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.
What 'Peak Oil' Really Means for the Energy Sector
by: Kenneth D. Worth February 23, 2011
Peak oil is here. Even the International Energy Agency (IEA) has admitted that production of conventional petroleum has peaked, although they forecast continued conventional production at 2011's reduced levels (down 2 million barrels per day from 2006) many years into the future.
Suncor, Syncrude face new regulations
CARRIE TAIT
CALGARY— Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, Mar. 01, 2011
The Alberta government is on the verge of rewriting rules governing oil sands reclamation, changes that target the two largest players in northern Alberta as well as any new mines.
Oil sands crude fetches premium price
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Mar. 02, 2011
Synthetic crude – produced by oil sands companies such as Suncor Energy Inc., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Nexen Inc. and Syncrude Canada Ltd. – is fetching a premium of more than $15 over West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude that closed above $100 yesterday for the first time since October, 2008. Historically, the price for synthetic crude has stayed roughly level with WTI.
Keystone’s tar sands pipeline concerns environmentalists
2011-03-02 /
The Cherokeean Herald
TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline System is being heralded as one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken by the United States and Canada – four times the length of the Alaska pipeline.
The 2,151-mile pipeline already connects Hardisty, Can. with Cushing, Ok. Lying in the path of the Keystone Gulf Coast Extension (Keystone XL) from Cushing, Ok. to Port Arthur is Cherokee County.
Funds to reclaim oilsands land fall short: NDP
Not enough security, warns auditor general
By Jason Fekete, Calgary Herald March 1, 2011
Leaked documents show the Alberta government will collect $400 million less from energy producers over the next nine years for oilsands reclamation, the NDP charges, despite the auditor general warning the province is financially at risk.
Disaster Capitalism at the Local Level
Tar Sands to Toledo
Weekend edition,
February 25 - 26, 2011
By TRUDY BOND
"I am extremely pleased with the announcement that BP has given the green light for the Sunrise project in Alberta."
-- Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur
Fracturing solidarity: The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement in context
February 22, 2011
By Dawn Paley
Briarpatch Magazine
Environmental groups urge regulations on 'tar sands' crude oil type that spilled into Kalamazoo River
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Chris Killian | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette
BATTLE CREEK — Sometime this year, Congress will begin work to reauthorize funding to monitor and regulate the nation's 2.3-million mile network of hazardous liquids pipelines.
EU to tackle Canadian tar sands in new law -sources
Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:20pm GMT
Reuters
By Pete Harrison and Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck BRUSSELS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Europe's trade and climate chiefs are preparing to take a stand against imports of oil from Canada's polluting tar sands, despite fears the move might wreck a multi-billion dollar trade deal, according to EU sources and documents.
European Union sources said this week that Canada had threatened to pull out of trade talks because of the clash, but Ottawa has denied that. [ID:nLDE71H14V]
[For background to this story, check here:
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/devastation-madagascar/5524 ]
Madagascar Oil standoff with island government continues
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
by Andre Lamberti
Madagascar Oil’s standoff with the government is still continuing and the group said it remains extremely concerned by the delays that have been incurred since the initial meeting on December 16 2010 in which the island’s Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH) said it was interested in buying the company's licences.
The stock remains suspended at 75 pence.
