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.
Impacts of tar sands under scrutiny
By Sara Constantineau
News Writer
McGill Daily
An independent publication is trying to shock the public into understanding the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the Alberta tar sands.
The Dominion, an independent news cooperative, has launched a special issue about the tar sands with presentations at universities across Canada. The lead editors of the issue were at Concordia on Thursday night presenting their research and exclusive footage.
Editorial: Reconsidering the tar sands
McGill Daily
Going by mainstream media coverage, the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta are like a 21st century Wild West: breathless reports speak about the “boom” economy, bushels of money being made, and about how everything is gigantic. But as the tar sands have become the centrepiece of a new energy corridor sending oil and gas to the U.S., scant attention has been paid to the profound economic, ecological, and social costs that are at stake.
Future of Alberta oil could be decided in B.C
Charles Frank , CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, November 18, 2007
The future of Western Canada's energy industry may well be defined by what happens far from Alberta's foothills in the quiet town of Kitimat on British Columbia's picturesque coast.
This article is interesting not only for the garbage it states, such as: "Environmental groups argue the massive tankers have no business travelling in the pristine and wildlife-rich waters, which they believe are protected by a more than three-decade-old moratorium on such traffic.
"The primary beneficiary of these projects is not British Columbians -- it's Albertans and Americans," says Will Horter, executive director of the Dogwood Initiative [...]"
Chavez threatens $200 oil
U.S. attack on Iran would double prices, OPEC summit told
Shaun Polczer
CanWest News Service
Sunday, November 18, 2007
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Oil prices could more than double to $200 US a barrel if the United States attacks Iran, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez told OPEC leaders in Saudi Arabia Saturday, urging the cartel to take a more active "revolutionary" role in world affairs.
Group opposed to pipeline runs out of money
The Associated Press - Saturday, November 17, 2007
BISMARCK, N.D.
A group that opposes a proposed eastern North Dakota oil pipeline has run out of money for legal fees and their attorneys have abandoned the case.
Some residents along the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline and the Dakota Resource Council, a Dickinson-based environmental and landowner group, had been are preparing for hearings Nov. 27-28 at the Public Service Commission.
TransCanada's lawyers opposed letting the Dakota Resource Council lawyers withdraw.
Suncor and Syncrude and Alberta’s royalty hike
SRJ Staff 07.NOV.07
Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada Ltd will be affected by Alberta’s new royalty hike, but not immediately.
“Those companies are under separate crown agreements,” said Bob McManus, assistant director, communications Alberta energy. “Suncor was negotiated in 1963 and Syncrude in 1975.”
Premier Ed Stelmach announced a new royalty regime for oil and gas on Thursday, Oct. 25. Royalties would increase by $1.4 billion in 2010, a 20-per-cent increase over currently projected revenues for that year.
Feds target medical whistleblower: doctor claims
Mike De Souza , CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, November 12, 2007
Dr. John O'Connor first suspected something was wrong a few years ago after discovering a rare form of cancer in a small northern Alberta community of 1,200 people.
He recognized the illness since it was the same one that had claimed the life of his father in Ireland more than 15 years earlier. He had never expected to see it again and was alarmed to find it in at least five different patients.
Colorado soaks up Alberta's oil sands expertise
NORVAL SCOTT
November 16, 2007
CALGARY -- The U.S. is looking to companies now operating in Alberta for help in unlocking its own version of the oil sands, the massive oil shale deposits that lie underground in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
The hope is that the U.S. can "learn lessons" from Alberta's oil sands experience that will stand it in good stead when it comes to developing its own complex, unconventional crude resource, said Bill Ritter, the Governor of Colorado.
High costs trim forecast for oil sands production
NORVAL SCOTT
November 16, 2007
CALGARY -- Output from Alberta's oil sands will grow more slowly than was predicted last year as spiralling costs deter investment in the vast but difficult resource, Canada's national energy regulator says.
The National Energy Board forecast in a report released yesterday that by 2015 Canada's total oil output will be 4.05 million barrels of crude a day, 61 per cent greater than it was in 2005.
