Climate Change / Emissions

Tough new green plan targets oil sands
Regulations, which also apply to coal-fired power plants, would force future projects to store greenhouse-gas emissions underground

BRIAN LAGHI
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF; Compiled by Rick Cash; Shawn McCarthy, Global Energy Reporter
March 10, 2008

Ottawa will unveil new climate-change regulations this week that would force new oil sands projects and coal-fired electricity plants to capture and store the bulk of their greenhouse gases rather than spew them into the air.

The crude fact
Peak oil is no academic debate: the $100 barrel is a harbinger of the energy shortage to come

Jeremy Leggett

This week, oil reached its highest price ever, exceeding the inflation-adjusted record of $103.76 set in April 1980, at the height of the second oil shock. Then, the world was worried that the high price would trigger a global depression. Now, the scope for the oil price to soar ruinously higher than $100 does not seem to worry many people. The landmark record did not reach the front pages.

NDP to try to topple government over climate change policies
Last Updated: Friday, March 7, 2008 | 7:28 AM ET
CBC News

The New Democrats will try to bring down the federal government with a confidence motion introduced on Friday criticizing the Conservatives' record on climate change.

Parliament won't vote on the motion until Monday, but the Liberals have already indicated they will not vote for the motion, meaning the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not fall.

Emissions for the poor, subsidies for the rich
Latest budget continues the Harperite pattern of tax breaks for large-scale Green House Gas emitters.
Dateline: Monday, March 03, 2008
by Albert Koehl

Environmentalists Win landmark Tar Sands Lawsuit
Court Finds Gaping Holes in Environmental Assessment

EDMUNTON - March 5 -The Federal Court of Canada today released a judgment finding fatal legal errors in the environmental assessment of the Kearl Tar Sands Project, north of Fort McMurray.

Ecojustice lawyer Sean Nixon was in court in January on behalf of the Pembina Institute, Sierra Club of Canada, the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta and the Prairie Acid Rain Coalition.

Are the Sacred Headwaters being sacrificed for the Tar Sands?

The Athabasca Oil Sands are the largest single source of greenhouse
gases in Canada. They are also one of the largest users of methane, also
known as natural gas.

Bitumen extraction is an energy intensive process that requires between
700 and 1200 cubic feet of natural gas to produce one barrel of bitumen.
The natural gas is used to heat water, which is mixed with tar sands to
separate the crude bitumen (a semi-solid form of crude oil), from
silica, clay and other minerals.

Sherritt International [in partnership with the Ontario Teachers Pension
Plan and Epcor] is proposing to develop a large $1.5B coal gasification
project 3/4 of an hour south east of Edmonton. The primary purpose of this
project will be to produce syngas and/or hydrogen which then can be sold to
bitumen upgraders, refineries and the heavy oil industry. Sherritt hopes to
cash in on further tar sands expansion.

The area of the project is approximately 312 sq kms [most of which is
productive agricultural land] and will be bordered by the town of Tofield,

Note: Fort Chip is not a reserve, but a hamlet.
--M

Reserve holds cancer rally

By SHANNON MONTGOMERY The Canadian Press
Sun. Mar 2 - 4:46 AM

EDMONTON — Janelle Vermillion owns a house in the tiny northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan. Her family, including her brother, still lives there. She considers it home.

But the 27-year-old woman says she will never again feel safe living there.

"I just want to move back home," she said, fighting back tears as she gestured to the pink-clad six-month-old baby in the stroller in front of her.

Finally Canada's establishment newspaper gets it right! The proposed partial moratorium is indeed a PR greenwash smokescreen:

Proportionality
by Richard Heinberg
Energy Bulletin (February 07 2008)

There is a strange clause in the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) that applies to only one country - Canada. The clause states
that Canada must continue to supply the same proportion of its oil and
gas resources to the US in future years as it does now. That's rather a
good deal for the US: it formalizes Canada's status as a resource
satellite of its imperial hub to the south.

From a Canadian perspective there are some problems with the