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
Chinese firms say they don't owe Alberta tar sands [TFW] worker any wages
Chinese firms say they don't owe Alberta oilsands worker any wages
Canadian Press
By John Cotter
July 10 / 2009
EDMONTON — Companies linked to a Chinese energy giant say they don't owe any wages to a man who was employed as a temporary foreign worker at an Alberta oilsands project.
He is one of 132 Chinese men who worked at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s Horizon project in 2007. The Alberta government says the workers are owed $3 million in missing wages.
[Enbridge Gateway] Summit aimed for informed decisions
Summit aimed for informed decisions
Published: July 08, 2009 6:00 AM
Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal and the Alberta oil sands development as a whole were the targets of an All Nations Energy Summit held recently in Moricetown.
Representatives of First Nations from the Athabaskan to Kitamaat were in attendance to voice their opinion about the tar sands and the destruction of their traditional lands.
Shell May Close or Sell Montreal East Oil Refinery
Shell May Close or Sell Montreal East Oil Refinery
By Guy Collins
July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc may close or sell its Montreal East refinery in Quebec, Canada, among various options it’s considering for the plant as part of a global review of assets.
Possibilities include the sale of the refinery and some associated downstream businesses; closure of the plant; conversion into a terminal; establishment of a joint venture; or continued operation, a Shell spokesman said today by telephone, declining to be identified in line with company policy.
Enbridge Southern Access Pipe not given eminent domain; Will "re-apply".
ICC approves oil pipeline, not eminent domain
By Jeffrey Tomich
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
07/09/2009
The Illinois Commerce Commission will allow the construction of a 170-mile oil pipeline that will deliver crude from Canada's oil sands to a storage hub about an hour east of St. Louis.
But regulators said it was premature to give the Calgary-based developer, Enbridge Inc., authority to use eminent domain to acquire an easement for the project if it cannot negotiate an agreement with landowners.
O’Connor says he was ‘bullied’ by committee
O’Connor says he was ‘bullied’ by committee
CAROL CHRISTIAN
July 6, 2009
Today staff
When local physician Dr. John O'Connor appeared June 11 in Ottawa before the federal committee looking into the impact of oilsands development on freshwater, it wasn't the enlightening question and answer session he expected.
Instead he was grilled about his credentials, background and the last remaining complaint filed by Health Canada of causing undue alarm when he blew the whistle on elevated cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan.
End of the US $ as Reserve Currency?
Globe and Mail July 6, 2009
Calls grow to supplant dollar as global currency
France joins China, India and Russia in calling for a new reserve standard on the eve of the G8 summit
Karim Bardeesy
The call to find an alternative to the U.S dollar as the global reserve currency is gaining momentum as France joined calls by China, India and Russia for a review of the world's currency practices.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde challenged the dollar's supremacy “in a world that has changed because of the crisis and the growing role of emerging countries.”
53 charges for CNRL, Contractors in Deaths of Foreign Workers
53 charges for CNRL, contractors
CAROL CHRISTIAN
Today staff
Following a record 53 charges laid against three companies for a 2007 accident that killed two workers at the oilsands work site, the Alberta Federation of Labour blames the provincial government for not being more vigilant to prevent such a tragedy.
Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) announced 53 charges yesterday in connection to the April 24, 2007, accident that also injured four other workers, two seriously, at the Canadian Natural Resources Horizon project, about 75 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.
An alternative anniversary
An alternative anniversary
Charlotte Hilling
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 3, 2009
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The social justice coalition Alternatives North has been making life easier for some, and uncomfortable for others, according to a raft of speakers at the 17th anniversary get together last Friday.
Union of Northern Workers president Todd Parsons said he would struggle to cope with his workload if it were not for the volunteer organization.
"I could not do all this work by myself - and because Alternatives North exists - I don't have to," he said.
"Little Hope In the Mackenzie Gas Project"
Little hope in the pipeline
Repeated delays of Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline have Inuvik seeing red
By Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
July 2, 2009
Inuvik, N.W.T. -- The conversation in this town of 3,500 in the Western Arctic should be about aboriginal self-sufficiency, environmentally responsible Northern development and a new clean-energy storehouse with immense potential. After all, the proposed $16.2-billion Mackenzie Valley natural-gas pipeline project was supposed to be under construction by now.
Victory in San Francisco: Community and Public Health Advocates Halt Chevron Refinery Expansion
** Community and Public Health Advocates Halt Chevron Refinery Expansion
_________________________________________________
For Immediate Release: July 2, 2009
Contact:
Will Rostov, Earthjustice, (510) 550-6725
Torm Nompraseurt, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, (510) 323-5245
Greg Karras, Communities for a Better Environment, (415) 902-2666
Henry Clark, West County Toxics Coalition, (510) 232-3427
Community and Public Health Advocates Halt Chevron Refinery Expansion at
Richmond, CA
Martinez, CA – Contra Costa County Superiior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga has
