Economics

BLM reconsidering acreage for oil shale, tar sands

The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Apr 13 2011

The Bureau of Land Management will conduct a “fresh” study to determine how much public acreage to open to potential oil shale and tar sands development, the agency announced Wednesday.

In 2008, under the Bush administration, the agency amended eight area management plans in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming to open about 1.9 million acres for oil shale development and more than 430,000 acres for tar sands.

Protesters demand halt to bank’s tar sands financing
Herald Scotland
cHRIS WATT and SIMON BAIN

20 Apr 2011

PROTESTERS yesterday hijacked a meeting of the Royal Bank of Scotland to demand an end to state-backed funding for tar sands oil projects.

Representatives of Canada’s First Nations visited Edinburgh to tell the bank’s annual meeting that oil extraction could threaten their way of life and cause untold environmental damage in the event of a spill.

Estonia sees rock as future of global energy

By Anneli Reigas (AFP) – Mar 22, 2011

NARVA, Estonia — A huge excavator bites into the earth of an open-cast mine, as the operator skillfully mans the controls in a cabin four storeys from ground level.

For the small Baltic state of Estonia, rock is the future of energy.

The European Union nation of 1.3 million generates 97 percent of its electricity thanks to oil shale -- sediment formed 400-450 million years ago, containing hydrocarbons. Its industry forecasts that shale's use can only expand.

Feds to consider tars sands, shale projects

The Associated Press April 13, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY

The federal government says it will take a fresh look at commercial oil shale and tar sands plans in the Western United States.

The Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday it would soon begin performing environmental studies for potential projects on federal land in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The agency is seeking public comment.

Canadian firm to probe Utah oil sands
Project to build mine would be first of its kind in United States
Written by
CHI-CHI ZHANG
Associated Press
April 17 2011

SALT LAKE CITY -- Beneath the lush, green hills of eastern Utah's Uinta Basin, where elk, bear and bison outnumber people, the soil is saturated with a sticky tar that may soon provide a new domestic source of petroleum for the United States.

It would be a first-of-its kind project in the country that some fear could be a slippery slope toward widespread wilderness destruction.

It's no pipe dream

Politics has no place in Keystone review

For Calgary Herald April 10, 2011

Politicians on both sides of the border should cool the rhetoric over TransCanada Corp.'s contentious pipeline to Texas and get back to dealing with the facts.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, President Barack Obama contradicted his earlier message about the need for increased imports from friendly countries such as Canada.

Draft Land Use Plan Infringes Treaty 8

First Nations in Oil Sands Region say that the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan does not protect enough land and resources to sustain their traditional livelihood and creates legal risk for Alberta

April 8, 2011, Fort McMurray

Debate stirred over 1st major US tar sands mine
AP
By CHI-CHI ZHANG, Associated Press – Sun Apr 10 2011

SALT LAKE CITY – Beneath the lush, green hills of eastern Utah's Uinta Basin, where elk, bear and bison outnumber people, the soil is saturated with a sticky tar that may soon provide a new domestic source of petroleum for the United States. It would be a first-of-its kind project in the country that some fear could be a slippery slope toward widespread wilderness destruction.

No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline
Published: April 2, 2011
New York Times

Later this year, the State Department will decide whether to approve construction of a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast called Keystone XL. The underground 36-inch pipeline, built by TransCanada, would link the tar sands fields of northern Alberta to Texas refineries and begin operating in 2013. The department should say no.

Enormous Kearl-bound oilsands shipments target of Montana lawsuit
By: The Canadian Press
Posted: 04/1/2011

CALGARY - The Government of Montana is being challenged in court over its decision to approve the shipment of enormous truckloads of oilsands equipment through the state to northern Alberta.

Missoula County and three environmental groups say in a lawsuit that the state Transportation Department made the wrong decision in allowing the shipments and are demanding a full environmental impact assessment.