Economics

Eastern Canada Vulnerable to Oil Shortages
New Report Calls for Canada to Set Up Strategic Petroleum Reserves

EDMONTON
­Canada is currently the most vulnerable country in the industrial world
to short-term oil supply crises, and we need to establish strategic petroleum
reserves to remedy the problem. This is the key finding of a report released
today by Alberta’s Parkland Institute in conjunction with the Polaris Institute.

Freezing in the Dark: Why Canada Needs Strategic Petroleum Reserves points out

Slavery and Fossil Fuels
Charles Justice

The nineteenth century global economy was a like a small scale version of
today's global economy. Trade in slaves, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cotton were
the drivers of global economic growth. But the growing trade in the above
mentioned non-human commodities was first made possible by slave labour in
plantations in the tropics and the American South.

In our modern global economy, cheap fossil fuels have taken the place of slaves.
Industrial farming, convenient travel by automobile, and the transportation of

Life on the cold side of the country's hottest economy
The oil sands dominate Alberta's wealth and growth, but not all parts of the province are taking part – including, surprisingly, the conventional oil industry
GORDON PITTS
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
January 30, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST

In the rolling farmland around Derwent, Alta., the fields are littered with what look like oversized pop cans. These stubby storage tanks contain heavy oil that has been pumped from the ground and is waiting to be trucked away – much of it to the big Husky Oil upgrader in Lloydminster.

Suncor announces $20.6 billion oil sands expansion
Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008

OTTAWA - Oilsands producer Suncor Energy has approved a $20.6-billion expansion to boost crude oil production by 200,000 barrels at its facility north of Fort McMurray, Alta.

The company said its board had approved the expenditure as part of its goal to increase output to 550,000 barrels per day in 2012.

While a few small nuggets of things are coming through in the Globe's series on the tar sands, the articles are not only omitting a lot of important facts, they are distorting others. When the articles talk about "Albertan" opinions on the tar sands, they omit/distort the fact that the province is really split into north and south-- and that a majority of those as far north as Edmonton, let alone south like in Medicine Hat, Calgary and Lethbridge, have never actually seen the tar sands mines (or in-situ operations).

The Globe and Mail does Tar Sands for a week
Dru Oja Jay-- The Dominion http://dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/dru/1641 (blog)

Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The first of the Globe and Mail's week-long series on the tar, I mean, oil sands has at least one interesting insight, though it'll be interesting to keep track of all the things that they don't mention.

Climate Neros fiddle while Rome burns

Jan 28, 2008 04:30 AM
Tyler Hamilton
Energy Reporter

Governments and industry love to talk about the things they plan to do, perhaps to detract attention away from what they haven't done or aren't doing.

How many radio or television debates have shown an environmentalist pointing out the devastating effects of oil sands and power production in Alberta, only to have industry officials tout concepts like "clean coal" or "carbon capture and sequestration" – as if the solution is here and the problem is being overcome as they speak?

Energy hogs rule
Elites love to pig out on energy.

Dateline: Monday, January 21, 2008

"We use 30 percent of all the energy... That isn't bad; that is good.
That means we are the richest, strongest people in the world and that we
have the highest standard of living in the world. That is why we need so
much energy, and may it always be that way."

— US president Richard Nixon,
November 1973

Things have changed since Nixon proudly proclaimed America the world's
biggest energy guzzler. Or have they?

Five questions with George Stapleton
Looking for oil where others don't
Jan. 24, 2008, 10:50PM
Moneymakers
Brett Clanton

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

It's not Saudi Arabia. But there is oil in Kansas. In Montana and Missouri, too.

In fact, the lower 48 U.S. states contain enough heavy crude oil deposits to power the nation's economy for several years. But they've been largely overlooked in favor of much bigger heavy oil deposits in Canada's oil sands and elsewhere.

Time has come to defend environment
Posted 1 day ago

Sir: Are Canadians going to stand idly by while the American czars of the Alberta Oil Sands and our politicians play Russian Roulette with their health and their future? Will Vice-President Dick Cheney and the Americans continue to buy Canada's super dirty oil in desperation? Will the horrendous environmental destruction wreaked by the Alberta Tar Sands Projects and their colossal impact on climate change qualify as Canada's "Crime Against Humanity?"