Climate Change / Emissions

Environmentalists' report to call for Ottawa to act on tar sands

BILL CURRY
From Friday's Globe and Mail

February 15, 2008

OTTAWA - Alberta's oil sands are the most destructive project on Earth,
causing environmental damage well beyond provincial borders, a new report
says.

>From acid rain falling in Saskatchewan to toxic pollution spewing from
Ontario oil refineries, a report to be released this morning by
Toronto-based Environmental Defence calls on Ottawa to act where Alberta
will not.

The environmentalists will be joined by two Alberta native leaders, who will

ConocoPhillips seeks oil sands cost-cutting
By Bloomberg AP and Staff Reports
2/15/2008

A ConocoPhillips executive says the company would be a "fast follower" if other producers were to successfully use nuclear energy to power Canadian oil-sands operations.

"If they should be successful, we would be fast on their heels," Kevin Meyers, president of the Canadian unit of ConocoPhillips, said this week during an energy conference in Houston hosted by Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

Don't fight the Environmental movement-- Buy your own.

Chávez's Oil Threats Slick but Not Solid
Halting Exports Would Hurt Venezuela More Than U.S.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, center, has threatened to halt oil sales to the United States.
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 13, 2008; Page D01

How Crude
Midwest refineries source more crude from tar sands; emissions will rise
Posted at 12:39 PM on 12 Feb 2008

Conoco content with current oil sands position
Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:54am EST

HOUSTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The head of ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in Canada said on Wednesday the company is content with its oil sands position and has no current plans for expansion.

"We have a substantial resource position, and at this time, we're focused on developing that resource position," Kevin Meyers, president of ConocoPhillips Canada, told reporters after a CERA conference breakfast meeting.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, the company that is already using Temporary Foreign Worker labour from behind fences to construct their massive "Horizon" project, is one of the biggest anti-union, pro mining, and generally reactionary, "cost-cutting" corporations already deep at work in the tar pits. These projections are released in order to soften up an audience to their desire to ramp up TFW's, for one-- also this is a set up for further de-regulation and more.

Dirty oil tricks
Peter Foster, Financial Post Published: Saturday, February 09, 2008

So much for any suggestion that press baron Rupert Murdoch is a right-wing dinosaur, or that his media empire is out of step with the eco-zeitgeist. First he announces that News Corp. will become "carbon neutral" by 2010. Now his flagship British organ, The Times of London, has started crusading against Alberta 's oilsands.

We'll pay for Suncor expansion
Feb 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Cameron Smith

Turning a blind eye is supposed to be a bad thing, because you live a lie. You act as if you didn't know.

In Canada, we do this every day. Some make a lot of money at it. Others believe – in a mad, schizophrenic way – that it's a formula for prosperity.

Last week there was a prime example of turning a blind eye. The business press carried stories that Suncor Energy Inc. is planning to expand its oil sands operations in northern Alberta, at a cost of $20 billion.

February 8, 2008
Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions
than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these
"green" fuels are taken into account, two studies being published
Thursday have concluded.

The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent
months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental
cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the
prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy.