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.
Nov 4, 2009 1:35:00 PM MST
Enbridge boosts 2009 outlook, expects growth ''well into next decade'' (Enbridge)
CALGARY _ Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) increased its 2009 guidance and exuded confidence Wednesday that it could maintain steady growth into the next decade.
"It´s safe to say that we are on track to deliver a record growth year for Enbridge," president and CEO Pat Daniel said on a conference call with analysts.
Approximately a year ago, at the outset of the economic crash, the debate became whether or not the economic slow down in the tar sands would be good for tar sands resistance. Some stated that the medium to small players would lose out and that at the other end of the temporary slow down would be mega-energy companies with a strangle hold on production and future leases, leaving our work harder to resist, not easier.
Devon to seek approval for oilsands project
Company plans third phase of Jackfish Lake
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
November 4, 2009
CALGARY - In another sign the log jam of stalled oilsands projects may be easing, Devon Energy Corp. on Wednesday said it plans to seek approval in 2010 for the third phase of its Jackfish Lake thermal project.
The news was that funding for the pipeline had been killed, and we had at the least a temporary victory over this evil pipeline plan through the Deh Cho valley. This minor but real victory was giving us much needed breathing room away from this pipeline and the backdoor, no-public-input sell out by the WWF, CPAWS and the CBI to promote the Nahanni as a "victory" when it was a sop given by the Feds to allow them to use *our money* to build the MGP.
Farmland will be destroyed
Dean Spader • Vermillion • November 1, 2009
Thank you to the Argus Leader for printing the Oct. 13 My Voice column from James Heisinger pointing out pollution problems at the proposed Hyperion oil refinery in Union County. Heisinger was correct when he wrote that "Hyperion's clean-and-green promises (are) a myth."
Hyperion plans to refine the dirtiest crude oil on the continent (Canadian tar sands crude oil), and as a result, even Hyperion admits that this refinery will release more carbon dioxide per barrel than any other refinery in the nation.
BusinessNorth Exclusives
Alberta-Superior pipeline takes center stage in world climate debate
10/27/2009
by Richard Thomas
On Aug. 20, the U.S. State Department granted a Presidential permit for the 1,000-mile “Alberta Clipper” pipeline from Canada’s Alberta oil sands to Superior, due for completion in mid-2010.
On Sept. 2 Enbridge (U.S.) Inc., the partner of Canada-based Enbridge, celebrated in Carlton County, where the company had stacks of pipes ready for construction.
Funder-driven outcomes
The structures and methods of ForestEthics
from "Offsetting Resistance: The effects of foundation funding from the Great Bear Rainforest to the Athabasca River", a special report by Dru Oja Jay and Macdonald Stainsby. Released September, 2009.
ForestEthics is registered as a non-profit and is similar in appearance to most ENGOs. However, both in origin and structure, many who have worked with ForestEthics suggest that there is something qualitatively different about the group.
The Sunrise Project, along with a held lease in the southern Athabasca region called Kirby as well as a project to massively expand refineries in both Ohio and Indiana to take tar sands bitumen, are projects that involve BP (British Petroleum) and would signify a new level of depravity for the former "Beyond Petroleum" company headquartered in London near the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and others investing in these disastrous projects.
--M
Husky earnings 'surprise' affects shares
Analysts predict slow growth for energy firm
By Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald
While Corporate fronts like the CBI and others have promoted "trading" "permission" for the Mackenzie Gas Project as a way to get "more" protected areas in exchange for this development, the reality is that construction of this pipeline is not only awful in and of its own right, it is also development that pertains to the beginning-- not the end-- of development of the entire north in terms of industrialization. This polemic has been raised many times before-- but the fact that developers are speaking openly stating this fact is something to grasp immediately.
Enbridge opens oilsands terminal.
By Dave Cooper, Canwest News Service
October 20, 2009
HARDISTY, Alta. - Oil pipeline giant Enbridge officially opened its new contract terminal in Hardisty on Tuesday, a 19-tank facility capable of holding 7.5 million barrels of crude oil from the oilsands.
One of the largest in North America, the Hardisty terminal, is the starting place for two major pipelines that will initially carry one million barrels a day of bitumen to United States markets.
