Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

International oil & gas

Stock markets and global oil interests (including war) would be included here, as would attempts to get oil out of high risk, low return areas from oil shale in Colorado, to natural gas and heavy oil in the high eastern Arctic. The tar sands are part of this trend and should be seen as such. What happens with the tar sands will have a tremendous impact on what kind of choices are made elsewhere, environmentally and socially.

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International Oil & Gas is a category for stories relating to tar sand production or climate change but not in any of the projects already listed geographically. This includes other regions of the planet with horrible environmental and high energy costs that, like the tar sands, are only a "choice" because of high prices and the global depletion of easily recoverable oil reserves. Such issues as the threat of war on Iran, "instability" in Iraq and Venezuela or disasters like Katrina will all drive up oil prices, which in turn doubly encourages tar sand production-- by price demand and energy demand. Stock markets and global oil interests (including war) would be included here, as would attempts to get oil out of high risk, low return areas from oil shale in Colorado, to natural gas and heavy oil in the high eastern Arctic. The tar sands are part of this trend and should be seen as such. What happens with the tar sands will have a tremendous impact on what kind of choices are made elsewhere, environmentally and socially.

The Rock's most precious resource

The Rock's most precious resource
Gordon Pitts

Rushoon, Nfld. — Globe and Mail Aug. 12, 2009

As a 17-year-old with an adventurous spirit, Ann-Marie Cheeseman spent part of last summer driving 40-ton trucks in the Alberta oil sands. She made big money for a Newfoundland teenager, clearing close to $3,000 a week.

But she doesn't want to return to the oil sands, leaving her family and friends in the harbour village of Rushoon on the wild, beautiful Burin Peninsula. “I'd go back to Alberta only if I had to,” she says firmly.

Open letter calls for renegotiating NAFTA and an end to SPP ahead of summit

Open letter calls for renegotiating NAFTA and an end to SPP ahead of summit
By Staff

Common Frontiers, a network of church, labour, environmental, and civil society groups, and the Réseau québcois sur l’Intégration continentale have sent the following open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper ahead of his summit next week with U.S president Barack Obama and Mexican president Felipe Calderón in Guadalajara, Mexico:

An Open Letter To Prime Minister Stephen Harper Re: North American Leaders Summit

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

Canada's dirty oil may disrupt Obama's clean energy plans

Canada's dirty oil may disrupt Obama's clean energy plans
August 10
John Guerrerio

Trading our dependence upon 'bloody oil' for 'dirty oil' does not solve the problem.

Catastrophic shortfalls threaten economic recovery, says world's top energy economist

Catastrophic shortfalls threaten economic recovery, says world's top
energy economist

by Steve Connor, Science Editor

The Independent (August 03 2009)

The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a
global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world
have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.

Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a
stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course,

B.C. launches major stimulus program for oil and gas

B.C. launches major stimulus program for oil and gas
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
August 6, 2009

CALGARY - The British Columbia government this morning announced a major stimulus program to kick-start its oil and gas industry, including a package of royalty incentives and legislative changes.

In a statement, the government said the program is designed to produce "immediate economic benefits" for the province.

Canadians want tar sands production cut

Canadians want oil sands production cut

Survey respondents also want to see provinces – not just Ottawa – at coming climate-change talks in Copenhagen
Brian Laghi

Globe and Mail
Aug. 03, 2009

Provincial premiers will meet in Regina this week amid new poll results that show a majority of Canadians think oil sands production should be cut as Canada grapples with reducing greenhouse gases.

Global Peak Oil In 10 Years - IEA Sounds Alarm

by Energy Matters bookmark or share this page follow us on twitter

Global peak oil rapidly approaching
In an interview with the UK's The Independent, Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), sounded an alarm that global oil production is likely to peak in around 10 years; far earlier than most governments had foreseen. The International Energy Agency is an intergovernmental organisation which acts as energy policy advisor to 28 member countries, including Australia.

Tar Sands Protesters Hang Banner at RBC’s Toronto Headquarters

Tar Sands Protesters Hang Banner at RBC’s Toronto Headquarters
By Sean B. Pasternak and Doug Alexander

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Protesters hung a 15-foot-long banner at the Toronto headquarters of Royal Bank of Canada, asking the wife of Chief Executive Officer Gordon Nixon to help end the bank’s involvement in funding tar sands projects.

Nuclear Power Causes Cancer: What Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Nuclear Power Causes Cancer: What Industry Doesn't Want You To Know
Samuel Epstein,
Cancer prevention expert, prof. emeritus at U. of IL School of Public Health, Chicago
August 4, 2009
Huffington Post

Irving Oil and BP Will Not Proceed With Proposed Second Refinery

Irving Oil and BP Will Not Proceed With Proposed Second Refinery
Release date: 24 July 2009

BP and Irving Oil announced today they will not be moving forward at this time with the proposed second refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, as a result of global economic and industry conditions
The joint technical and commercial feasibility study that the two companies have been conducting over the last 18 months concluded that the project was not viable at a time of global economic recession and dampening forecasts for petroleum product demand in North America.