Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Economics

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.

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Canadian Oil Sands Trust (Largest member of Syncrude Consortium) Q2 earnings plummet 91%

Canadian Oil Sands Trust Q2 earnings plummet 91%
Carrie Tait, Financial Post
Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Tar Sands to Keep Gulf of Mexico Full of Supply

Canada, ultradeep water assure US Gulf oil supply
Tue Aug 18, 2009
By Bruce Nichols - Analysis

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Growing volumes of crude oil from Canada and the Gulf of Mexico should assure U.S. Gulf Coast refiners adequate supplies for years to come despite fast-declining imports from Mexico and Venezuela.

Exxon boosts Pegasus Pipeline to tar sands by 50%

Exxon boosts pipeline to oil sands by 50%
By Joe Carroll, Bloomberg
Aug 17, 2009

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest oil refiner, boosted its capacity to transport crude from Canada’s oil sands to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.

Exxon Mobil increased the capacity of its 1,381-kilometre Pegasus Pipeline by 50% to about 96,000 barrels a day, the Irving, Tex.-based company said Wednesday in a statement.

The Pew Clearcuts Montana

Another Double-Dealing Democrat
Why Does Jon Tester Want to Log Wild Montana?
Weekend Edition
July 17-19, 2009
By PAUL RICHARDS

I have seen a draft of the Tester Logging Bill, to be publicly announced at the RY Sawmill in Townsend on Friday, July 17, 2009. The Tester Logging Bill is in direct contradiction to a specific May 30, 2006, campaign promise made by then-State Sen. Jon Tester to secure the votes of my supporters in the June 6, 2006, Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate.

Marathon delays Detroit refinery expansion project

Marathon delays Detroit refinery expansion project
Aug 05, 2009

DETROIT -- Marathon Oil Corporation, an integrated energy company, has announced that it is delaying the completion of the expansion of its Detroit refinery.

The company had earlier set the deadline for completion of the venture by mid-2012. It has not announced its new timeline for project completion.

The firm is upgrading the refinery to process 80,000 barrels of heavy oil per day.

http://www.heavyoilinfo.com/marathon-delays-detroit-refinery-expansion-p...

Keystone pipeline to build tunnel under Mississippi River

Tunnel Below Miss. River Among Keystone's Biggest Challenges
by Dennis Grubaugh, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
August 11, 2009

It's the ultimate in drilling challenges -- a tunnel 50 feet under the Mississippi River bottom, traversing a distance of 3,705 feet.

For those boring the way for the new TransCanada Keystone Oil Pipeline it's just part of the job and not even the biggest challenge in this region. That honor lies on the northern end of Illinois' Carlyle Lake, where the pipeline will span a distance of 4,500 feet.

Nuclear power's sick legacy

By Helen Caldicott

The noted American writer Mary McCarthy once famously observed of the equally
noted but politically discredited playwright Lillian Hellman: "every word she
utters is a lie, including 'and' and 'but' ". As we have seen over the past
10 years, the same can be said of the Howard Government from the
children-overboard scandal to "there will never be a GST" to "yes, there are
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq". Now - joined by misguided and
misinformed members of the ALP and a few scientists who should know better -

Making sense of the disconnect in oil prices

Making sense of the disconnect in oil prices
By Deborah Yedlin, Calgary Herald
August 13, 2009

Oil prices edged over the $70 US per barrel mark again this week, staying at a level where they have spent most of August's trading days. But the relative strength being shown by oil prices is continuing to confound most observers.

Keystone Pipeline spokesman says sinkholes filled in Gorge

Pipeline spokesman says sinkholes filled in Gorge
Aug 14 2009
Associated Press

Grafton, N.D. (AP) A spokesman for the Keystone oil pipeline says crews have finished filling seven sinkholes in the scenic Pembina Gorge that were formed after horizontal drilling to bury pipe.

Spokesman Jeff Rauh says the North Dakota Forest Service and the state Public Service Commission approved the plans for repairing the sinkholes. He says the company will monitor them for about a month.

Officials said earlier the sinkholes were about 40 feet deep.

The Rock's most precious resource

The Rock's most precious resource
Gordon Pitts

Rushoon, Nfld. — Globe and Mail Aug. 12, 2009

As a 17-year-old with an adventurous spirit, Ann-Marie Cheeseman spent part of last summer driving 40-ton trucks in the Alberta oil sands. She made big money for a Newfoundland teenager, clearing close to $3,000 a week.

But she doesn't want to return to the oil sands, leaving her family and friends in the harbour village of Rushoon on the wild, beautiful Burin Peninsula. “I'd go back to Alberta only if I had to,” she says firmly.