Climate Change / Emissions

Israel Presses for Oil From Shale
With the help of homegrown technology, an Israeli company's proposed energy plant could help the country vastly reduce oil imports
JULY 5, 2006

February 9, 2009
Q&A: Energy Independence, Obama and Canada’s Oil Sands
By John Lorinc

“There are two perspectives on the oil sands,” the author Andrew
Nikiforuk says. “You have companies that want to make it the next
Saudi Arabia. The other is that it’s a transitional resource to a low-
carbon economy.”

Andrew Nikiforuk, a journalist based in Calgary, has closely followed
the development of northern Alberta’s massive deposits of bitumen — a
heavy black oil impregnating the sand and soil over hundreds of square
miles northeast of Edmonton.

Imperial backs oil sands

$3.88B profit helps drive Kearl project

By Claudia Cattaneo, Calgary Bureau Chief, Financial Post
January 30, 2009

In the thick of the global economic downturn, Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada's largest oil company, posted another record annual profit and said it's increasing spending by 60% this year as it moves forward with the Kearl oil sands project.

Alberta serious about oil sands clean up: minister
Strict New Rules

By Darcy Henton and Dan Healing, Canwest News
February 4, 2009

Alberta's energy minister says strict new rules governing oil sands tailings ponds will show the world that Alberta is serious about cleaning up the province's oil sands developments.

"I think the market community internationally [is] going to see that the province of Alberta and this government are very serious about how we move forward with ... development that's environmentally friendly," said Mel Knight.

Low oil prices force Devon writedown
Us$6.8B Loss; Will continue oil sands development
Claudia Cattaneo, Calgary Bureau Chief,
Financial Post
February 05, 2009

Low oil prices at the end of December forced U. S. oil and gas producer Devon Energy Corp. to write down all its thermal oil sands assets in Alberta, contributing to a loss of US$6.82-billion in the fourth quarter, the largest in its history.

2009 January 25 - The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands

A Pastoral Letter on The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands to The Faithful of the diocese of St. Paul on The Occasion of the Jubilee Year in Honour of St. Paul by
†Luc Bouchard Bishop of St. Paul in Alberta, Canada
January 25th, 2009

The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands

“Faced with the widespread destruction of the environment people
everywhere are coming to understand that we cannot continue to
use the goods of the earth as we have in the past. . . a new ecological

Greenwashing the Games: The Olympics will leave a gigantic footprint on
the city

By John Nevim

Photo by Janis Brass

More than two-and-a-half years have passed since the “Battle of the
Bluffs”, when 23 protesters were arrested by West Vancouver police for
blockading the expansion of the Sea-to-Sky highway through the Eagleridge
Bluffs.

The protest was especially notable for the jailing of two elderly
protesters, Betty Krawczyk and Harriet Nahanee, who refused to apologize
because they believed it was senseless environmental degradation for the

Canada delusional about oil
Jan 26, 2009 04:30 AM
David Crane

There is this Canadian delusion that the Alberta oil sands will give
us special influence with the new Obama administration, that energy is
our trump card in the Canada-U.S. relationship because, it's argued,
the United States desperately needs our oil. It fosters the false
belief that we can get concessions from the U.S. in other areas by
producing more oil.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has talked of Canada as an "energy
superpower"; Environment Minister Jim Prentice talks of Canada's

This past summer, myself and friends were able to "tour" many of the projects in the Athabasca mining region and south of Fort McMurray (one of many places) where SagD/In Situ operations rule the day. These are albums belatedly created from that trip. This does not comprise anything remotely coming towards an exhaustive set of the multiple projects.

(you do not need to have a Facebook identity to see these albums).

Photos are from the land and the air.

Opti-Nexen's Long Lake (North) Project & CP's Surmont Project.

Environment Canada says tar sands pollution will get worse: Toronto Star
Chris Gardner
1/21/2009

The Toronto Star has obtained documents from Environment Canada that say pollution will continue to plague Alberta's oil sands despite plans to pipe harmful greenhouse gases deep underground.