Climate Change / Emissions

Issues - We’re in for a whale of a time
Lifting moratoria to create pipeline and tanker ‘energy corridor’
CHRIS GENOVALI / raincoast.org
Week of September 4, 2008

Canada Needs a National Water Policy That Bans Bulk Water Exports
by Dana Gabriel // 8/29/08

Northwest Passage's northern route open again
Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 04, 2008

The northerly route of the Northwest Passage has been declared navigable by the Canadian Ice Service.

It's just the second time in history -- and the second year in a row -- that the Parry Channel has opened enough to let regular ships safely through.

POLITICS-US: Canada's Tar Sands Lobbyists Focus on Democrats
By Chris Arsenault

VANCOUVER, Sep 2 (IPS) - As the U.S. election campaign kicks into overdrive, Canadian politicians and oil executives are stepping up lobbying efforts to make sure whoever controls the White House keeps purchasing notoriously dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands.

Oil sands creating gold rush, conundrum
EVE BYRON/Independent Record

Editor's note: This is the first installment in a two-day series by the Helena Independent Record examining Canadian oil sands production, its impact on the economy and the environment, and the potential connection to Montana's own energy development.

FORT McMURRAY, Alberta - The helicopter slices above the Athabasca River with only a smokestack in the distance hinting at the development about to be unveiled.

Suncor oil sands plant outage means less light oil
Tue Sep 2, 2008 5:15pm EDT

CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday it expects a processing unit at one of its oil sands upgrading plants to be off line for up to 90 days, changing the mix of its output but not cutting overall production.

Suncor, which runs Canada's second largest oil sands mining and synthetic crude operations, said a hydrogen plant at the northern Alberta site suffered an unscheduled outage in August.

Canada pushing to exploit Alberta's oil sand
Rob Gillies, Associated Press
Sunday, August 31, 2008
(08-31) 04:00 PDT Fort McMurray, Alberta

The largest dump truck in the world is parked under a huge mechanical shovel waiting to transport 400 tons of oily sand at an open pit mine in the northern reaches of Alberta.

Each Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler - three stories high, with tires twice as tall as the average man - carries the equivalent of 200 barrels of heavy oil worth nearly $23,000 per haul at today's prices.

ALABAMA VOICES: Drilling not answer
August 31, 2008

First of two parts
By John Ackerman

Over the past few months there has been a great deal written about our dependency on fossil fuels and an alternative to this dilemma called "drill here, drill now, pay less" was offered.

[FYI - these two articles appear side by side in the 2 September 2008
edition of the National Post, pg. A15, "First of a Series"]

The oil sands that bind

As concern about the future of oil mounts, the Post looks at the
world's most-talked-about commodity. Today, Adam Waterous explains how
the oil sands strengthen Confederation and Donald Boudreaux explains
why running out of oil is a virtual economic impossibility

Adam Waterous, National Post Published: Tuesday, September 02, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=760790

Post-Peak Politics
by John Michael Greer

The Archdruid Report (July 23 2008)

Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society

The recent downward lurch in the price of oil, among its other effects,
has provided a good look at the downward arc of a cycle of public
discourse about energy that will likely become all too familiar during
the months and years ahead of us. As oil prices rose to new records a
few weeks back, the media bristled with pundits warning about an
imminent energy crisis in language ranging from sober to apocalyptic.