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.
CPP invests $250M in oilsands
Federal pension plan buys 17 per cent of Laricina Energy Ltd.
July 6, 2010
CBC News
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has paid $250 million for a stake in a small Alberta oilsands firm.
On Tuesday, Canada's largest pension plan purchased 8,333,333 shares in Laricina Energy Ltd. for $30 per share in a private placement. After the sale, CPP will own 17 per cent of the energy company.
Representatives ask Obama to examine impacts of tar sands pipeline
Caitlin Sislin | Jul 06, 2010 11:55 AM
Powerful member of Congress slams Alberta to Texas tar sands pipeline
By Kevin Grandia July 6, 2010
Tyee.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), a senior member of Congress and chair of the powerful Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce has penned a public letter to the Secretary of State, Hilary Rodham Clinton, in which he states strong opposition to a planned oil pipeline that would transport Canada's controversial tar sands oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
In the letter Waxman writes:
Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead
Michael Snyder
Jun. 30, 2010
Are you sure that you want to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? In a previous article we documented a number of the health dangers from this oil spill that many scientists are warning us of, and now it has been reported on CNN that the vast majority of those who worked to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are now dead. Yes, you read that correctly. Almost all of them are dead.
CNRL announces oil sands production gain
John Shmuel, Financial Post
Jun. 30, 2010
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. revealed in its June forecast that its oil sands production will hit between 116,000 and 118,000 barrels a day for the month, after a maintenance shutdown in May helped boost efficiency.
The June figures are significantly higher than last month's, when the Calgary-based energy company produced 81,400 barrels a day after a partial shut down of operations for maintenance.
Debate Heats Up Over Oil Sands
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
NYTimes
July 1 2010
Stelmach buys U.S. ad touting oil sands
Article submitted to the Washington Post was rejected by op-ed section, so Alberta government turns to half-page ad
Josh Wingrove
Edmonton — Globe and Mail
Jul. 02, 2010
For lack of another way to reach U.S. lawmakers wary of the “filthy” Canadian oil sands, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach’s office bought a half-page advertisement in Friday’s Washington Post championing its energy industry and a proposed pipeline that would reach down into the United States.
The Congo (actually, both Congo-Brazzaville and DR Congo) is supposed to be not only opening up to foreign tar sands development, but trusting people who learned how to carry it out in Canada. They have shown, much like BP, whether tar sands developers can be trusted anywhere.
--M
UN says at least 220 dead in oil explosion in eastern Congo
From the Associated Press
KINSHASA, CONGO —
The Collapsing Western Way of Life
The greatest threat to the Western Way of Life is the Western Way of Life itself.
By John Kozy
Global Research, June 18, 2010
The Age of Enlightenment was born sometime around the beginning of the
eighteenth century. A mere three-quarters of a century later, industrialization
ushered in the Age of Endarkenment, and human life has grown more and more
perilous ever since. The Golden Age of capitalism cannot be recreated merely by
applying the right mixture of spending, subsidies, re-regulation, and
A Run for the Canadian Border
By Marin Katusa
June 21, 2010
The Gulf of Mexico disaster has changed U.S. priorities, costs, and energy supply sources for years to come. But the fact that the U.S. needs energy isn’t changing any time soon and as mass sources of green energy are still a while away, the most likely alternative might be the most surprising one.
