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.

It's the Oil, Stupid! (No tar sands in Iraq, eh!)

It's the Oil, stupid!
Noam Chomsky
Khaleej Times, July 8, 2008
The deal just taking shape between Iraq's Oil Ministry and four Western oil companies raises critical questions about the nature of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq — questions that should certainly be addressed by presidential candidates and seriously discussed in the United States, and of course in occupied Iraq, where it appears that the population has little if any role in determining the future of their country.

Nature Given Constitutional Rights in Ecuador

Ecuador Constitutional Assembly Votes to Approve Rights of Nature In New
Constitution

Legal Defense Fund: Ecuador First Nation in the World to Shift to
Rights-Based Environmental Protection Using Legal Defense Fund Support

Ecuadorians Follow Lead of U.S. Communities Partnering With Legal Defense
Fund

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On July 7, 2008, the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly - composed of one
hundred and thirty (130) delegates elected countrywide to rewrite the
country's Constitution - voted to approve articles for the new constitution

California gets the goods on tar sands

California gets the goods on oil sands
Alberta seeks ways to satisfy new fuel rules
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008

CALGARY - A delegation from the federal and Alberta governments travelled to California this week to ensure its influential environmental regulator has all the facts about the oil sands before it moves forward with a low-carbon fuel standard that could discourage Canadian oil imports.

Exxon's Legal Guardians

Souter's Shameful Decision
Exxon's Legal Guardians
By SHARON SMITH

Big Oil poised to make triumphant return to Iraq

"Anyone who thinks the invasion of Iraq accomplished nothing probably isn't sitting inside the boardrooms of some of the most powerful companies on Earth."

Toronto Star July 5, 2008 // Linda McQuaig
Big Oil poised to make triumphant return to Iraq
Small service contracts announced last week are a step toward major development deals

Peak Oil: IEA Inches Toward the Pessimists’ Camp

July 1, 2008, 2:56 pm
Peak Oil: IEA Inches Toward the Pessimists’ Camp
Posted by Keith Johnson

What’s up with oil prices? Well, it’s not speculators, and there’s no relief in sight, meaning at least five more years of high prices with no easy fixes. The ugly truth? Peak oil isn’t fringe anymore—it’s going mainstream.

That’s the reading from the latest oil market report from the International Energy Agency, the rich-country energy watchdog. The IEA’s latest x-ray of the oil market includes plenty of disturbing nuggets.

Indigenous people ask G8 for climate talk inclusion

Indigenous people ask G8 for climate talk inclusion
Fri Jul 4, 2008 10:53am EDT
By Yoko Kubota

SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) - Indigenous communities from around the world urged G8 rich nations on Friday to help them participate in global climate change talks, saying they contributed least to but are most affected by global warming.

Clad in colorful traditional robes, 26 representatives from countries including the United States, Canada, and Japan, along with some 400 students, activists, and academics, met on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion

Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion
by Naomi Klein
July 3, 2008
The Nation

Once oil passed $140 a barrel, even the most rabidly right-wing media hosts had to prove their populist cred by devoting a portion of every show to bashing Big Oil. Some have gone so far as to invite me on for a friendly chat about an insidious new phenomenon: “disaster capitalism.” It usually goes well–until it doesn’t.

India looking at investments in Canada tar sands: state oil firm

India looking at investments in Canada tar sands: state oil firm
2 days ago

MADRID (AFP) — India could invest up to 10 billion dollars (6.34 billion euros) in Canada's tar sands oil industry, the head of the country's state oil company said Thursday.

Canada has vast reserves of tar sands -- a dense mixture of sand, water and petroleum used to extract bitumen -- but the development of the industry is controversial because of its environmental impact.

US Congressional Moratorium on Oil Shale, Utah's Tar Sands

Hatch and Bennett say one-year ban hurts U.S. energy independence
Utah senators slam congressional oil-shale development moratorium
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
07/02/2008

A congressional moratorium on oil shale leasing and development hurts an established industry's efforts to find investors and imperils the nation's hopes for energy independence, Utah's senators said Tuesday.