global refining capacity have
"Don't react as protesters want" -- corporate spin on recent actions against tar sands
This unsigned editorial is not in the slightest endorsed by this website, but reproduced for your information.
-M
Don't react as protesters want
Edmonton Journal
October 7, 2009
How should industry, government and ordinary Albertans deal with Greenpeace protesters trying to put a spotlight on an industry they view as an environmental crime?
Demand their arrest?Ignore them? Maybe even learn from them?
Northern Alberta economy braces for next boom
Northern Alberta economy braces for next boom
By Archie McLean, Canwest News Service
October 3, 2009
The economic slowdown has been good for Fort McMurray. But with things picking up again in the oilsands, many wonder if they’re prepared to weather the next boom.
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — In recent years, simply treating employees well wasn't enough to keep them serving customers in Fort McMurray.
