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.

Could jittery sponsors drop the torch?

Could jittery sponsors drop the torch?
Globe and Mail, November 18, 2008
ROD MICKLEBURGH // VANCOUVER

— Are economic vultures beginning to hover over the 2010 Winter
Olympics? Or is it business as usual despite concerns that many parts
of the world, including North America, are slipping into recession?

The questions are pertinent because more than half of the Games'
$1.63-billion operating budget is to be covered by corporate
sponsorships, and at least two key 2010 sponsors, Nortel and GM Canada,
are having an exceedingly tough time making any kind of ends meet.

Energy consumption up across the board in 2007: StatsCan

Energy consumption up across the board in 2007: StatsCan
Canadian Press
November 18, 2008

OTTAWA — A new study says Canada's demand for energy rose 5.5 per cent last year as consumption increased in the country's industrial, transportation, residential and commercial sectors.

Statistics Canada reports Canadians consumed 7,968 petajoules of energy in 2007, up from 7,551 in 2006.

The agency says one petajoule equals roughly the amount of energy required to operate the Montreal subway system for one year.

Facing Peak Oil in Motown

by John Michael Greer

The Archdruid Report (November 12 2008)

Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society

The weekend before the election, as I mentioned in last week's post
here, I went to Michigan to attend a peak oil conference: the Fifth
Annual Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions, to give it its
full moniker. In more ways than one, it provided me with a wide-angle
snapshot of one end of the peak oil movement; since the peak oil story
is as much about human responses to geological realities as it is about

Oil-shale projects are going ahead in Utah — for now

Oil-shale projects are going ahead in Utah — for now
By Jasen Lee
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 12:09 a.m. MST

The falling crude-oil prices of recent weeks will have little impact on the current oil-shale and tar-sands boom going on in eastern Utah, according to companies now working to develop the resources in the Uintah Basin.

'They are flexing their muscles' [Tahltan Nation]

'They are flexing their muscles'

Companies want to mine a remote region of B.C., but, unlike some previous bands, the Tahltan insist on controlling access to the area

MARK HUME
mhume@globeandmail.com

September 27, 2008

VANCOUVER -- Between the abandoned mining town of Cassiar and the struggling port of Stewart, in the northwest corner of British Columbia, Highway 37 runs through one of the most dramatic and resource-rich landscapes in Canada.

Harper Pledges Cooperation With Obama on Credit, Climate, Oil

By Greg Quinn and Theophilos Argitis

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's victory this week ``historic'' and pledged to cooperate with him on issues ranging from the financial crisis to climate change.

Brazil oilfield may house '100bn barrels'

Brazil oilfield may house '100bn barrels'
By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo
Published: November 7 2008

Brazil's newly discovered "pre-salt" oilfields may contain more than
100bn barrels, Haroldo Lima, head of the industry regulatory, said on
Friday.

Mr Lima said just the pre-salt oilfields already under concession may
contain between 50bn and 80bn barrels and that the total area could
surpass 100bn barrels.

If so, the new fields would propel Brazil up the world league table of
oil producing nations. Brazil currently has reserves of about 12.6bn

Bush Officials Moving Fast to Cut Environmental Protections

Umm, don't legacy seekers usually do something in the direction of repenting? A little bit, maybe?

--M

Published on Friday, November 7, 2008 by McClatchy Newspapers

Bush Officials Moving Fast to Cut Environmental Protections
by Renee Schoof

WASHINGTON - Not done making a mess of the world yet.

US President George W. Bush walks away after discussing the
transition with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect
arack Obama with staff members, on the South Lawn of the White
House, November 6, 2008. In

Canada quietly adjusts to Obama's agenda

Clip from below:

And a Canadian leak that weakened the credibility of Mr. Obama's position on NAFTA in rust-belt states created a political headache, although Ms. Greenwood bets it is forgotten. She said that Canada already has a card it can play to make its interests relevant to Mr. Obama, by selling itself as the solution to a U.S. "obsession" with energy security.

"Finding room for Canada"

Finding room for Canada
PM faces an uphill battle to gain the next president's ear, experts say

By CHRISTINA SPENCER, NATIONAL BUREAU

Imagine what it was like to be the American president in the year 2000.

The U.S. was not at war. It boasted a hefty budget surplus. Markets were stable and the average price of crude was under $30 US. The environment wasn't a political priority. Sept. 11 held no special significance.

Now, imagine the hailstorm of crises facing whichever man is elected president of the U.S. on Tuesday.