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
"Alaska pipeline steals the show"
Alaska pipeline steals the show
Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 22, 2009
INUVIK - The ninth Inuvik Petroleum Show just couldn't catch a break.
Last year, attendees of the annual oil and gas trade show - though high on news that BP Energy had bid more than $1 billion for a parcel of offshore land in the Beaufort Sea - operated under the shadow of the Joint Review Panel, whose report on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the $16.2 billion Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP) was still nowhere to be seen.
Enbridge to Develop Pipeline System for Kearl Project
Enbridge to Develop Pipeline System for Kearl Project
By Joe Carroll
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Enbridge Inc., the biggest transporter of oil from Canada’s tar sands, plans to build a pipeline to haul crude from Exxon Mobil Corp.’s C$8 billion ($7 billion) Kearl project in northern Alberta to Edmonton.
The first phase will connect the Kearl oil-sands site north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, to Enbridge’s Cheecham terminal near Nexen Inc.’s Long Lake development, Paula Leslie, an Enbridge spokeswoman, said today in a telephone interview.
Alberta's tar sands show signs of life
Alberta's oil sands show signs of life
Katherine O'Neill, and Dawn Walton
Globe and Mail, Monday, Jun. 22, 2009
Unlimited overtime pay was just one of the many perks John Halbauer enjoyed as a welder during Alberta's super-sized energy boom.
That's disappeared, along with 11 of the 25-year-old's 13 co-workers who got laid-off in January. “I was worried. I didn't know if I was going to have to move back home or what,” the Kimberley, B.C., native said.
Enbridge Gateway Pipeline proposal raises vexing questions
Pipeline proposal raises vexing questions
Written by Jeannette Paterson
Prince George
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Wanting to get a better sense of how or if the Enbridge pipeline would benefit the majority of British Columbians, I looked back at the Thomas Berger Inquiry held in the 1970s regarding the Mackenzie Delta natural gas pipeline.
It was, of course, recommended that a 10-year moratorium be put in place until the aboriginal people living in the area had completed their land claims and then, from a position of ownership and power, the project could be revisited.
What’s the Real Story Behind the Alaska Pipeline?
What’s the Real Story Behind the Alaska Pipeline?
Written by Ruedigar Matthes
Published on June 18th, 2009
Posted in Climate Change, Editor's Choice, Natural Resources
With the spotlight shining on clean energy, the stage has been set for the U.S. to rid itself of a harmful addiction to foreign oil. The stars are aligned and the cards have been dealt. Soon we’ll have kicked the dirty habit, right?
"Exxon-TransCan Alaska gas line push sends tremor through Mackenzie ranks"
It should be noted that this article posits that the MGP and Alaska Highway gas lines are competing-- more blather aimed at garnering concessions and subsidies from governments, etc. The reality is that the goal of five million barrels a day of tar sands bitumen extraction-- now said to be in line to happen by 2035-- cannot take place without all the MGP gas and most of the Alaskan. Math is not a debatable point.
--M
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Who’s on first?
Exxon-TransCan Alaska gas line push sends tremor through Mackenzie ranks
By Gary Park
Week of June 21, 2009
For Petroleum News
The Politics of Bait and Switch
he Politics of Bait and Switch
by Jeffrey St Clair and Joshua Frank
CounterPunch (May 21 2009)
After little more than 100 days in office, the Democrats, under the leadership of Barack Obama, have unleashed a slew of anti-environmental policies that would have enraged any reasonable conservationist during the Bush years.
UTS eyes Fort Hills options as Suncor joins group
UTS eyes Fort Hills options as Suncor joins group
Tue Jun 16, 2009
By Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta, June 16 (Reuters) - UTS Energy Corp (UTS.TO) has begun to plot out new ways to develop the delayed Fort Hills oil sands project but decisions must wait until Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO) closes its takeover of the operator, Petro-Canada (PCA.TO), UTS's chief executive said on Tuesday.
UTS, which has a 20 percent interest in the Alberta oil sands development, sees cost advantages in shifting some of the processing to Suncor's massive northern Alberta operations, CEO Will Roach said.
Exxon boosts pipeline to tar sands by 50% (more access for Texas, Louisiana Refineries)
Exxon boosts pipeline to oil sands by 50%
Joe Carroll, Bloomberg
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil refiner, boosted its capacity to transport crude from Canada's oil sands to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.
Exxon Mobil increased the capacity of its 1,381-kilometre Pegasus Pipeline by 50% to about 96,000 barrels a day, the Irving, Tex.-based company said Wednesday in a statement.
TransCanada To Acquire Remaining ConocoPhillips' Interest in Keystone Pipeline
TransCanada To Acquire Remaining ConocoPhillips' Interest in Keystone Pipeline; To Issue $1.6 Bln of Common Shares
6/16/2009
(RTTNews) - Tuesday, energy infrastructure giant TransCanada Corp.(TRP.TO: News ,TRP: News ) revealed an agreement to acquire Keystone Pipeline System through the acquisition of ConocoPhillips' (COP: News ) remaining interest in the project for approximately US$550 million plus the assumption of approximately US$200 million of short-term debt.
