Economics

PROPOSED OIL REFINERY IN MANDAN, HIDATSA, ARIKARA NATIONS' HOMELAND

“There is a reason that a new oil refinery has not been built in our USA for over 30 years, no one wants these proven extremely toxic & polluting industries in their back yard!”

Harper's plan may hit oil sands exports to Asia
Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:55pm EDT
By Jeffrey Jones

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A campaign promise to ban exports of tar-like bitumen from Alberta's oil sands to countries that do not match Canadian efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions could affect shipments to Asia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday.

Enbridge Inc, which operates the main pipeline for Canadian oil exports to the United States, is proposing a new line to Canada's west coast from Alberta to allow oil sands-derived crude to be shipped to Asia.

Oil industry studies Harper's surprise bitumen pledge
Dave Cooper, edmontonjournal.com
Published: Friday, September 26, 2008

EDMONTON - The Alberta government and the oil industry are studying Prime Minister Stephen Harper's surprise election pledge this morning to place restrictions on the export of raw bitumen.

Premier Ed Stelmach is expected to respond this afternoon.

Anti-Olympic efforts come to Edmonton

SCOTT HARRIS / scott@vueweekly.com
September 24, 2008

While it is still 18 months before athletes competing in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games start arriving on Canada’s West Coast, last week’s closing ceremonies to wrap up the Beijing Paralympic Games signalled that the eyes of the Olympic-watching world would now fully shift focus to Canada.

Portrait of a boomtown
Oil-sands projects bring big money, big headaches to remote Alberta city
By ED KEMMICK Of The Gazette Staff [Montana]

FORT McMURRAY, Alberta - On the outskirts of this town in northern Alberta, a billboard is plastered with the logos of a dozen or more trade unions. Underneath it reads: "This is what a union town looks like. Welcome to Fort McMurray."

This is also what a boom town looks like: heavy traffic everywhere, buildings going up all over town, help-wanted signs on every other marquee. Some people have taken to calling it Fort McMoney.

Montana businesses will feel economic impact from Alberta oil-sands industry
By ED KEMMICK
Of The Gazette Staff

Financial ripples from the multibillion-dollar oil-sands industry in the Canadian province of Alberta are already being felt in Montana, but few businesses will benefit from the development as directly as Berry Y&V Fabricators in Billings.

Well, this article is wrong three times. A) The MGP would not negate the Alaska Pipeline. B) The MGP would not feed the lower 48 States, but instead feed production of dirty tar sands crude. C) Natural Gas is another fossil fuel and the combination of both climate change and peak oil make it impossible to see natural gas as "...the only option for a long term energy solution."

Other than that, the article is great!

--M

Industry minister: Canada could build gas pipeline first
by Ted Land
Monday, September 22, 2008

EnCana, ConocoPhillips proceed with refinery expansion

The Canadian Press

September 24, 2008 at 7:06 AM EDT

CALGARY — — EnCana Corp. [ECA-T]and partner ConocoPhillips [COP-N] said Wednesday they are starting construction this month on an expansion at the Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill.

The coker and refinery project is expected to cost $3.6-billion (U.S.) over three years, half from each company, to increase bitumen-based production for the U.S. Midwest market.

Alberta's oil was coveted long before it was extracted
Tue. September 23, 2008; Posted: 02:43 PM

Sep 21, 2008 (Billings Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- HBC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Sep. 21--Although large-scale exploitation of northern Alberta's oil sands is a relatively recent phenomenon, people have known for nearly 300 years that the region was rich in an unconventional kind of oil.

Now Is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
Published on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 by the Huffington Post
by Naomi Klein

I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).