Climate Change / Emissions

December 7, 2007 BY ELECTRONIC AND U.S. MAIL
Ms. Elizabeth Orlando
OES/ENV Room 2657
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520
Re: Enbridge Pipeline Projects; Alberta Clipper
Comments of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

Dear Ms. Orlando:

These comments are submitted on behalf of the Minnesota Center for
Environmental Advocacy (“MCEA”). MCEA is a Minnesota-based non-profit
environmental organization whose mission is to use law, science, and research to
preserve and protect Minnesota’s natural resources, wildlife, and the health of its

What do you know about the largest industrial project in human history?

EDUCATIONAL ON THE TAR SANDS

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18TH
6:30 PM ROOM 2270
SFU HARBOUR CENTRE

515 WEST HASTINGS

Come learn about the Alberta Tar Sands and its impact on indigenous rights, the environment, labour rights including migrant workers, as well as its global consequences in an era of oil-dependency, the War on Terror, and an expanding corporate regime through the Security and Prosperity Partnership Agreement.

by Bill Totten (December 11 2007)

In an article I posted here on December 9th entitled "What Will We Eat
as the Oil Runs Out?" Richard Heinberg refers to the peaking of another
valuable, but finite, resource:

"Phosphorus is set to become much more scarce and expensive, according to
a study by Patrick Dery, a Canadian agriculture and environment analyst
and consultant. Using data from the US Geological Survey, Dery performed
a peaking analysis on phosphate rock, similar to the techniques used by
petroleum geologists to forecast declines in production from oilfields.

Canada's oil sands are fueling U.S. cars - but at what cost?
McClatchy Newspapers
Published Sunday, December 16, 2007

FORT CHIPEWYAN, Alberta — Like a great silver snake, the Athabasca
River glides though a spongy-wet wilderness of spindly forests, lakes
and marshes 650 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border.

Breathe deeply, though, and you catch a whiff of fresh, hot tar. In
the river, fish are speckled with shiny, wart-like blisters. And in
the tiny Indian village of Fort Chipewyan, people are coming down
with leukemia, bile duct cancer and other diseases.

The Pew has apparently launched an all-out international media blitz about the tar sands, yet their actual position on the tar sands becomes murkier day by day. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the Pew family built the first tar sands project in 1967 and that the Pew family continues to refine large amounts of mock oil through its company Sunoco. And that Suncor is also a partner in the Canadian Boreal Initiative.

- Tarpit Pete

Green leaves, black gold

By Sheila McNulty

Financial Times London

"At a City briefing by an international bank last week, a senior
executive said: 'Today everyone is talking about global warming, but my
prediction is that in two years water will move to the top of the
geopolitical agenda.'"

Water becomes the new oil as world runs dry

Western companies have the know-how - and the financial incentive -
to supply water to poor nations. But, as Richard Wachman reports,
their involvement is already provoking unrest

* Richard Wachman
* The Observer,
* Sunday December 9 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/09/water.climatechange

Crude awakening
Why are environmentalists asleep at the tar sands wheel?
BY Dru Oja Jay

Alberta’s tar sands are on pace to become the largest industrial project in human history. The development will arguably become the single most environmentally destructive undertaking in Canadian history. The response from environmental groups and progressives has been meek.

Stéphane Dion told The New York Times in 2005 that, “There is no environmental minister on Earth who can stop the oil from coming out of the sand, because the money is too big.”

The Biggest Global Warming Crime in History

By Cahal Milmo, Independent UK. Posted December 13, 2007.

The Canadian wilderness is set to be invaded by BP in an oil
exploration project dubbed 'the biggest global warming crime' in
history.

BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by
finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of
abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract
oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which
environmentalists say are part of the "biggest global warming crime"

B.C. shale gas set to be next generation's oil sands
PATRICK BRETHOUR
December 14, 2007

VANCOUVER -- In the remote north of the province, there is a vast warehouse of hydrocarbons lurking in difficult geology, waiting for the right combination of technology, economics and entrepreneurial guts to free them.

A generation ago, that description applied to Alberta and its oil sands. Today, that scenario is playing out in British Columbia and its shale gas fields where trillions - yes, that is a T - of cubic feet of natural gas could be on their way to market.

Petro-Canada increases investment in oil sands
But company plans to lower its financial outlay for natural gas production in Western Canada
NORVAL SCOTT

December 14, 2007

CALGARY -- Petro-Canada has joined the parade of Canadian companies that are raising their total spending next year, but also cutting exploration in Alberta's conventional oil and gas sector.