Economics

Canada's oil sands are fueling U.S. cars - but at what cost?
McClatchy Newspapers
Published Sunday, December 16, 2007

FORT CHIPEWYAN, Alberta — Like a great silver snake, the Athabasca
River glides though a spongy-wet wilderness of spindly forests, lakes
and marshes 650 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border.

Breathe deeply, though, and you catch a whiff of fresh, hot tar. In
the river, fish are speckled with shiny, wart-like blisters. And in
the tiny Indian village of Fort Chipewyan, people are coming down
with leukemia, bile duct cancer and other diseases.

The Pew has apparently launched an all-out international media blitz about the tar sands, yet their actual position on the tar sands becomes murkier day by day. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the Pew family built the first tar sands project in 1967 and that the Pew family continues to refine large amounts of mock oil through its company Sunoco. And that Suncor is also a partner in the Canadian Boreal Initiative.

- Tarpit Pete

Green leaves, black gold

By Sheila McNulty

Financial Times London

"At a City briefing by an international bank last week, a senior
executive said: 'Today everyone is talking about global warming, but my
prediction is that in two years water will move to the top of the
geopolitical agenda.'"

Water becomes the new oil as world runs dry

Western companies have the know-how - and the financial incentive -
to supply water to poor nations. But, as Richard Wachman reports,
their involvement is already provoking unrest

* Richard Wachman
* The Observer,
* Sunday December 9 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/09/water.climatechange

Crude awakening
Why are environmentalists asleep at the tar sands wheel?
BY Dru Oja Jay

Alberta’s tar sands are on pace to become the largest industrial project in human history. The development will arguably become the single most environmentally destructive undertaking in Canadian history. The response from environmental groups and progressives has been meek.

Stéphane Dion told The New York Times in 2005 that, “There is no environmental minister on Earth who can stop the oil from coming out of the sand, because the money is too big.”

Kinder joins Enbridge in race

DAVID EBNER

December 13, 2007

The Biggest Global Warming Crime in History

By Cahal Milmo, Independent UK. Posted December 13, 2007.

The Canadian wilderness is set to be invaded by BP in an oil
exploration project dubbed 'the biggest global warming crime' in
history.

BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by
finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of
abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract
oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which
environmentalists say are part of the "biggest global warming crime"

B.C. shale gas set to be next generation's oil sands
PATRICK BRETHOUR
December 14, 2007

VANCOUVER -- In the remote north of the province, there is a vast warehouse of hydrocarbons lurking in difficult geology, waiting for the right combination of technology, economics and entrepreneurial guts to free them.

A generation ago, that description applied to Alberta and its oil sands. Today, that scenario is playing out in British Columbia and its shale gas fields where trillions - yes, that is a T - of cubic feet of natural gas could be on their way to market.

Petro-Canada increases investment in oil sands
But company plans to lower its financial outlay for natural gas production in Western Canada
NORVAL SCOTT

December 14, 2007

CALGARY -- Petro-Canada has joined the parade of Canadian companies that are raising their total spending next year, but also cutting exploration in Alberta's conventional oil and gas sector.

When $1.3-billion isn't that much

Dave Ebner, Globe and Mail
December 12, 2007 at 6:39 PM EST

The last sale of new oil and natural gas exploration rights in Alberta for the year was announced late Wednesday, with $68-million coming into the provincial treasury, boosting the total for the year to $1.29-billion.

That’s the third-highest annual haul in the province’s history — but it’s down more than 60 per cent from the record of $3.43-billion hit last year, and also lower than the $2.26-billion in 2005.

Notes for the presidential candidates

by Dave Cohen

The next president of the United States will have to confront the urgent problems attending rapid oil depletion in the OECD countries.

The world's liquid fuels supply can no longer meet demand and global exports levels are set to decline. Oil prices are high, volatile and rising each year, which is likely a permanent condition in the markets while demand remains strong.