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.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Story last updated at 1:16 am on 9/12/2007
Pipeline Concerns Are Aired
By: Nathan Johnson
nathan.johnson@yankton.net
http://images.morris.com/images/yankton/mdControlled/cms/2007/09/12/1988...
During a meeting Tuesday to comment on the Department of State's Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Keystone Pipeline, area residents pinpointed what they see as shortcomings in the document.
Exxon Mobil Seeks Arbitration Over Venezuela Assets (Update4)
By Jim Kennett and Steven Bodzin
Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, filed for arbitration in a dispute over assets seized by the Venezuelan government.
The Irving, Texas-based company's 41.7 percent stake in the heavy oil project had a net-book value of about $750 million at the time of the expropriation, according to a regulatory filing today. The company said it requested arbitration Sept. 6 with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
This article would make some sort of sense if the proposed deal recognized the ownership of the Haisla, and if they were to be paying taxes, rent, and more in the way of revenue sharing that actually represents the Haisla as the eternal owners of this territory. It does not do any of that. It is more in the model of typical land grabs with shady councils of bought and paid for corruption.
However benignly this article is written, it means that the pipeline infrastructure from all directions-- BC, NWT, southern AB, lower 48 and more-- is expected to grow heading *into* the tar pits so that it can grow heading *out of* the tar pits. This doesn't include the "into" pipelines for 'diluent' kerosene needed to convert heavy bitumen into a flowing sludge mock-oil. This article is timed with the corporate projection announcement made by Suncor that they intend to overtake Syncrude as the single largest producer of tar sands mock oil this year. Small wonder, it's a matter of physics.
Let me ask a question: Is it not incredibly bad PR for a corporation to announce that they have a "secret buyer" for one of the world's most infamous sources of energy, and a source of energy that hasn't even been approved or constructed yet?
Canada's water 'on the negotiating table,' report says
Vague wording in NAFTA doesn't protect country against bulk shipments and other forms of sale to the U.S.
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070910.WATER10/TPStor...
September 10, 2007
Despite regular assurances from the federal government that Canada won't allow water exports, the country remains vulnerable to water diversions to an increasingly thirsty United States, says a new research paper commissioned by the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.
[Intro lifted from the MostlyWater News Feed at http://mostlywater.org/more_pipeline_bombings_in_mexico --M]
[In what is becoming a time-honoured tradition in places where indigenous land and resources are being stolen by governments which don't represent the desires of the people, more strategic oil pipelines were blown up in Mexico earlier today. Meanwhile, in another time-honoured tradition, the corporate media coverage of the events failed to mention possible motivations for the bombings while racing to assure businesses that security along the pipeline has be increased. -r]
Planet Resource Recovery, Inc.'s CEO to Be Featured Guest on www.mn1.com to Demonstrate PetroLuxus(TM) Effect on Utah Tar Sands
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=766618
As always, when a corporation (with their pliant media friends) wants to get away with something completely unattractive-- such as using disgusting power forms to get disgusting power forms of energy--- turning nukes into tar! They will not likely speak clearly about what they are doing to the local population, lest that engender resistance. So, why not look at the international media (in this case, the conservative UK daily "Independent"), who will definitely talk about something so big, important and likely to help set international trends.
Canada’s Third World; The Plight of the Lubicon Cree
Posted: June 21, 2007
http://www.tarsandswatch.org/canada-s-third-world-plight-lubicon-cree
Cosanna Preston, June 19, 2007,
