Economics

NDP yet to break its silence on peak oil
News Features
Publish Date: November 22, 2007

The federal Green party's B.C. organizer wonders how committed the
NDP is to climate change and addressing peak oil, especially when its
provincial leader, Carole James, drives a crossover SUV.

Ben West told the Georgia Straight he was unaware that James owns a
Subaru Forester–a cross between a regular car and an SUV–but said a
"crossover" SUV sounds like the "definition of hypocrisy".

"How often does she go off-roading? I'm curious," West said.

Halt oilsands: water expert
Athabasca River at risk, says renowned U of A scientist
Kate Jaimet, Ottawa Citizen; CanWest News Service
Published: 8:59 am

OTTAWA - The scientist who won Canada's top research prize for his work on pollution in the Great Lakes now wants a moratorium on development in the Alberta oilsands, saying the rush to extract petroleum could threaten the mighty Athabasca River.

Canadian quarterly oil and banking profits rise
CanWest News Service

OTTAWA -- The energy and banking industries spurred a 5.8-per-cent
surge in Canadian third-quarter operating profits to a record high
$67 billion, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. At least one
analyst, however, warns the days of record profits may be coming to
an end.

Oil and banking accounted for almost half of the country's gains in
operating profits, the government agency said. The biggest profit
increases posted in the manufacturing sector were in motor vehicles,

Look at their plans, and look at the future pipeline grid. It is not about only getting gas to the US to heat homes, it is also about expanding the tar sands to unfathomable levels. They lie. ConocoPhilips lies. TransCanada lies. Imperial Lies. Suncor and Syncrude lie. They are not our partners, they are our enemies. Be clear about that. They lie.

Excerpt:

"Because construction isn't likely to begin before 2013 or 2014, the Alaska project isn't likely in direct competition with a plan to build a gas pipeline from the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories to Alberta. Mackenzie construction could start in late 2009 if it receives regulatory approval."

Since the hearings have successfully carried the lie and the crime against the environment of not being a cumulative impact assessment-- steadfastly ruling that the hearings could not cover the tar sands, and included denials and obfuscations of the final end goal of the natural gas being to help ramp up the ecological, genocidal and grotesquely anti-human tar sands operations north of Fort Muck, it should be VERY CLEAR why the North Central Corridor was officially announced only as the hearings on the MGP are finishing.

Labour group: oilpatch boom causes companies to cut corners on safety
Canadian Press, Calgary, Alberta, November 29, 2007

The head of Alberta's Federation of Labour says the province's economic boom has caused some companies to cut corners on worker safety­an issue highlighted this week when a fire killed two workers on a major Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) pipeline in Minnesota.

"Health and safety has become much more of an issue in Alberta workplaces right across the board since the economy has gone on such a booming trend," Gil McGowan said Thursday in an interview.

Pembina Institute Releases Report, Hosts Forum on "Unlikely Allies"

Media Contact: Ed Whittingham

Calgary-November 28, 2007-The Pembina Institute, a national environmental think tank, today released a case study compendium and hosted a forum on innovative partnerships between unlikely allies who help make resource development sustainable. The unlikely allies comprise resource companies and their external stakeholders such as communities, landowner associations and environmental groups. This is the first report of its kind to document Canada-based examples.

Weekend Edition
November 24 / 25, 2007
The Origins of Neoliberal Environmentalism
Justice Stephen Breyer and Cancer Bonds
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

Any man admired by both Senators Ted Kennedy and Orin Hatch can't be all good. And, in fact, Stephen Breyer's elevation to the highest bench illustrates concisely how, across the past twenty years, Kennedyesque liberalism and Hatchian conservatism have merged into a unified, pro-corporate posture.

Group calls officials to Keystone hearings
Argus Leader, South Dakota
By staff reports
November 27, 2007

The WEB Rural Water system in Aberdeen is calling eight state officials to appear and respond to questions when the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission holds hearings in December on whether to grant TransCanada a permit for its proposed Keystone Pipeline.

The pipeline would run the length of South Dakota and could carry almost 600,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Alberta to oil refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.