Economics drive tar sands operations. Record highs in oil prices, though still fluctuating, will make tar sand oil ‘economical’ (read: profitable) well into the future. Government subsidies to this environmentally disastrous process remain in place from a time when the federal government was sponsoring research into the possibility of recovering this oil. Stock prices of tar sands developers grow the more conventional oil is scarce.
Land has energy promise
BLM identifies oil shale-rich areas it would consider leasing
By Steven Oberbeck
The Salt Lake Tribune
12/22/2007 02:42:48 AM MST
Entrepreneurs who dream of reaping huge profits from Utah's extensive oil shale and tar sands deposits now have reason to hope that the opportunity to commercially develop those resources is a bit closer.
This idea (and I use that term loosely) has been pushed for a long time, and is a disaster on so many levels. This was explicitly spelled out by Tom Berger himself 'back in the day' as a truly horrible idea. It is also illegal in Alaskan state law. The idea has not improved with age.
--M
'Over the top' pipeline could work for Alaska and Canada
COMPASS: Points of view from the community
By MICHAEL KENNY
Published: December 20th, 2007 06:44 AM
This region is one of the most spectacular, beautiful and nearly pristine regions I have ever seen in my life. Near the one gas pump and lodge on the 10 hour drive of the Dempster Highway called Eagle Plains, this place is one where the planet itself made me feel so tiny and insignificant, like an insect, a surreal experience that I have no parallel for. Now they want to plunder it for gas, gas they want to put into the Mackenzie Gas Project and send to Fort McMurray to make mock oil from tar and the devastation of more land than can be comprehended.
Shall we let them?
--M
Fargo mayor says he had hoped for pipeline support from other cities
Andrea Domaskin, The Forum
Published Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Mayor Dennis Walaker says Fargo didn’t get much help from other cities when it protested an oil pipeline that would run near Lake Ashtabula and the Sheyenne River.
“I don’t want this thing to blow out of proportion by any stretch of the imagination,” Walaker said today. “I was hoping we would get more support, but we didn’t.”
Fargo city commissioners approved a settlement Monday with TransCanada Keystone Pipeline.
Mackenzie partners see Ottawa aid
But No Financial Pledge
Jon Harding, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2007
CALGARY - Partners in the Mackenzie Gas Project have asked Ottawa to treat their stalled megaproject like Newfoundland's Hibernia project or the Syncrude Canada Ltd. oilsands mine in Alberta, both of which got federal support.
Fidel’s message to the Roundtable
Havana, December 17, 2007
Dear Randy:
I listened to the entire “Roundtable” program on Thursday the 13th without missing a single second of it. The news about the Bali Conference highlighted by Rogelio Polanco, editor-in-chief of Juventud Rebelde, confirms the importance of the international agreements and why they must be taken very seriously.
Prentice pledges speedy review of new gas project plan
Last Updated: Monday, December 17, 2007 | 2:18 PM CT
CBC News
Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice has promised proponents of the beleaguered Mackenzie gas project he will review their latest financial plan as quickly as possible.
Prentice met with representatives of Imperial Oil, its parent ExxonMobil, Shell Canada, ConocoPhillips and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, composed of the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in and the Sahtu First Nations in Calgary on Friday.
Prentice reviewing Mackenzie Valley pipeline financial plan
Jon Harding, Financial Post Published: Sunday, December 16, 2007
The proposed pipeline would run through the Mackenzie Valley.HO/AFP/Getty ImagesThe proposed pipeline would run through the Mackenzie Valley.
CALGARY -- Canada's Industry Minister Jim Prentice is reviewing a financial plan submitted to him Friday by the backers of the $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project.
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.
